Choron Diamond institutes an eponymous prize for the best Russian Football League club
Choron Diamond, the Russia-based jewelry company that is a part of international holding Choron, which specializes in production and sale of polished diamond and jewelries around the globe, has instituted an eponymous prize, the Choron Diamond Cup, which will be awarded annually to a Russian Premier League football club, whose senior and junior professional teams will perform best in their respective national championships in a soccer season.
The first award ceremony will take place at the end of the Russian football championship 2010. The formula for determining the recipient of the new annual trophy is relatively simple, as the Cup will be handed to the club, whose tally of the main and youth teams’ final positions on the league tables at the end of their respective championships will yield the smallest sum, Sergei Pryadkin — the vice president of the Russian Football Union and president of the Russian Professional Premier League (RFPL), which runs the professional football club leagues in Russia — said at a press conference following the signing of the landmark sponsorship agreement with Rajesh Gandhi, the CEO of Choron Diamond, in the ballroom of the Moscow’s Ritz Carlton Hotel on Sept. 3.
The Choron Diamond Cup, made with the latest jewelry production technologies, comes into two forms — the Big and Small Cups, Gandhi noted. The Big Cup, made in a form of a life-size football from 2.5kg of gold, 33,140 white and 10,728 black diamonds, will be awarded to the winner, while the Small Cup, made from 460g of gold, 3,790 white and 2,340 black diamonds, will be awarded to the runner-up club, based on the sum of the teams’ aggregate positions. “We jointly decided to include the clubs’ junior or second-eleven teams in the formula for deciding the overall performance of the clubs when choosing the eventual winner of the trophy,” Pryadkin noted.
"It was a great honor for me and my company to institute this new trophy together with the RFPL. We are very glad that we have succeeded in finally bringing this idea to life.”
Meanwhile, Choron Diamond, which, according to the terms of the partnership agreement, has been accorded the status of an official sponsor of the Russian Football Championship, will produce a new Cup each year, as awarded trophies are to remain in winners’ custody for keep, the signatories to the sponsorship agreement said. The duration of the sponsorship agreement was not disclosed at the press conference.
Combining gems’ rarity with football mass audience
Commenting on the deal, Choron Diamond CEO said it was a great honor for him and his company to institute the new prize together with the RFPL. “We are very glad that we have succeeded in bringing the idea of this Cup to life. It took a whole year to manufacture this truly unique Cup, using the latest and most advanced technologies in the jewelry industry, including microscopic installations of the gems into these trophies,” he added. “This was because we wanted to create a really unique prize that has no analogs in the world and we hope that this trophy will contribute to further popularization of football in Russia as well as Russian football abroad.”
Gandhi also noted another vital aspect of the partnership agreement with the RFPL that has made it especially valuable to the whole company, and that is coinciding the beginning of the realization of this major sports project of this caliber with the marking of the first 10-year anniversary of the company’s foundation and operations in Russia. “This year, our company celebrates its 10th anniversary of its operations in Russia and we are very happy that the beginning of this big project coincided with this jubilee,” he added. “In this regard, I would like to express my gratitude to Pryadkin and all the leaders of the Russian Professional Premier League, who have hugely contributed to the implementation of this project. We hope that our cooperation will be long-lasting and fruitful.”
From his side, Pryadkin, speaking on behalf of the RFPL and the entire Russian football management, expressed appreciation to Choron Diamond and its 
CEO for undertaking such a serious commitment in ‘such difficult crisis times’ to promote Russian football. “This is a strategic partnership agreement as we plan to broaden the current level of cooperation between the RFPL and Choron Diamond with time to include other aspects of Russian football.”
Both parties expressed confidence that institution of the new trophy will help fast-track further development of football, especially the youth soccer, in Russia. “The inclusion of the premier clubs’ youth teams into the scheme for awarding the Cup is intended to give an additional impetus to young footballers and attract more attention to the games of the youth football championship in the country,” Pryadkin said. Echoing a similar view, Choron Diamond CEO noted that the ‘successes of young footballers often go unnoticed, which is unfair to such players,’ a negative trend that the newly instituted Cup is intended to rectify. “Henceforth, such young footballers, through their inclusion in the Choron Diamond Cup, will be making huge contribution to their clubs’ overall successes.”
Choron Diamond Cup – a priceless trophy with a ‘cultural value’
Prompted to put a price tag on the cup, Gandhi noted that it would be difficult to exactly state the value of the Cup because of its ‘uniqueness,’ as it currently has no analogs in Russia, and, indeed, across the globe. Airing a similar view, Igor Budnikov, the director of the RFPL’s Press Service Department, noted that trying to arbitrarily attach a ‘monetary value’ to such unique product would be inappropriate, as not all things can be measured in U.S. dollars or euros, especially a trophy of such caliber and uniqueness. “Indeed, this Cup ought to be viewed not only as a sports trophy, but also as a unique priceless work of art with a ‘cultural value.’”
However, the RFPL chief, in an attempt to satisfy the yearning of the media representatives at the press conference that were really eager to know the ‘real financial worth’ of the precious trophy, noted that the RFPL, during the partnership negotiations with Choron Diamond on instituting the Cup, had valued it at not less than $1mln. “This is not the actual cost or value of the Cup, but it does serve as a guide to the overall picture of this trophy’s real worth.”
Asked to highlight the motivation for sponsoring football, which is a mass sport, and not the more elitist forms of sport such as lawn tennis, golf, yachting, polo etc., that are traditionally associated with luxury good brands such as jewelries, the signatories to the Choron Diamond Cup sponsorship agreement named ‘love for soccer, yearning for its further popularization in Russia among spectators and youth as well as a well-thought-out marketing strategy’ on the side of Choron Diamond as some of the key reasons that eventually clinched the lucrative deal for the nation’s most popular sporting activity.
The convergence of both parties’ interests helped finalize this partnership agreement that will bring huge benefits to the most popular sport in Russia, the signatories to the cooperation agreement said. Specifically, Gandhi attributed the defining role in the realization of the agreement to his son, a lover of soccer and a big fan of the British premier league franchise, Manchester United football club. “Personally, I’m not a big soccer fan, but my son is”.
"It is not everything that can be measured in dollars or euros, especially a Cup of such uniqueness. Indeed, it should be viewed not only as a sports trophy, but also as a unique priceless work of art with a cultural value.”
On his side, Pryadkin, defending the choice of soccer for the lucrative sponsorship, noted that football, without any intended disrespect for all other forms of internationally acclaimed sports, is, unquestionably, the No. 1 sport in terms of popularity and social relevance in the world, including Russia. “This is evident in the number of spectators that averages about 13,000 per Russian premier football league match nationwide,” he added. “And, given this unprecedented level of popularity of football across Russia, and the fact that under this current partnership agreement that the RFPL will be providing some product placement and other promotion services for Choron Diamond in all its activities in the country, one can conclude that there is a commercial component, namely, huge advertisement opportunities, for the jewelry company, in this cooperation agreement.”
Indeed, it needs to be mentioned here, as far as marketing opportunities are concerned, that Choron Diamond has long established its presence on the Russian jewelries market, having successfully cut for itself a sizeable portion of the industry since opening operations here a decade ago. This is evident from the fact that the company, apart from production, also sells jewelry products via an extensive network, which currently includes over 300 dealership centers throughout Russia.
This is why it is equally important to note here that the company’s roles and contributions to the further development of the Russian precious metals industry are not only being noticed by allies and competitors in the industry, but also at the highest corridors of powers in the Russian government. For instance, the company was declared by the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry the “Best Exporter in 2008” on the market for “Precious and Semi-precious Gems, Precious Metals and Products made from them.”
Christopher Kenneth contributed to this story.
Web design,