Tyumen Oblast kicked off the second stage of the Football Formula program

5 july 2022

Tyumen Oblast hosted the launch of the second stage of the Football Formula, a project that has paved the way for implementing a joint partnership program of SIBUR and PFC CSKA designed to foster the development of youth football in Tobolsk, within the framework of SIBUR’s Formula for Good Deeds social investment program.

The first stage had included a series of games played between teams of second- and third-year school students from 16 local schools, including the tournament’s final round. Following that, 65 students from Tobolsk, including those who had demonstrated beautiful on-pitch performance and great scoring ability to be named the tournament’s Best goaltender, Best striker, The scorer of the most beautiful goal, and a few other titles, went on to train at an off-site training camp session hosted by one of the branches of Children's Olympic Republic, a children’s health and sports resort. All in all, the Football Formula event brought together more than 200 children.

In the course of the two-week training session, Artur Belotserkovets and Alexey Safronenko, the coaches from the professional CSKA soccer club, will be leading the training sessions for budding football players, assisted by the coaches from Tobolsk’s Children's Youth Sports School No. 2. At their master classes, they will be teaching their students some of the modern football’s advanced techniques while also passing on their extensive knowledge and experience to local Tobolsk coaches. The session’s curriculum will include a number of new exercises and workouts that the players will then be able to take advantage of during their day-to-day practice to improve their skills.

Football is a sport known to have sparked a lot of interest and passion in our region. Local children are increasingly getting drawn to playing and practicing football. This is the reason why we are so invested in helping promote and develop this sport here. The Football Formula is an opportunity to scout talented kids who need to be helped develop into mature players now so that in the future they could be a truly worthy replacement for our current star athletes, Elena Belskaya, Head of ZapSibNeftekhim LLC’s Department of Government Relations and Socio–Economic Projects, noted. Children's summer sports camp is an event intended to be a part of the second stage of the project. The idea is to use it to empower talented young athletes and give them an opportunity to improve further as players under the tutelage of the best coaches of one of the country's top football clubs.

I do love football. I play for the local Tobol team. I am really enjoying the time I am spending here at the training camp at the Children's Olympic Republic. We both train and relax here. We’ve had some very interesting classes that the coaches of the CSKA football club taught us. I used to think that the main thing about football is just to be able to score a goal against your opponent, but now I realize that this is a game where, in addition to being fast and having a good aim, you also need to always be thinking on your feet, figuring out different game combinations, Ivan Dostovalov, a 3rd grade student at School No. 9, shared.

I have been playing football for several years now. Prior to arriving here at the Children’s Olympic Republic’s camp, I had not fully realized to what extent football is really a team game. And I was made to really feel it here. Plus, of course, the coach of the CSKA professional club has been teaching us some very intricate combinations, helping us to practice proper striking and defending our goal without losing control of one’s position on the pitch. It's really great that we have an opportunity to practice these newly-taught techniques right away with the fellow players from our football team. My dream is to become a professional football player in the future and so for me this training camp is the first stepping stone toward that goal, Boris Byrko, a student from School No. 9, noted.

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PFC CSKA is one of Russia’s oldest football clubs. It was founded in 1911 and is currently one of the top three most popular football brands in the country (according to VTSIOM, a polling organization). In 2005, PFC CSKA became the very first Russian club to win the European UEFA Cup. Its win of the Russia Cup in 2009 made it the nation’s number one football club in terms of the number of titles won. In May 2014, having celebrated its fifth championship title in the post-Soviet history, PFC CSKA was bestowed upon with a unique honor of being appointed the permanent keeper and custodian of all major domestic football trophies. The club is a 6-time champion of Russia, 7-time winner of the Russian Cup, 7-time winner of Russia’s Super Cup, the winner of the 2005 UEFA Cup. In 2022, SIBUR entered into a partnership with the club with the aim of developing and promoting children’s and youths’ football in the city that is widely viewed as the spiritual capital of Siberia.