Has Putin bought the EM? Gazprom and UEFA have a million dollar deal – politics abroad

When asked by BILD, UEFA did not want to disclose how many millions of euros the sponsorship agreement with Russia’s state gas giant had been concluded for. The contracts are “not public due to confidentiality agreements,” said a spokesman for BILD.

But insiders expect a warm rain of money for UEFA of at least 50 million euros. This is how much it cost the Chinese company Hisense 2016 to sponsor the European Championship in France.

Noticeable: A total of seven European Championship games will take place in the “Gazprom Arena” in Saint Petersburg. More than any of the other ten participating stadiums, except for Wembley Stadium in London. This was announced by UEFA announced on April 23rd, exactly four weeks before the official signing of the contract with Gazprom.

A UEFA spokesman told BILD that there was no connection between the sponsorship agreement and the high number of games in Russia (three more than, for example, in the Allianz Arena in Munich).

In contrast, the UEFA website (!) Says completely unabashedly: “Saint Petersburg, where the headquarters of Gazprom is located, has the honor of hosting the final stage of the UEFA EURO 2020 Trophy Tour from May 21-22. Seven games will be played in Saint Petersburg during the summer tournament. “

For the Anti-Corruption Expert Hanna Hopko it’s not a coincidence.

The deal between UEFA and Putin’s state-owned company Gazprom shows “how authoritarian regimes discredit various organizations through strategic corruption. Earlier we saw how the caviar diplomacy negatively affected the decision of the Council of Europe. Today they influence that of UEFA ”.

Hopko to BILD: “Hosting EM games in the Russian Federation is a whitewash for Putin’s authoritarian and kleptocratic regime.”

But how far does Russia’s influence go after the million dollar deal with UEFA?

It becomes clear in the jersey dispute with Ukraine: On Tuesday, the Russian Football Association complained by letter to UEFA about the tiny imprint “Long live Ukraine. Long live the heroes ”on the back of the Ukrainian national jersey. Shortly afterwards, UEFA called on Ukraine to remove the second set of its shirt, which it previously had no problem with.

The head of the Russian football association is Alexander Djukov, chairman of the board of the state oil company Gazprom Neft, a daughter of the youngest European Championship sponsor Gazprom. It was only in April that the Gazprom manager was elected as a member of the UEFA Executive Committee.

Andrij Melnyk, Ambassador of Ukraine in Germany, believes that this is no coincidence. He told BILD: “The fact that UEFA is complying with a Russian complaint about our European Championship jersey just a few days after a sponsorship contract between the European football association and the Russian state-owned company Gazprom is more than suspicious.”

President Putin, so Ambassador Melnysk alleged, is “once again using Gazprom’s hybrid war instrument to divide Europe”.

UEFA cannot or does not even want to do anything against the refused entry for ARD journalist Robert Kempe by Putin’s regime, as a spokesman told BILD.

UEFA had “received a rejection of Mr Kempe’s application from the local authorities in Russia”. The spokesman said: “UEFA is unable to overturn such a decision and has not received any detailed information about the rejection of the application.”

Little consolation for Robert Kempe: The Russia-critical journalist had “received an accreditation for the remaining ten venues of the UEFA EURO 2020” …

For the foreign policy spokesman for the FDP, Bijan Djir-Sarai, the refusal of Kempe by Putin’s authorities was foreseeable. “You always have to reckon with actions of this kind when important events such as a football tournament are partly relocated to Russia,” Djir-Sarai told BILD. His demand: “Both the federal government and UEFA must position themselves clearly here and advocate freedom of the press.”