Background

The Football for Friendship (F4F) international children's social project is implemented by Gazprom within the Gazprom for Children program. The project is aimed at developing youth football and fostering tolerance and respect toward different cultures and ethnicities among children from across the world. The key values supported and promoted by the project's participants include friendship, equality, fairness, health, peace, devotion, victory, traditions, and honor.

The annual Football for Friendship International Children's Forum is the project's most important event, bringing together young footballers from different countries who discuss worldwide promotion of the key values with media professionals and famous football players.

The F4F project has a special prize: the Nine Values Cup is a unique trophy awarded annually to a professional football club for the implementation of social initiatives based on the project's values. The winner is chosen by young F4F ambassadors through a vote held in all countries participating in the project.

Thousands of participants join F4F every year. Since its inception, the project's geographical scope expanded considerably from 8 countries in 2013 to 64 in 2017. Hundreds of young athletes become ambassadors for the F4F movement and its values in their respective countries. The Friendship Bracelet, the official symbol of F4F, is worn by over 400,000 people across the world, including children, adults, well-known athletes and journalists, performers, political figures, and heads of state.

In 2017, the project's participating countries are as follows: Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Macedonia, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Gazprom is a global energy company focused on geological exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and sales of gas (including as NGV fuel), gas condensate and oil, as well as generation and distribution of heat and electric power. The Company operates in Russia, Africa, Middle East, Europe, and Latin America, as well as Central, South and Southeast Asia.

Gazprom is the world's largest company in terms of natural gas reserves and production output, with gas delivered to consumers in Russia and more than 30 other countries. The Company is among Russia's four biggest oil producers and has the largest installed capacity for thermal energy in the country. Gazprom also holds the leading position in the global thermal energy market.

In addition to pursuing an active business development strategy, Gazprom pays great attention to social projects. The Company supports numerous sports organizations and events on a national and international scale.