Football was a popular sport in the Soviet Union, with the national football championships being one of the major annual sporting events. Youth and children competitions as a regular event started after the war and each team of masters (official designation for professional team) in the top two tiers were fielding its youth squad in separate competition. Women official competitions started only 1990, just before dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Football in the Soviet Union existed in realities of the economy and law of the Soviet Union, where the state owned all big industry and professional sports were prohibited. Instead of being professionals, athletes were made employees of either a state enterprise or a state government department, to which a sports society belonged or assigned. Therefore, in the Soviet Union existed two statuses for footballers: amateur and non-amateur.
History Before the revolution of 1917, football was quite widespread in the Russian Empire. In 1914, the Russian Football Union included representatives from 33 cities, while the number of football teams was close to two hundred and the number of registered players - five thousand. There were only two championships played and one of them was unfinished due to World War I. The All-Russian competitions were conducted among the united city teams composed of better players from each of the city's championships. Interest in football had not fallen, and after the revolution, the number of football teams continued to grow. And soon, along with urban and territorial competitions, it was decided to hold the championships of the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union. Until 1936, teams representing cities and republics, as opposed to club teams, took part in these competitions.
It was not until 1924 when the first All-Union championship was held. They were organized five times in total (1924, 1928, 1931, 1932 and 1935). In the first three tournaments, the team participated republics and cities, only two of the latter city.
Since 1936, the Soviet championships for club teams representing companies and institutions were held annually, and in two cases (1936, 1976) - twice a year. They were interrupted only once, during the World War II Eastern Front (locally – the Great Patriotic War). Tournaments were notable for their organizational instability. The number of participating teams was constantly changing (ranging from 7 to 26), some of the changes taking place in the course of the championship tournament. The championship tournaments lasted from 57 to 282 days, they were played in one (1936, 1938, 1952, 1976) or two rounds, there were single and multi-stage ones (1960, 1961, 1962, 1969). Changes to the scoring system were also made - during different seasons, the number of points awarded for a draw was two, one, or even none. The name of the tournament itself was also changed over the years: группа «А» (Group A), класс «А» (Class A), I группа (Group I), I группа класса «А» (Group I Class A), высшая группа класса «А» (Top Group Class A), высшая лига (Top League).
In the second half of the 1980s, leading players of the Soviet teams began to move to foreign clubs. In 1990, Dinamo Tbilisi and Žalgiris Vilnius left the competitions of the Soviet Union. Other clubs had similar intentions but these plans were not implemented before the actual collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1991, the history of the football championships of the Soviet Union ended with the victory of FC CSKA Moscow. The Commonwealth of Independent States Cup, traditionally attended by the winners of national championships from the former Soviet republics, was a reminder of the existence of the Soviet championships.
Competitions League (round-robin) Male Tier 1 – Soviet Top League (1971–1992) single group with number of participant and format changing Tier 2 – Soviet First League (1971–1991) single group for most of its history, inconsistency in number of participants and format Tier 3 – Buffer League (1990–1991) tier three competitions were oftentimes regional based with multiple groups (zones), introduced in 1990 the buffer league reduced number of groups to slim down the competition pyramid structure Tier 4 – Soviet Second League (1971–1991) Tier 5 – Group D tier five competitions existed in very early period before World War II for a short time Republican-level competitions Each union republic had its own separate competition including the Russian SFSR and was standardized as the competitions among the "collectives of physical culture" (KFK) Regional-level competitions competitions based on primary administrative division of the union republics including autonomous republics within those union republics as well as the federal-level cities of the Soviet Union Local-level competitions competitions of cities and smaller administrative division of the union republics Female Tier 1 – Top League (1990–1991) Tier 2 – First League (1990–1991) Tier 3 – Buffer League (1990–1991)
Cup (elimination) Soviet Cup Federation Cup First League Cup, other elimination-type competitions Soviet Women Cup
Unofficial Soviet Super Cup
Evolution of the Soviet football league system Tier\Years 1924-32 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939–40 1941 1942–44 1945-46 1947-49 1950–52 1953-59 1960–62 1963-69 1970 1971-89 1990–91 1 Championsnip Pervaya Gruppa Gruppa A Eastern FrontWorld War II Pervaya Gruppa Class A Class A 1a Gruppa Class A Vysshaya Gruppa Vysshaya Liga 2 Republican level Vtoraya Gruppa Gruppa B None Gruppa B None Vtoraya Gruppa Class B Class A 2a Gruppa Class A 1a Gruppa Pervaya Liga 3 City level Republican level Gruppa V None None Class B Class A 2a Gruppa Vtoraya Liga 4 None City level Gruppa G None Class B None Nizshaya Vtoraya Liga 5 None Republican level Gruppa D None 6 None City level Republican level 7+None City/Regional level
National team
At its peak the Soviet national team was amongst the strongest in the world. The national team's greatest achievements was winning Euro 1960 and reaching the 1966 FIFA World Cup semi finals.
Attendances
The average attendance per top-flight football league season and the club with the highest average attendance:
Year League average Best club Best club average 1991 11,427 Spartak Vladikavkaz 25,767 1990 13,873 Spartak Moscow 27,800 1989 18,047 Dynamo Kyiv 37,607 1988 20,831 Dynamo Kyiv 54,680 1987 26,547 Dynamo Kyiv 58,113 1986 19,658 Dinamo Tbilisi 37,153 1985 21,582 Dinamo Tbilisi 54,429 1984 19,142 Dinamo Tbilisi 57,247 1983 20,085 Shakhtar Donetsk 31,376 1982 18,317 Dinamo Tbilisi 41,153 1981 19,670 Dinamo Tbilisi 47,271 1980 20,503 Dinamo Tbilisi 45,471 1979 19,645 Dinamo Tbilisi 55,882 1978 18,125 Dinamo Tbilisi 56,867 1977 22,027 Dinamo Tbilisi 68,200 1976 18,590 Dinamo Tbilisi 29,867 1975 23,366 Dynamo Kyiv 44,867 1974 25,090 Dynamo Kyiv 42,267 1973 25,682 Ararat 56,867 1972 25,154 Zenit 39,900 1971 30,110 Dynamo Kyiv 60,667 1970 26,322 Spartak Moscow 35,875
Source:
See also For the correspondent article on each one of the republics, please see: Football in Armenia Football in Azerbaijan Football in Belarus Football in Estonia Football in Georgia Football in Kazakhstan Football in Kyrgyzstan Football in Latvia Football in Lithuania Football in Moldova Football in Russia Football in Tajikistan Football in Turkmenistan Football in Ukraine Football in Uzbekistan
Others: Football Federation of the Soviet Union Soviet Top League Soviet First League Soviet Cup Soviet Super Cup USSR Federation Cup Soviet Union national football team
References
External links USSR (Soviet Union) - List of Champions at RSSSF.