Gazprom Transgaz Stavropol footballers win awards in Continental Football League

Football players from Gazprom Transgaz Stavropol won bronze medals in the finals of the Continental Football League (CFL) held in Moscow from May 9 to 13.

It was fitting that the traditional international festival of amateur and grassroots football was held a month before the start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The competition was supported by the European Minifootball Federation, which had recognized the CFL as the most important 8-a-side football tournament this year. CFL matches were attended by many honored guests, business leaders, politicians, sponsors, scouts of professional clubs, sports stars, and entertainers.

The CFL finals included 54 teams from Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Russia was represented in the tournament by athletes from over 30 cities.

The amateur footballers from Gazprom Transgaz Stavropol showed their best results during the group stage by defeating the teams from Bulgaria, Moscow, and Kursk. Gazprom’s team was on top by the critical stage of the competition. It was only after they had left behind their competitors from Nizhny Novgorod and beat the Titan team from Moscow in an intense match culminating in a series of penalty shoot-outs that they lost to the Elbin club from Makhachkala in the semifinals.

The football players from Gazprom Transgaz Stavropol came home with bronze awards, which was in itself an unprecedented accomplishment for Stavropol, as no amateur football team from the Stavropol Territory had reached such heights before. Following the tournament, the club’s midfielder Zaurbek Ikoev was included in the expanded national amateur football team. His next match will take place in Brazil.

“The football gang continues to add to the collection of our company’s sports awards. Last year, the team came out on top in Gazprom’s Summer Spartakiada Games in Sochi. This spring, it scored a convincing victory in the city’s Premier Minifootball League,” says Alexey Zavgorodnev, Director General of Gazprom Transgaz Stavropol. “The success at the Moscow tournament proves that amateur football in southern Russia is moving in the right direction.”