This got us thinking, and with the help of the Russian Kynological Federation we partnered with a number of local dog shelters with the aim of highlighting the number of dogs looking for a new home.
The following shelters all signed up and agreed to help us in the project: Rzhevka, Friend, Vsevolozhsky Dog, HelpDog SPb - Help for pitbulls and staffs and Husky Help.
The team took to the pitch accompanied by dogs looking for new homes and our starting XI was announced alongside the profiles of the dogs accompanying the players.
Some of the players and their new friends
Malcom and Harley
Artem Dzyuba and Rico
Mikhail Kerzhakov with Shanti, Dmitry Chistyakov with Wendy and Vyacheslav Karavaev with Dali.
The news of our community project has been covered across the world's media, including 433 , Bleacherreport, Pubity, SPORTbible, Barstool Sports, TSN, Sportsnet, TNT Sports Brasil, Sporf, ESPN, The Indian Express, Nigeria's Pulse.ng , Soccer America, Spain's Marca, Ted Lasso's official Twitter account, Olé, Globo, A Bola, Ran.de, Vietnam's VTV and many, many more!
