Media football is a version of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

in which the teams are mainly made up of celebrities (influencers, actors, business stars, etc.). Media football emerged and developed in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

in the late 2010s, although Russian teams have held matches between celebrities before.

History

In 2017, Russian

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

s who make content based on the ''FIFA'' video game series united in the 7F United team. The squad included , PandaFx, Finito, German El Classico Popkov, Stavr, Den4ik Flomasteroff and Goodmax. They recorded

challenges Challenge may refer to: * Voter challenging or caging, a method of challenging the registration status of voters * Euphemism for disability * Peremptory challenge, a dismissal of potential jurors from jury duty Places Geography *Challenge, C ...

, but the channel did not last long due to organizational difficulties. In 2018, after the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

, Popkov decided to revive the idea of creating a media football club and invite "fifers" and football bloggers to the project under the temporary name German's Team. Football matches came to replace the challenges, and in August 2018 the team was named Amkal. In 2020, Popkov organized the , in which 12 teams participated. Among the participants were the teams of

Match TV Match TV (russian: Матч ТВ) is a Russian federal sports channel owned by Gazprom Media. The channel began broadcasting on November 1, 2015 and was created in accordance with the order of Russian president Vladimir Putin, with the assista ...

and

Comedy Club Production ''Comedy Club'' is a Russian stand-up comedy TV show broadcast by the Russian TNT channel since April 23, 2005. Long-time residents of the club are Garik Martirosyan, Timur Batrutdinov, Garik Kharlamov, Pavel Volya, Alexandr Revva, Marina Krave ...

. The team of the YouTube channel 2DROTS also participated in it. In 2021, Popkov restarted his project. At the same time, the NaSporte club began to gain momentum in media football, which included such celebrities as Danya Milokhin, T-killah and football player Dmitry Tarasov. In August 2022, Amkal and 2DROTS were invited to the

2022–23 Russian Cup The 2022–23 Russian Cup (football), Russian Cup is the 31st season of the Russian Association football, football knockout tournament since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The competition started on 16 August 2022 and will conclude on 11 Jun ...

Tournaments

* * Media Football League * Liga Bloggers Cup

Reception

Journalists note the popularity of media football. Ivan Kovalchuk from ''

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, its international sports unit, it operates two ...

'' wrote that "current schoolchildren are more interested in watching" media football than RPL. Shamil Gadzhiev from ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' emphasized that interest to football bloggers is "sometimes even greater than in recognized sports masters". Sergey Mikhailichenko from ''Football Culture'' wrote that today media football is "a fairly serious topic with good investments and a large audience coverage".

Vasily Utkin Vasily Vyacheslavovich Utkin (russian: Василий Вячеславович Уткин; born in 1972) is a Russian sports reporter, author, former host of the television show '' The Football Club'', TV and radio presenter, entertainer, actor ...

believes that media football should not be singled out as a separate phenomenon.

Anzor Kavazashvili Anzor Amberkovich Kavazashvili ( ka, ანზორ ყავაზაშვილი, russian: Анзор Амберкович Кавазашвили, born 19 July 1940) is a Soviet former football goalkeeper of Georgian nationality. Honours ...

has a positive attitude towards media football. Some other former and current professional football players, such as

Oleg Kornaukhov Oleg Dmitriyevich Kornaukhov (russian: Олег Дмитриевич Корнаухов; born 14 January 1975) is a Russian football official and a former player. He is the director of PFC CSKA Moscow academy. Honours * Russian Premier League ...

, Sergei Bozhin and

Denis Yakuba Denis Yevgenyevich Yakuba (russian: Денис Евгеньевич Якуба; born 26 May 1996) is a Russian football player who plays as a defensive midfielder for PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara. Club career He was first moved to the senior squad ...

, on the contrary, are skeptical about media football. Konstantin Krinsky from ''Championat.com'' writes that media football is "a great promoter of the Russian Cup at the lower stages".

Minister of Sports A minister of sport (or sports minister) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with sports. Minister of Sport may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism and Sports (Argentina) * Minister for Sport (Australia) * Minist ...

Oleg Matytsin Oleg Vasilyevich Matytsin (born 19 May 1964) is a Russian professor and doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Corresponding Member of Russian Academy of Education and Honoured Doctor of Beijing Sport University. He is currently Minister of Sport of R ...

spoke positively about the participation of media teams in the Russian Cup.

Mikhail Kerzhakov Mikhail Anatolyevich Kerzhakov (russian: Михаил Анатольевич Кержаков; born 28 January 1987) is a Russian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Zenit St. Petersburg. He is the younger brother of striker A ...

believes that media football will not be more popular than professional football.

Kirill Malyarov Kirill Anatolyevich Malyarov (russian: Кирилл Анатольевич Маляров; born 7 March 1997) is a Russian football player who plays for Baltika Kaliningrad. Club career He made his professional debut in the Russian Football Nati ...

wonders why some footballers prefer media football over professional football.

Igor Osinkin Igor Vitalyevich Osinkin (russian: Игорь Витальевич Осинькин; born 4 June 1965) is a Russian professional Association football, football coach and a former player. He manages PFC Krylia Sovetov Samara. Coaching career As a ...

called media football "quite interesting", but does not believe that it will replace professional football in the near future.

References

External links

* * * * * {{Cite web, url=https://www.fontanka.ru/2022/09/14/71654849/, title="Мы Амкал, а вы…". Как блогеры чуть не обыграли профессионалов, author=Артём Кузьмин, website=fontanka.ru, date=2022-09-14, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220914143430/https://www.fontanka.ru/2022/09/14/71654849/, archive-date=2022-09-14, access-date=2022-09-14 Association football variants

History

Tournaments

Reception

See also

References

External links