Government-controlled Russian gas
company Gazprom "is a huge presence in St. Petersburg, where it owns
Russian champion football club Zenit," according to the AP. Gazprom, whose CEO, Alexei Miller, "is a close political ally of Russian President
Vladimir Putin, is almost as omnipresent in world football." It
"is a major FIFA sponsor ahead of Russia's 2018 World Cup, its logo
prominent at the draw ceremony." With FIFA embroiled in scandal, "some FIFA sponsors have criticized the
organization," but Gazprom has not. Despite
spending an estimated $100M a year to display its brand in some
of world football's most desirable competitions, Gazprom does not "sell
directly to fans." Instead it specializes in vast energy supply, selling
billions of cubic meters of Russian gas. As a result, some suspect Gazprom's sponsorship empire "may be an attempt to influence European political decision-making, or even a vanity project grown out of control." Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports marketing at Britain's Coventry University, said, "What they're seeking to do is to influence countries. They're seeking to influence the consumption of gas by countries, but they're also seeking to influence decisions around the distribution of gas." Chadwick argued that sponsoring a club "can give Gazprom public support in foreign countries while negotiating trade deals, as well as access to politicians." Andrei Kolesnikov, a Russian political analyst at Moscow's Carnegie Center, "is skeptical of suggestions Gazprom is furthering the Russian government's political goals." Instead he believes Miller "is simply following the behavior of the many Russian businessmen who have bought top European clubs in recent years." He said, "It was a fashion several years ago among Russian oligarchs to support sports clubs." Gazprom's football deals "have sometimes come at significant times for Russian foreign policy." It began sponsoring German club Schalke in '06, when Gazprom "was pushing to build the North Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, a project that was later successful." Four years later, Gazprom "began sponsoring Serbia's Red Star Belgrade at a time when Russia was pushing to develop the South Stream pipeline" (AP, 7/25).
