Over the next three years Zenit and Championika plan to open more than 160 football schools throughout the country. The lessons at the Zenit-Championika football schools will be run according to the methods developed by the Gazprom Academy’s coaching team.

The plan is for Zenit-Championika football schools to be created in 120 cities across Russia with more than 40,000 boys and girls aged from 3 to 16 learning their football at the schools. 

The main aim of the project is to create the largest network of football schools in the country and to allow children anywhere in Russia to become part of Zenit Football Club. During each step of the process both parties intend to combine their expertise in the fields of franchising and business with new,  innovative approaches being added to the methods of Russia’s leading football club. The goal of the Zenit-Championika venture is to develop children's amateur sport in Russia with quality, whilst being commercially successful.

Zenit’s General Director Alexander Medvedev commented on the proposal: “We are glad to welcome Championika as one of our partners, they are one of the most powerful brands in children's sports and share common ideals with Zenit Football Club. We both want to popularize and grow grassroots football and this cooperation is designed to bring joy to children through interesting training session done in a fun way and to help them love football from a very young age.”

Ruslan Bashirov, general director and co-owner of Championika told us: “We see Zenit Football Club as an incredibly strong and active partner. Together we will work hard to create high-quality football training available to a huge number of children. In partnership with Zenit, we will be able to offer football coaches the opportunity to learn and grow together through the experts who run the training programme of the reigning Russian champions. All this will allow us to attract more people to football, entrepreneurs, players, coaches, children and their parents. This will help to raise a new generation of young footballers.”

A Championika franchise is a ready-made business solution for entrepreneurs with all levels of experience, it allows them to become part of a professional community and open their own football school. There are more than 550 Championika football schools in more than 149 cities and five countries around the world.

To find out more about franchise opportunities head to: school-fczenit.ru.