Nafta to sponsor national team

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Russian oil trading company Nafta has agreed to become the Russian national team's official sponsor. "Nafta is just the first of hopefully many more big Russian companies that would get involved and help Russian football in the near future," said Vitaly Mutko, newly-appointed president of the Russian Football Union.

Nafta signed a US$60m six-year sponsorship deal with Russian premier league club Saturn Ramenskoye in March 2004. It was also involved in talks to buy Italy's Serie A club AS Roma for a reported 400m Euros last year but negotiations stalled after Italian police began investigating false accounting in Serie A and B clubs.