Norilsk Nickel to sponsor Russian national soccer team

The Norilsk Nickel metallurgical company has become the official partner of the Russian Football Union (RFU) and the Russian national soccer team, reports TASS.

"First and foremost, the company will help develop children's and youth football," said new RFU President Vitaly Mutko.

Mutko, who was elected to the post of RFU president on Sept. 2, had earlier said that the union's debt amounts to $1.2 billion. It will take one and a half years, according to him, for the union to pay off its debts.

Norilsk Nickel, which is headed by one of Russia's wealthiest men, Vladimir Potanin, spent about $2 billion on the construction of the Roza Khutor resort and the Olympics University in Sochi for the 2014 Olympic Games, reports the Kommersant newspaper.

Last year the company gave more than 2.2 billion rubles ($32 million) in support of the CSKA basketball team in Moscow.

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