Back in winter, while sitting with my friends in one of McDonald’s numerous eateries in Kyiv, I noticed a promo leaflet for the Escort the Soccer Players campaign. It gives winning kids the chance to hold the hand and escort to the pitch a football player from a participating national team during Euro 2012.
To qualify, one needed to fill out a form, include
a photo or a drawing of their family engaging in sports. In addition, the kids
were selected through schools, media partners, orphanages, McDonald’s employees
and partners, as well as children who attend the Shakhtar Donetsk football
academy. Altogether, 280 kids from all over Ukraine, whose names were to be
announced at the stadium prior to the game they attend, were selected.
Immediately
after reading the leaflet I started to persuade one of my friends, whose
12-year old son was a huge fan of football to take part. I knew that if he
wins, it would likely to be one the happiest days of his son’s life. Yet, my
friend categorically refused, no matter how hard we pushed him, as he doubted
his son would have any chances against the offspring of Ukraine’s rich and
powerful. Attempts failed to ensure him that the contest will be fair
considering that it was organized by McDonald’s.
As it turns
out, it looks as if I was wrong.
All of us
forgot about this conversation until June 22 when Kharkiv governor Mykhailo
Dobkin twitted the photo of his son Mykola. In the photo, his son was seen
personally escorting the Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo, currently one of
the world’s biggest soccer stars, before the kickoff of the Portugal –
Netherlands game in Kharkiv.
Dobkin became
a household name in 2007 when a video surfaced showing him filming an election
ad and using language highly peppered with expletives. It became a YouTube hit.
The Kharkiv governor even tweeted the McDonald’s certificate granting his son
victory.
Something
smells suspicious, if not outright rotten, when the son of the governor of a region
co-hosting the Euro 2012 games by chance wins a “fair” contest to escort
Ronaldo.
How did
McDonald’s explain it?
Anastasiya Zrazhevska,
spokeswoman for McDonalds Ukraine, said “a limited number of additional places”
to escort the players to the pitch was allocated as part of “separate quota.”
The company’s spokesperson would not give any more details on what would it
take to become part of this “quota” or how many spots had been allocated this
way.
Zrazhevska’s
only explanation of how the son of Kharkiv’s governor ended up accompanying the
famous Portuguese striker was that the kids escorting the first player to come
out to the pitch (as Ronaldo does, being the team’s captain) as a rule are the “tallest
and most independent.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Vlad Lavrov can be
reached at [email protected].
