There is no problem with the Russian gas giant Gazprom sponsoring Fradi’s football team. This is clear from the reply sent to RTL by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which states that:
“The more large international companies invest in Hungarian sports, the better, and Gazprom is not on the sanctions list.”
Blikk named Gazprom as the new main sponsor of the Ferencváros football team, which won the Hungarian championship for the sixth time in a row. The newspaper wrote that the agreement would mean a sponsorship contract worth several billion forints for the club. RTL contacted the management of Ferencváros about the matter, but they did not answer their questions.
Before the war in Ukraine, Gazprom was considered one of the biggest European football sponsors, including one of the main sponsors of the Champions League. They also supported European clubs, the Serbian Crvena zvezda and the German Schalke also wore the logo of the gas company on their shirts.
In the past, Gazprom was also a part owner of the American baseball team Houston Astros, became a sponsor in Formula 1, and also has its own football team, Zenit of St. Petersburg.
However, after the war against Ukraine (which Russia finances to a large extent from the company’s natural gas revenues), both UEFA and Schalke terminated the contract with the company. After the outbreak of the war, the German club covered up the sponsor logo on the shirts until the contract was terminated.
