"The Match Premier Cup" tournament featuring four leading Russian football clubs gets underway tonight (21/Jan,2019) at Aspire Academy. The Head Coaches of Zenit St. Petersburg, Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow and Rostov held a press conference during which they shared their impressions of the facilities at Aspire Zone.

Oleg Kononov (FC Spartak Moscow), Sergey Semak (Zenit St. Petersburg), Yuriy Semin (Locomotiv Moscow) and Valeriy Karpin (Rostov FC) told assembled Russian and local media that they believed the new tournament in Qatar was a very positive development. They were also very enthusiastic about the welcome that they and their teams had received since arriving in the country.

"Aspire Academy is phenomenal and boasts some of the best sports facilities of any l have seen in the world," remarked Yuriy Semin. "It’s obvious why this is the training base for the Qatar national team. Aspire Academy has exactly what any team requires for training camps and to prepare."

Valeriy Karpin added: "The facilities at Aspire Academy are excellent. We don't have anything like this in Russia".

"The Match Premier Cup" which is being organised by Match TV and the Russian Premier League in partnership with Qatar Football Association and Aspire Zone Foundation will run from 21- 29 January. The tournament will be broadcast live in Russia on Match TV and Match Premier.

During the press conference earlier today, the clubs’ Head Coaches were very enthusiastic about competing in this novel tournament in Doha which takes place during the Russian League’s winter break. Russian teams normally travel abroad to warmer climates for training camps and ahead of league matches resuming in March.

They also expressed that in coming to Qatar, they have found an ideal new destination, and also an opportunity to introduce Russian football to this country while introducing Qatar to huge numbers of fans back home who will be following their teams’ progress.

Source: Press Release

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