«Football for Friendship» Day took place as part of «Games of the Future» in Kazan
The final match of the «Football for Friendship.Phygital 2024» tournament became the main event of the Football for Friendship Day at the «Games of the Future» in Kazan. In a bitter struggle, the «Socorra Dove» team won the championship, and the «Gobi Bear» team took second place.
The international children’s social program «Football for Friendship» has been implemented by PJSC Gazprom since 2013. The tenth anniversary season of the program takes place as part of the “Games of the Future” tournament.
The integration of «Football for Friendship» into the first international multi-sport tournament included week-long training in various formats at the Friendship Camp, sports programs, matches and interesting communication in teams – friendship teams.
All championship participants will become Young Ambassadors of Friendship for the «Football for Friendship» program.
“Being an ambassador for the «Football for Friendship» program is a great honor and responsibility. The program is known in different countries and enjoys well-deserved respect in the football world. And this year, thanks to the phygital format, the championship has become even more interesting. I can say with confidence: this is a successful mix and a very promising combination of football and e-sports” – Andrei Arshavin, the program ambassador and deputy general director of the Zenit Football Club for sports development, addressed the championship participants.
He said that he watched with interest the qualifying matches of the «Football for Friendship. Phygital 2024» championship, and noted the high level of training of young athletes.
“Our championship has become part of the «Games of the Future» this year, and our athletes are the youngest participants of the tournament. And I believe that they are the future of not only sports, but also e-sports. E-sports today is actively developing, guys will be able to realize themselves in different disciplines and become real stars” –Andrei Arshavin said.
Ambassador of the «Football for Friendship» program, managing director of the Goalkick charitable foundation (Republic of Ghana), Ali Ayornu Shaibu, said that the new format could attract even more participants from around the world.
“This program gives everyone an impetus for development. She inspired me and I organized my own charity project. We try to give our children the opportunity to develop not only in sports, but also academically. The “Football for Friendship” program is of a serious humanitarian nature, it is accessible to everyone and destroys stereotypes, teaches equality and friendship” – emphasized Ali Ayornu Shaibu.
Championship «Football for Friendship. Phygital» brought together 36 children from 13 countries: Russia, Belarus, Benin, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Romania, Macedonia, Serbia, Syria, Slovenia, Tanzania, Turkey and the Central African Republic. Six friendship teams took part in the competition, each team incuded two players from foreign football clubs, two players from FC Zenit (Russia, St. Petersburg) and two players from FC Rubin (Russia, Kazan).
Reference information
“Football for Friendship” is a unique international children’s social program that has been implemented by Gazprom since 2013. The program covered 211 countries and regions of the world, brought together more than 6 thousand participants and acquired over 5 million supporters. As part of the program, three Guinness World Records were set: for the largest number of visitors to a virtual stadium, for the most multinational football training session and for the largest online football event. The operator of the program is the AGT Communication Group.
“The Games of the Future” is an international multi-sport tournament in the phygital concept, which will take place in Kazan from February 21 to March 3, 2024. The first ever sports show in the phygital concept combines competition in the physical and digital dimensions. The competition format involves the use of the latest developments in the field of e-sports, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, information technology and artificial intelligence. The title sponsor of “The Games of the Future” is Gazprom.
Informational resources
“Football for Friendship” official website: https://footballforfriendship.com
“The Games of the Future” official website: https://gofuture.games
Information
Games of the Future is an international multisport tournament in the phygital concept, a sports show of a new format combining competitions in physical and digital dimensions. The technology partner is VK Play. More than 270 teams and more than 2,000 athletes from 107 countries are taking part in 21 innovative disciplines in the first Games of the Future. The competitions are divided into five categories, or challenges: sports, tactical, battle, technically assisted, speedrun.
Title Sponsor is PAO Gazprom
General Sponsors:
PAO Gazprom Neft G-Drive
PAO Sibur Holding Sibur
OAO Russian Railways
OOO VK Company VK Play
PAO Sberbank SBER
OOO PMBK (Liga Stavok)
OOO INTERROS Holding Company Interros
PAO Megafon Yota
Official sponsors:
OOO PBO System – Vkusno – i Tochka
PAO Sollers / UAZ
PAO Aeroflot
OOO Wildberries
OOO NTS Gradient – Influence
Roscosmos State Corporation
AO Positive Technologies
AO Russian Post
OOO Nanobarrier – HyDrop
AO Kaspersky Laboratory – Kaspersky
More information about the tournament can be found on the official channels of Games of the Future: