Six years ago they created the so-called Expat Football League meant to bring foreigners in Moscow together.

“When I came to Russia and was trying to find an expat, it didn’t matter who he was – you’d become his friend. Now people come here, join the league, they can meet people from the same industries, the same nationalities or the same social scenes. So it’s basically a social scene fully prepared for you,” says Nick Rees.

The league was founded in 2003 and since then has undergone some serious transformations, such as the number of participants. Now, in addition to the British teams, one can come across their Turkish, French, Dutch or German rivals. The games are played both during the winter and the summer with, of course, Nick’s and Darren’s teams being the biggest rivals. Apart from the league, Nick and Darren organize summer and winter expat tournaments.

“We have these tournaments every year. We have a summer tournament and we have a winter tournament. The league has been going for six years and every year, midway through the season, we have a tournament,” says Darren Keane.

Now with a big sponsor involved – Allianz Rosno joined them in 2009 – the league’s organizers are full of enthusiasm.

Organizers Nick Rees (L) and Darren Keane

And the sponsor seems to be satisfied with this cooperation.

“We at Allianz Rosno are so delighted to be involved in such an established and successful competition such as the Expat Football League in Moscow,” said Allianz Rosno’s CEO, Hannes Chopra. “We’re globally involved in Formula 1, large professional football teams like Bayern Munich and much more in sport simply because it gives everyone involved so much satisfaction and happiness as it has today. We hope this is the beginning of a long relationship.”

“This is the first such kind of experience for us and I can say it’s a successful one. Sport has always been close to our young company,” adds Sergiu Covalicius, sales manager from IAL Group.

Thanks to new sponsors the guests weren’t bored while having a rest between games. They were offered loads of shashlik from the barbeque, salads, cold beer and soft drinks, as well as a bouncy castle for children, and face-painting and clowns. In addition, special football games were held for all players during the day with prizes of up to $1,000.

However, for all the participants there, the games were not about the money at all.

Aleksey Kiselev-Romanov for RT