Football in Russia

When the USSR broke down into 15 different countries, the once renowned sports structure collapsed as well. Football was one of the most popular sports. While the national teams and the clubs used to be all under the wing of the Communist party, in 1991 they became private enterprises. Just like in many other spheres of business, corrupt and sometimes bloody division of power began. But most importantly, the Russian Premier League, which was once considered to be one of the strongest and was able to compete with those of England and Italy, lost many of its members, such as Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk. Many of the top brand names lost their financing from the government and were left to rot, waiting for some forms of sponsorship. Citizens of Russia are interested mostly in the national team that gets to compete in the World Cup and the European Championship, and in the Premier league, where clubs from different cities look to become champions of Russia. There are also competitions considered less important, such as the Russian Cup. Some of the most famous clubs include Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow, CSKA Moscow, Alania Vladikavkaz, Zenit St. Petersburg, Dynamo Moscow. There are in fact six teams in the Premier League from the city of Moscow as it was the first city to recover from the destruction of the old system. Today, football is the number one sport in the country. A very high proportion of men are interested in it to a certain extent (and many children play it regularly) and women also join men when it comes to the national team. The Russian league is rapidly regaining its former strength because of huge sponsorship deals, an influx of finances and a fairly high degree of competitiveness with roughly 10 teams capable of winning the title. Many notable talented foreign players have been and are playing in the Russian league including Vagner Love, Daniel Carvalho, Jô, Derlei, Mozart, Dudu Cearense, Martin Stranzl, Elvir Rahimic, Clemente Rodriguez, Alejandro Dominguez, Ivan Pelizzoli, Ivica Olic, Francisco Lima, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, Maksym Kalynychenko, Anatoliy Tymoschuk, Deividas Šemberas, Martin Jiránek, Radoslav Kováč, Miloš Krasić, Fernando Ricksen, Fatih Tekke, Robertas Poškus, Malkhaz Asatiani, Mikheil Ashvetia, Dramane Traoré as well as local talented players worthy of a spot in the starting eleven of the best clubs: Igor Akinfeev, Vyacheslav Malafeev, Sergei Ovchinnikov, Yuri Zhirkov, Andrei Arshavin, Dmitri Kirichenko, Dmitry Sychev, Alexander Kerzhakov, Alexei Smertin, Egor Titov, Sergei Semak, Rolan Gusev, Dmitri Loskov, Igor Semshov, Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, Yevgeny Aldonin, Marat Izmailov, Roman Pavlyuchenko, Vladimir Bystrov, Denis Boyarintsev, Dmitri Sennikov, Aleksei Berezutskiy, Vasili Berezutskiy, Sergei Ignashevich, Aleksandr Anyukov, Roman Shishkin, Vadim Evseev, Denis Kolodin, Pavel Pogrebnyak etc. The relegation battles are also competitive and considered very exciting.

Thus now the Russian Premier League are among the best in Eastern Europe, as evidenced by recent victories in the UEFA Cup (CSKA Moscow defeated Sporting CP in the 2005 final and Zenit St. Petersburg earned a victory over Glasgow Rangers in Manchester final in 2008) and other successful performances in Europe by Spartak Moscow, Lokomotiv Moscow etc.

League system

The first level of the Russian league system is the 16-club Premier League. Below it are the First Division and Second Division, administered by the Professional Football League. The First Division consists of 22 clubs, and the Second Division is split geographically into five zones (West, Centre, South, Ural-Povolzhye, and East) with varying number of clubs. As of 2007, there are between 12 and 12 clubs in each zone, and the total number of clubs in the Second Division is 73. After each season, top two clubs of the First Division replace bottom two clubs of the Premier League, and champions of each Second Division zone replace five bottom clubs of the First Division.

The Second Division is the lowest level of professional football in Russia. The next level of football is the Amateur Football League, which is split into ten zones: Northwest, Golden Ring, Moscow, Podmoskovye (Moscow region), Chernozemye (Black Earth region), South, Privolzhye (Volga region), Ural and West Siberia, Siberia, and Far East. After each season, the bottom finishers of each Second Division zone are relegated to the Amateur Football League, and the winners of each Amateur Football League are eligible for promotion to the Second Division, subject to meeting Professional Football League requirements.

Seven of the Amateur Football League zones are using one-tier system. The rest (Moscow, Podmoskovye, and Siberia) consist of two divisions with promotion and relegation. This means that a newly created team can enter the Russian league system at the fourth level and reach the Premier League in three years.

There are also championships of federal subjects. These competitions that are not part of the league system; clubs can enter the Amateur Football League without participation in them.

Cup competitions

The main cup competition in Russia is the Russian Cup. Only professional clubs take part in it.

There is also an Amateur Football League Cup, a competition for the Amateur Football League clubs. The winners of this cup are eligible for promotion to the Second Division.

Cups of federal subjects are also played.

European Competitions

UEFA Champions League

The following teams have qualified for elimination rounds in the UEFA Champions League.

*CSKA Moscow (1992-93 - Group Stage)
*Spartak Moscow (1993-94 - Group Stage, 1995-96 - Quarter-finals)

ee also

* Sport in Russia

References

* [http://rsssf.com/tablesr/rus05.html Russia 2005]
* [http://www.football-express.com Russian football - video news]