The famous footballer Alexey Smertin, who played for the Russian national team, was its captain, and also played in several European clubs, took part in a joint action of Rosprirodnadzor and the Russian Football Union (RFU) in support of the International Children's and Youth Award of the Federal Service for Supervision of Nature Management "Ecology is everyone's business". The action, which takes place in 73 cities of Russia from September 6 to 12, is dedicated to the Day of Lake Baikal.

Alexey Smertin, together with young football players of the Olympic Reserve Sports School from Khimki near Moscow, coaches, relatives, fans and friends went out to clean up the city in the area of the Vasco da Gama residential complex on Vatutina Street.

"I, Alexey Smertin, am glad to support the International Children's and Youth Award "Ecology is everyone's business" of Rosprirodnadzor and admit: it doesn't matter if you play football, or are connected with art, with high technologies, you are obliged to support nature, maintain order and cleanliness. There are many of us, but nature is one. Therefore, I urge guys, girls, boys from 6 to 17 years old to participate in this action, to send their works. And the best will go to the sea, to the camp "Eaglet". Take care of nature! Love and appreciate what surrounds you!" he said.

In addition, the football players of the Sports School of the Olympic Reserve "Vityaz" from Podolsk also plan to clean up their city as part of this large-scale sports and environmental campaign. 

The Moscow region takes an active part in the children's and youth award "Ecology is everyone's business" and is currently in fourth place in the ranking of the regions that have sent the largest number of works. The project received more than one thousand works from the Moscow region. The top 10 most active regions were headed by the Krasnodar Territory, in second place – Moscow, in third – the Rostov region. 

"Sport plays an important role in everyone's life. Sport is a healthy lifestyle. Our award is also about health. We instill environmental habits in children. Football is one of the most beloved, popular games. It unites like-minded people around the world. So is our environmental award. The task is to work together to make our planet cleaner so that we can leave it healthy for future generations. We thank the Russian Football Union for supporting our award," said Svetlana Radionova, head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Environmental Management. 
 
The Russian Football Union has become a partner of the Rosprirodnadzor award "Ecology is everyone's business". The RFU is an all–Russian public organization, the football Sports Federation, engaged in the development and popularization of football in the Russian Federation. The initiative is carried out under the auspices of the Youth Football League within the framework of the project "SFL Care".
 
The Youth Football League, which is the flagship product of the RFU, is the largest project in Russian football, uniting 63 regions of Russia into six leagues, assembled on a territorial basis (Far East, Northwest, Siberia, Volga region, Center and South). It allows young footballers aged 14 – 15 from all over the country to get regular playing practice. 
 
"The RFU makes a big bet on the development of youth football. Only in the Youth Football League, one of our key projects, more than two thousand young football players from 63 regions of Russia are playing today. Our task is to develop not only professional, but also universal qualities of children, to educate them in love with nature and the place where they live. Therefore, we decided to support the initiative of Rosprirodnadzor to hold the children's and youth award "Ecology is everyone's business". As part of our social project "SFL Care", young football players will take part in environmental actions in their cities," said the President of the RFU Alexander Dyukov. 
 
Under the auspices of the Youth Football League, a project called "SFL Care" was created in early 2022. Its task is to conduct various socially significant events and instill a culture of caring for the environment. Within the framework of the project, charity and social events are held throughout Russia, ranging from tree planting, cleaning of territories to organized assistance to children with disabilities. Traditionally, teams from 73 Russian cities from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok take part in them.

The International Children's and Youth Award "Ecology is everyone's business" was established by the Rosprirodnadzor service in March last year. Children and teenagers aged 6 to 17 can participate in the award. You can apply on the website www.экологияделокаждого .Russian Federation. Creative works are accepted in nine nominations. Two teams – "Eco-family" and "Eco-school". And seven individual ones – "Ecomir", "Ecoproject", "Ecobloger", "Ecorisunok", "Ecofocus", "Ecomultfilm", "ESG-generation".
 
The award has already received a record number of applications – over 25 thousand. The works came from all regions of Russia and from more than 20 countries of the world. The most popular nominations were "Ecofocus", "Ecorisunok", "Ecobloger" and "Ecomir".
 
The top 10 regions most actively participating included: Krasnodar Krai, Moscow, Rostov, Moscow, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Leningrad Regions, Stavropol Krai, the Republic of Tatarstan and the Nizhny Novgorod Region closes the top ten. The anti-rating of Russian subjects, from where the smallest number of works came from, was headed by the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the Vladimir Oblast, the Republic of Tyva, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Kamchatka Krai, Ingushetia, North Ossetia–Alania.

The general partner of the project was the ANO "Center "Arctic Initiatives".
 
Federal partners: JSC "RNG", JSC "Uralchem", LLC "Charter", VDC "Eaglet", Moscow Zoo. The general information Partner of the award is RIA Novosti, the International Information Partner is the International News Agency and Radio Sputnik. The general radio partner is Business FM.

The project was supported by: the Russian Society "Knowledge", the Russian Football Union, the Grand Hotel "Pearl", the film studio "Soyuzmultfilm", "The Russian Movement of Schoolchildren", the V.I. Vernadsky Foundation, the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution DO FTSDO, the Izvestia News Center, the Komsomolskaya Pravda Publishing House, the FederalPress Media Holding, the MIR TV channel", "Children's Radio", FIA "Regnum", "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", ID "Arguments and Facts", "Vedomosti", information and educational project TASS – Newm, "Ekograd" magazine.