The first deputy general producer of Match TV talks about the PARI Premier Cup: “We held a Champions League tournament on our own”

Dmitry Ryzhkov, First Deputy General Producer of Match TV, said that the PARI Premier Cup, organized by the TV channel, can be compared in terms of the level with the Champions League.

The PARI Premier Cup, which started on July 1 in St. Petersburg, ended on July 15. The opponents of the St. Petersburg “Zenith” were the Turkish “Fenerbahce”, the Azerbaijani “Neftchi” and the Serbian “Red Star”, which became the winner of the tournament and earned a cash prize of 50 thousand euros.

— Dmitry, you are holding the sixth tournament under your own brand. So, can the project be called successful?

— For the first time, we held a cup under our own name in the winter of 2019 in Qatar. We have assembled a good lineup of teams from the Russian Premier League: Zenit, Spartak, Lokomotiv and Rostov. It was something new for the entire football industry in our country – before that, all clubs played friendly matches at the training camp, which had no additional media value.

We received a positive response from both the participants and the audience, so we didn’t delay the next one either – we met in Austria already in the summer. Coronavirus changed the regularity and format a bit – before the pandemic, we managed to hold the Winter Cup, which was the last one, at the moment, abroad.

When discussing success or failure, we can talk about different components – for example, financial or image – and analyze specific tournaments and cases that have been implemented.

Photo: © Maxim Konstantinov / Match TV

— Is it possible to call the tournament commercially successful for the organizers? How did you manage to cover the costs?

— I wouldn’t like to name numbers, but, of course, sponsorship contracts play a huge role, in particular, the contract of the title sponsor. At the same time, it should be noted that this is a win-win situation for all parties – us, as organizers, our partners who receive an extensive inventory, teams and fans who can follow the preparation of their favorite teams at a new level.

If we talk about us, Match receives excellent content at a time when there are few events in Russian football, receives exclusive speakers from the participating teams and, accordingly, additional citation. In the end, it gets recognition and a certain advertising inventory. That is, we are talking not only about finances in absolute terms, but also in many respects about the cost of the product.

We want to be visible and bright in the media, not only creating newsworthy events, but also performing the function of supporting our sport. Therefore, many events receive our informational support or even our own production. In addition to the football cup, we had experience with diving, with the organization of a martial arts tournament. “Street games MATCH!” took place in Kazan is a street sports festival organized by the Ministry of Sports of the Republic.

– Why did you decide to make a tournament with the participation of only one RPL team this year?

– Here a big factor is played by the calendar of preparation for the season, which is different for everyone. It does not suit someone, someone does not like to go to another city. We were interested in the plans of several top RPL teams, whether they have a desire to participate in the tournament. It could have turned out that we would have seen another Moscow team at the current tournament.

Photo: © Maxim Konstantinov / Match TV

– At a press conference before the start of the cup, the participants said that this was the level of the Champions League, or at least the Europa League.

For me it’s the Champions League. Group stage. Crvena Zvezda is already playing in it, Fenerbahce is the owner of the Turkish Cup, Neftchi is the bronze medalist of the Azerbaijani championship. All are European Cup participants. We held a Champions League tournament on our own.

– On what conditions did Zenit’s rivals come? How much did they get? Did the clubs bear part of the costs? Did Zenith cover them at least partially?

– The prize fund of the tournament is indicated in the regulations – it amounted to 50 thousand euros or 5 million rubles. All expenses for accommodation, flights, meals, refereeing teams, training fields are borne by the organizers of the tournament. So it was when our teams met at foreign training camps in the past tournaments.

– How difficult was it in the current conditions to agree with foreign teams?

“You know, it wasn’t easy. Here, Zenit was of great help, including with its strong reputation as a big club. It is also not easy to fulfill a number of requests, for example, from guests from Turkey. But we are grateful to all the teams for their professionalism, everyone approached our tournament very responsibly and now thank you for the invitation and the level of organization.

Frankly, we, as organizers, are extremely pleased – we invest not only time, but also emotions and soul in this tournament, – Sport24 quotes Ryzhkov.