Gazprom maintain commitment to create a unified Russian and Ukrainian league

The CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom, Alexei Miller, maintained his proposal to create a football league "uniting Russia and Ukraine" on the 25/06/2013. The company who own Zenit St Petersburg, want to create the UFL (Unified Football League). The UFL's organisers are targeting an annual budget of €1bn and plan to launch in 2014/15 with an 18 team league.

A pre-season tournament between the best clubs from the Ukrainian and Russian leagues (Zenit St Petersburg and Spartak Moscow from Russia, Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine) begins on the 27/06/2013. "This is the first step to realising the joint league," said Alexei Miller. This tournament is designed to promote Gazprom initiatives.

"Since the initiation of a championship like this is a complicated diplomatic solution, we have decided to initiate the championship with Ukraine," explained the Russian leader. "In the future, if everything works out for us, we will be able to co-opt clubs from the other countries in the post-Soviet space, which could take part in the United Championship. But that's the next step,…