Chelsea on a mission to Moscow

Chelsea Football Club will play in a prestigious pre-season tournament in Russia this summer. The news was announced at a press conference in Moscow attended by Chelsea FC Chief Executive Peter Kenyon. Kenyon was alongside senior representatives from Lokomotiv Moscow, the hosts, as well as AC Milan and Sevilla who will also take part in the Russian Railways Cup. The tournament, which is in its second year, is named after Lokomotiv’s previous history of being formed by workers of the state railway and will take place between August 1 and August 3. Kenyon said: “We are delighted to play against such great opposition in Moscow in this tournament. “It will be the first time Chelsea has been to Russia for pre-season so this has the added advantage of providing excellent preparation for the new season with the opportunity for our growing number of fans in Moscow to see us play live twice.” The matches will be in a cup knockout format with a semi-final, final and third-place play-off, with the draw yet to be made. Matches will be played at Lokomotiv’s Central Stadium, which has a capacity of 28,800. Chelsea already has good connections with Lokomotiv following the transfer in January 2008 of Branislav Ivanovic to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea’s previous visit to Russia was to play in the 2004/5 Champions League group phase against CSKA Moscow. According to independent research by TNS (October 2007), Chelsea is the most popular Premier League team in Russia with an estimated 10 million fans. This was part of the same research that estimated Chelsea had a global fan base of 90 million. The club has also recently partnered with the National Academy of Football in Russia to produce a local language version of Chelsea’s website, http://www.chelsea-fc.ru/. The announcement of Chelsea’s participation in the Moscow tournament is the latest in a number of pre-season matches to be confirmed. Chelsea will play in Guangzhou, China on July 23 and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on July 29. Another game on July 26 in Asia is still to be confirmed.