In the early days of Soviet football, government agencies such as the police, army, and railroads created their ownclubs. Many statesmen saw in the wins of their teams the superiority over the opponents patronising other teams. Almost all the teams had such kind of patrons;Dynamo Moscow aligned with theMilitsiya,CSKA Moscow with theRed Army, and Spartak, created by a trade union public organization, was considered to be "the people's team".[citation needed]
The history of the football club and sports society "Spartak" originates from the Russian Gymnastics Society (RGO Sokol [ru]), which was founded on 16 May 1883. The society was founded under the influence of the Pan-Slavic "Sokol movement" with the aim of promoting the "Sokolsk gymnastics" and then sports including fencing, wrestling,figure skating, skating, football, hockey,lawn tennis, boxing, skis, athletics, and cycling. In the RGO Sokol began to play football in the summer of 1897; the professional football section was founded in the spring of 1909. On 1 August 1920, the football team began to officially act under the name MCS, or Moscow Sports Club.[citation needed]
In 1923, the MCS, later named Krasnaya Presnya (Red Presnya), was formed byIvan Artemyev and involvedNikolai Starostin, especially in its football team.Presnya is a district of Moscow renowned for the radical politics of its inhabitants; for example, it represented the centre of theMoscow uprising of 1905.[citation needed]
The team grew, building a stadium, supporting itself from ticket sales and playing matches across theRussian SFSR. As part of a 1926 reorganization of football in the Soviet Union, Starostin arranged for the club to be sponsored by the food workers union and the club moved to the 13,000 seatTomskyStadium, known as Pishcheviki. The team changed sponsors repeatedly over the following years as it competed with Dinamo Moscow, whose 35,000 seatDynamo Stadium lay close by.[citation needed]
As a high-profile sportsman, Starostin came into close contact with Alexander Kosarev, secretary of theKomsomol (Communist Union of Youth) who already had a strong influence on sport and wanted to extend it. In November 1934, with funding from Promkooperatsiia, Kosarev employed Starostin and his brothers to develop his team to make it more powerful. Again the team changed its name, this time to "Spartak Moscow" (the nameSpartak means "Spartacus", a gladiator who led anuprising againstAncient Rome).[citation needed]
The club founders, four Starostin brothers, played a big role in the formation of the team. The Starostins played for the red-whites in the 1930s but right beforeWorld War II they were subjected torepression as the leaders of the most hated[clarification needed] team by the state authorities. Elder brother Nikolai Starostin wrote in his books that he had survived in the State Prison System due to his participation in football and with Spartak (after thepolitical rehabilitation, in 1954, he would later return to the team as the squad's manager).[citation needed]
In 1935, Starostin proposed the nameSpartak. It was inspired by the Italian novelSpartaco, written byRaffaello Giovagnoli, and meansSpartacus ("Spartak" in Russian), agladiator-slave who led a rebellion againstRome. Starostin is also credited with the creation of the Spartak logo.[2] The same year, the club became a part of newly createdSpartak sports society.[citation needed]
Czechoslovak managerAntonin Fivebr is credited as the first head coach of Spartak, though he worked as a consultant in several clubs simultaneously.[3] In 1936, theSoviet Top League was established, where its first championship was won by Dynamo Moscow while Spartak won its second, which was held in the same calendar year. Before World War II, Spartak earned two more titles.[4] In 1937, Spartak won the football tournament ofWorkers' Olympiad atAntwerp.[5]
During the 1950s, Spartak, together with Dynamo, dominated the Soviet Top League. When theSoviet national team won gold medals at theMelbourne Olympics, it consisted largely of Spartak players. Spartak captainIgor Netto was the captain of the national team from 1954 to 1963. In the 1960s, Spartak won two league titles, but by the mid-1960s, Spartak was no more regarded as a leading Soviet club. The club was even less successful in the 1970s and in 1976 Spartak was relegated into thelower league.[citation needed]
The following season in 1979, fans stayed with the team despite being relegated to the lower division, keeping the stadium full.Konstantin Beskov became the head coach. He had made his name playing for Spartak's main rivals,Dynamo Moscow). He introduced several young players, includingRinat Dasayev andGeorgi Yartsev. Spartak returned the following season and won the title in 1979, beatingDynamo Kyiv.[citation needed]
In 1989, Spartak won its last USSR Championship, rivals Dynamo Kyiv 2–1 in the closing round. Spartak'sstrikerValery Shmarov scored the "golden"free kick with almost no time left. The next season, Spartak reached theEuropean Cup semi-final, consequently eliminatingNapoli on penalties andReal Madrid (with 3–1 away victory), but losing toMarseille.[citation needed]
A new page in the club's history began when the Soviet Union collapsed and its championship ceased to exist. In the newly created Russian league, Spartak, led by coach and presidentOleg Romantsev, dominated and won all but one title between 1992 and 2001. Season after season the team also represented Russia in theChampions League.[citation needed]
Problems began in the new century, however. Several charismatic players (Ilya Tsymbalar andAndrey Tikhonov among others) left the club as a result of conflict with Romantsev. Later, Romantsev sold his stock to oil magnate Andrei Chervichenko, who in 2003 became the club president. The two were soon embroiled in a row that would continue until Romantsev was sacked in 2003 with the club suffering several sub-par seasons until Chervichenko finally sold his stock in 2004. The new ownership made a number of front office changes with the aim of returning the team to the top of the Russian Premier League.[7]
Oleg Romantsev, the most successful coach in club history
Spartak has been entitled to place a golden star on its badge since 2003 to commemorate winning five Russian championships in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997. They have won the championship another four times since 1997.
Club iconAndrey Tikhonov had two spells as a Spartak player, from 1992 to 2000 and in 2011, before being appointed assistant manager
In the 2012–13 season, Spartak qualified for the2012–13 UEFA Champions League group stage and finished last after disappointing performances againstFC Barcelona,Celtic andBenfica. In the league, Spartak finished in fourth place while in the cup it was eliminated in the round of 16 byFC Rostov 0–0(3–5p), completing a disappointing season.
Since 2013, the club have added another three stars as rules allowed teams to include titles won during the Soviet era.
The next 3 seasons (2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16) were somewhat similar as Spartak finished 6th, 6th and 5th accordingly while the club did not qualify for European Competitions.[citation needed]
Massimo Carrera helped Spartak win the first league title in 16 years.
The following season, Spartak participated in the2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage. Despite suffering its greatest ever loss in a 7-0 result againstLiverpool F.C. atAnfield, the club achieved considerable victories, including a 5-1 win againstSevilla FC.[8]
Longtime PresidentLeonid Fedun resigned after selling the club.
On August 22, 2022, PJSC Lukoil Oil Company announced the acquisition of Spartak Moscow and Otkritie Arena.[14] This occurred after numerous changes at the club, such as the appointment of Spanish specialistGuillermo Abascal as manager,[15] his assistants Carlos Maria Valle Moreno andVladimir Slišković, physical training coaches Fernando Perez Lopez and Alexander Zaichenko, and goalkeeper coachVasily Kuznetsov.[16] At 33 years of age, Abascal became the youngest manager in the club's history. It was also reported that Leonid Fedun has resigned as President of the club and member of the board of directors. Under his leadership of more than 18 years, he left behind a mixed legacy. The club had won only a single Russian league, cup and supercup. Second place in the league was achieved six times, and four times the club head reached the group stage of the Champions League. A stadium solely for the use of the club was built for the first time.[17] On September 26, 2022 Alexander Matytsyn, first vice president of Lukoil, became chairman of the board of directors of FC Spartak.[18] Lukoil's top managers Pavel Zhdanov, Ivan Maslyaev, and Yevgeny Khavkin joined the board of directors, as did Spartak's general director Yevgeny Melezhikov (left the club in the summer of 2023),[19] academy presidentSergei Rodionov, as well as independent directors Oleg Malyshev and Yusuf Alekperov.[20] EnglishmanPaul Ashworth was appointed sporting director.In December 2023, it was announced that the club was reviving a second team, closed in 2022 due to lack of funding. It will be entered in the second league.[21]
^Spartak Moscow had qualified for the round of 16 as a group winner, but were disqualified from the competition before playing that round due to theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[23]
The team is usually called "red-and-whites," but among the fans "The Meat" (Russian:"Мясо", "Myaso") is a very popular nickname. The origins of the nickname belong to the days of the foundation of the club; in the 1920s, the team was renamed several times, from "Moscow Sports Club" to "Red Presnya" (after the name of one of the districts of Moscow) to "Pishcheviki" ("Food industry workers") to "Promkooperatsiya" ("Industrial cooperation") and finally to "Spartak Moscow" in 1935, and for many years the team was under patronage of one of the Moscow food factories that dealt with meat products.
One of the most popular slogans among both fans and players is: "Who are we? We're The Meat!" (Russian:"Кто мы? Мясо!", "Kto my? Myaso!")
At present, Spartak's archrival isCSKA Moscow, although this is a relatively recent rivalry that has only emerged after the collapse of the USSR. Seven of ten matches with the largest audience in Russian Premier League (including top three) wereSpartak-CSKA derbies.[25] Historically, the most celebrated rivalry is withDynamo Moscow, a fiercely contested matchup which isRussia's oldest derby. Matches againstLokomotiv Moscow andZenit Saint Petersburg attract thousands of people as well, almost always resulting in packed stadia. Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, Spartak'srivalry withDynamo Kyiv, one of the leaders of the USSR championship, was lost. Since Dynamo Kyiv now plays in theUkrainian Premier League, both teams must qualify forUEFA tournaments to meet each other.
Since the mid-2000s the supporters of Spartak maintain brotherhood relations withCrvena Zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) andOlympiacos ultras – a friendship based on common Orthodox faith and same club colours.Also fans of Spartak have generally friendly relationships withTorpedo Moscow supporters, and of supporters of Polish clubLech Poznań.
Until 2014, Spartak had never had its own stadium, with the team historically playing in various Moscow stadia throughout its history, even once playing an exhibition match inRed Square. The team played home games at various Moscow stadiums – especially at theLocomotiv andLuzhniki stadiums. After the purchase of the club by Andrei Chervichenko in the early 2000s, several statements were made about the speedy construction of the stadium, but construction did not begin.
After a controlling stake in the club was bought by Leonid Fedun, real steps were taken to promote the stadium project, and in 2006, the Government of Moscow allocated land at Tushino Aeropol at a size of 28.3 hectares for the construction of the stadium. The project involved the main arena of 42,000 people with natural lawn, sports, and an entertainment hall for tennis, handball, basketball and volleyball for 12,000 spectators. The ceremony of laying the first stone took place on 2 June 2007.
In February 2013, it was announced that as a result of a sponsorship deal withOtkritie FC Bank ("Discovery"), the stadium will be calledOtkritie Arena for 6 years. The opening match at the new stadium took place on 5 September 2014, when Spartak drew with the Serbian sideRed Star Belgrade (1-1). The first competitive match took place on 14 September 2014, in which Spartak defeatedTorpedo Moscow 3–1 in the 7th round of the championship.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined underFIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Had international caps for their respective countries, or held any club record. Players whose name is listed inbold represented their countries while playing for Spartak. For further list, seeList of FC Spartak Moscow players.
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