The Russian Premier League has joined an action together with 16 other European leagues aimed at turning public attention to the problem of millions of people in the world suffering from famine. Each league appoints ambassadors from the number of its famous ex-players or active players. March 30th and April 1st have been nominated as the Days of Games against Famine – all money will be donated to the residents of the African region of Sahel.
Fernando Vlanzuela, head of the EU representative office in Russia
Indeed, the situation in thd Sehel region in Africa is critical, 15 million people are starving. The situation is very serious. Out of these 15 million, 8 million might die if the necessary measures are not taken. The European Commission, together with the agricultural organization of the UN and the European Association of Football Leagues, has started a joint project. The European Commission has already assigned 228 million euros for various programs to support the population and provide humanitarian aid. But the demand is bigger than we can provide. Much bigger. And we need to do everything possible to help these people now. The most important is to prevent these situations in the future. Taking the opportunity, I would like to thank the Russian Premier League and National Football League that will tell society about these problems in the upcoming tour. And on behalf of the European Commission I would like to thank the ambassadors of this action in Russia this year – Roberto Carlos from the Premier League and Alexei Medvedev from the National Football League. I would like to remind you that the campaign will take place between March 30th and April 2nd in 20 European countries and more than 300 clubs will take part in this action. The first game will be in Russia between Spartak Nalchik and Tomsk. Some of the games will take place in Moscow and I hope that I will manage to attend one of them. The scale of the campaign is from Glasgow to Vienna and from Lisbon to Vladivostok. We hope that it will attract public attention to the situation in Sahel. And this attention will save lives.
Sergei Pryadkin, President of the Russian Premier League
I can say the following. The Russian Premier League is taking part in the action “Football against Famine” for the second time. You know that last time was in October 2010. That was the first action in which the Russian Premier League participated. This year it is conducted in the framework of the 32nd tour between March 30 and April 2. We entirely support the other European leagues from 16 countries and we will try to conduct this action at the highest level and to help the organizations that fight famine. Big cataclysms are happening in the world and when we talk to the leaders of our clubs we all treat these problems with understanding. We believe that joint actions against famine should provide some positive reaction, a world where a billion people are starving is unacceptable.
Roberto Carlos, Ambassador from the Russian side
First, I would like to thank the Russian Football Premier League and its president Sergei Pryadkin for the chance to take part in this action. I have been involved with this problem for a long time and in my home country we have many projects to fight famine. We can help the starving people. I believe that together we will be able to change the situation and really help those people who starve and die and suffer. Only together will we be able to change the situation.
