Shack from France.

On Sunday, Zenit hosted an international match in Russia in 4 months: in Sochi, Fisht hosts Crvena Zvezda (by the way, Zenit also had a previous meeting with a foreign opponent – with Betis in the Europa League in a meeting ).

The Obama club is sponsored by Gazprom, and Serbia is one of the possible countries in Europe that has abandoned anti-Russian sanctions.

“We are following the Serbian state office and have made this decision in order to stay in contact with the said Russian brothers,” said Crvena director Zvezdan Terzic.

Gazprom’s money saved Crvena when it lost its arrest. Financing from Russia for 12 years

The main thing that makes up the brothers’ clubs is financing from Gazprom.

The Russian raw material company has been a sponsor of Red Star Star since 2010. Until June 2022, the Serbian club received 4 million euros a year, but the new one is a quarter more than 5 million. And it will be like that for at least two seasons.

“The company was with the club when we were on the verge of failure. Maybe we didn’t even deserve the help we got then, – said the director of the Serbian club. – In 2015, they were killed in a year and a half, after we lost our license to participate in European competitions due to financial problems..

If it weren’t for Gazprom, perhaps Red Star Stars wouldn’t be where it is – and I can’t forget that. When it was the hardest, they supported us. We are friends with Gazprom and we are proud of it.”

They have also been friends with Zenit for a long time – 11 years. March 2011 is considered the start of cooperation, when a friendly match of youth teams was held, timed to coincide with the signing of energy contracts between Russia and Serbia. Soon, in 2017, the presidents of the club, his invitations, became part of the exchange of experience in the work of the academy. Serbia regularly come to the St. Petersburg tournaments, and Zenit teams hold training camps in Serbia.

Why would Gazprom spend so much on Crvena Zvezda?

For the sake of image in Serbia.

The Russian company has dominated the oil and gas industry in Serbia since 2009, when Gazprom Neft acquired a controlling stake in the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS), at that time in the provinces of the country’s oil company. Then, without bidding, they took 51% of the shares for 400 million euros – according to experts, much lower than the market value.

According to Vladimir Medovich, professor at the Faculty of Economics and Law of the University of Novi Sad, Gazprom is the monopolist of the Serbian oil and gas market. Currently, Serbia has been a candidate to join the country in this status since 2012.

But “NIS-Gazprom” oil is seriously fulfilling the budget of Serbia. “Based on taxes and government revenues in 2021 [платежи в бюджет] only 190.4 billion dinars (Serbian currency, this is about 96 billion rubles – Sports.ru), which is 18% more than in 2020, ”the company said in a statement.

Image investment in sports is a common move for Gazprom. As in Russia, direct cooperation with a football club in Serbia is also not limited: for example, one basketball club Partizan has a T-shirt with the NIS logo on it. Gazprom is also regularly featured on the posters of cultural events, from the Vykhod music festival in Novi Sad, a city in northern Serbia, to the Dragachev trumpet show in Guca, a place in the west of the country.

Russia supplies gas to Serbia at a significant discount – 4 times cheaper than Europe

Naturally, the price of gas is the main research tool.

Until the summer of 2022, the price tag for the Serbs was very loyal: $270 per thousand cubic meters. The president’s contract was extended in November 2021, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was incredibly happy: he said that this country had saved more than 300 million euros and all this “thanks to friendship with Putin.”

“When I announced this to our meeting, [генеральный директор компании «Сербиягаз» Душан] Bayatovic was literally jumping with happiness because he didn’t think it would work,” the Serbian leader sparkled after a dialogue with Vladimir Putin.

Against the backdrop of the crisis, the price rose to $400 per thousand cubic meters, but it is still much lower than the market. The new agreement is expected to last three years. The market price of gas in Europe now is about $1,600 per thousand cubic meters, that is, the Serbs pay four times less.

***

With such dependence on Russia and Gazprom, why shouldn’t Red Star come to the match with Zenit in Sochi, since they called.

It seems that Zenit turned out to be better prepared for international cooperation than others: General Director Alexander Medvedev recalled that the club is cooperating with the Iranian Sepahan, a friendly match with them has also already been discussed.

A photo: globallookpress.com/Elmar Kremzer/SVEN SIMON; eastnews.ru/View Ponikvar/Sportida/SIPA; Gettyimages.ru/Pedzha Milosavlevich/Eurofootball