The presentation took place on November 24th in Yunost, a bar and veranda located right outside Petrovsky Stadium. The evening was opened by Noize MC, one of the leading Russian hip-hop musicians, who performed the song “Pushkin Rap”. At the same time the presentation guests watched a music video made by the Russian PR agency Great?using paintings by the famous Petersburg artist Nikolay Kopeikin, including the painting “The Sun of Russian Poetry in Zenit”, dedicated to the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
After that the event organizers and guests spoke, including blue-white-sky blue players Nicolas Lombaerts, Konstantin Zyryanov, Bruno Alves and Domenico Criscito.
According to Maxim Mitrofanov, FC Zenit General Director, football is a game played outside of race, national, and political preferences or confrontations, and the goal of the music video was to show in a clear, direct, and accessible way that the blue-white-sky blues are against racism, because racism has no place in sports.
— In my short career I`ve had the chance to coach players of all races and colors, — said Luciano Spalletti, coming onto the stage after Mr. Mitrofanov. — All of them demonstrated excellent skills, a desire to work hard, and win. It`s possible that all the things I mentioned are just normal, but there`s one circumstance that I`d like to name separately: when all of these footballers got cuts or scratches, the same thing came out of each person — blood. Whatever color our skin is, we all have the same blood inside. Skin is just skin.
Noize MC himself finished off the evening, explaining why he decided to dedicate his new song to the fight against racism: “I`m not so close to football, but I can say that this song is a message to everyone as a whole, not just to football fans. I think violence of any kind is always incorrect, whether it be at the stadium or in the street.”
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