FC Spartak Moscow

Foundation

In the early days of Soviet football, many government agencies such as the police, army and railroads created their own clubs. So many statesmen saw in the wins of their teams the superiority over the opponents patronizing other teams. Almost all the teams had such kind of patrons—Dinamo with the police, CSKA with the army and Spartak, created by a trade union public organization was considered to be "the people's team."

In 1922, the Moscow Sport Circle (Moscow sport club of Krasnopresnensky district) (МКС, Московский кружок спорта), later named Krasnaya Presnya, was formed by Ivan Artemyev and involved Nikolai Starostin, especially in its football team. The team grew, building a stadium, supporting itself from ticket sales and playing matches across the Russian 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 seat Tomsky Stadium, known as Pishcheviki. The team changed sponsors repeatedly over the following years as it competed with Dinamo Moscow, whose 35,000 seat Dinamo Stadium lay close by.

As a high-profile sportsman, Starostin came into close contact with Alexander Kosarev, secretary of the Komsomol (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 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 before World War II they were subjected to repression as the leaders of the most hated 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 the political rehabilitation, in 1954, he would later return to the team as the squad's manager.

Soviet period

In 1935, Starostin proposed the name Spartak that was derived from Spartacus, a gladiator-slave who led a rebellion against Rome, and was inspired by eponymous book by Raffaello Giovagnoli. Starostin is also credited with the creation of the Spartak logo. The same year, the club became a part of newly created Spartak sports society.

Czechoslovak manager Antonin Fivebr is credited as the first head coach of Spartak, though he worked as a consultant in several clubs simultaneously. In 1936, the Soviet 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. In 1937 Spartak won the football tournament of Workers' Olympiad at Antwerp.

During the 1950s, Spartak, together with Dynamo, dominated the Soviet Top League. When the Soviet national team won gold medals at the Melbourne Olympics, it consisted largely of Spartak players. Spartak captain Igor 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 the lower league.

During the following season, the stadium was still full as the club's fans stayed with the team during its time in the lower division. Konstantin Beskov, who became the head coach (ironically, as a footballer Beskov made his name playing for Spartak's main rivals, Dynamo), introduced several young players, including Rinat Dasayev and Georgi Yartsev. Spartak came back the next year and won the title in 1979, beating Dynamo Kyiv and thanks to Spartak supporters, the period is considered to be the start of the modern-style fans' movement in the Soviet Union.

On 20 October 1982, disaster struck during the UEFA Cup match between Spartak and Dutch club HFC Haarlem. Sixty-six people died in a stampede during the match, making it Russia's worst sporting disaster.

In 1989, Spartak won the its last USSR Championship, rivals Dynamo Kyiv 2–1 in the closing round. Spartak's striker Valery Shmarov scored the "golden" free kick with almost no time left. The next season, Spartak reached the European Cup semi-final, consequently eliminating Napoli on penalties and Real Madrid (with 3–1 away victory), but losing to Marseille.

Modern period

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 president Oleg Romantsev, dominated and won all but one title between 1992 and 2001. Year-after-year the team also represented Russia in the Champions League.

Problems began in the new century, however. Several charismatic players (Ilya Tsymbalar and Andrey 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.

In the 2005 season, Spartak, led by Aleksandrs Starkovs, finished second in the league following an impressive run to beat Lokomotiv Moscow, Zenit Saint Petersburg and Rubin Kazan to the last Champions League place.

Following a mixed start to the 2006 season and public criticism from Dmitry Alenichev, the team's captain and one of its most experienced players, Starkovs left his position to Vladimir Fedotov.

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. Since 2013, the club have added another three stars as rules allowed teams to include titles won during the Soviet era.

Domestic competitions

International competitions

Non-official

UEFA Team Ranking 2015

21

Most league goals for Spartak

As of 2 December 2011 (min. 50)

1. Nikita Simonyan: 133
2. Sergey Rodionov: 119
3. Galimzyan Khusainov: 102
4. Fyodor Cherenkov: 95
5. Yuri Gavrilov: 90
6. Yegor Titov: 87
7. Anatoli Ilyin: 83
8. Yuri Sevidov: 71
9. Roman Pavlyuchenko: 69
10. Andrey Tikhonov: 68
11. Sergei Salnikov: 64
12. Aleksei Paramonov: 63
13. Welliton: 57
14. Vladimir Beschastnykh: 56
15. Anatoli Isayev: 54
16. Valeri Shmarov: 54
17. Georgi Yartsev: 54
18. Nikolai Osyanin: 50

Nickname

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 favourite slogans of both the fans and players is, "Who are we? We're The Meat!" (Russian: "Кто мы? Мясо!", "Kto my? Myaso!")

Rival teams and friendships

At present, Spartak's archrival is CSKA Moscow, although this is a relatively recent rivalry that has only emerged in the last 20 years. Seven of ten matches with the largest audience in Russian Premier League (including top three) were Spartak-CSKA derbies. Historically, the most celebrated rivalry is with Dynamo Moscow, a fiercely contested matchup which is Russia's oldest derby. However, this has faded somewhat due to Dynamo's mediocre performances in recent years. Matches against Lokomotiv Moscow and Zenit Saint Petersburg attract thousands of people as well, almost always resulting in packed stadia. Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, Spartak's rivalry with Dynamo Kyiv, one of the leaders of the USSR championship, was lost. Since Dynamo Kyiv now plays in the Ukrainian Premier League, both teams must qualify for UEFA tournaments to meet each other.

Since the mid-2000s the supporters of Spartak maintain brotherhood relations with Red Star Belgrade and Olympiacos Piraeus ultras – a friendship based on common Orthodox faith and same club colours. Also fans of Spartak have friendship relations with Torpedo Moscow supporters.

Stadium

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 in Red Square. Throughout its history, the team played home games at various Moscow stadiums - especially on the "Locomotive" and "Luzhniki". After the purchase of the club Andrei Chervichenko in the early 2000s they were made several statements about the speedy construction of the stadium, but construction has not begun.

After controlling stake in the club was bought by Leonid Fedun, they were taken real steps to promote the stadium project, and in 2006 the Government of Moscow has been allocated land Tushino Aeropol size of 28.3 hectares for the construction of the stadium. The project involved the main arena of 42 000 people with natural lawn and sports and entertainment hall for tennis, handball, basketball and volleyball for 12 000 spectators. At the time of construction of the stadium was completed and reopen located near metro station "Volokolamskaya" Violet Metro Line, canned in 1975 and received before the opening of the name Spartak. The ceremony of laying the first stone took place June 2, 2007.

February 19, 2013 it was announced that as a result of the agreement with the bank "Otkrytie" ("Discovery") stadium for 6 years will be called "Otkrytie Arena". The opening match at the new stadium took place on September 5, 2014, when the Spartak took the Serbian "Red Star" (1: 1). The first official match took place on September 14, 2014, in 7 th round of the championship Spartak Russia defeated Moscow "Torpedo" 3: 1.

Players

As of 16 January 2017

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Personnel

Affiliated clubs

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries, or held any club record. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Spartak. For further list, see List of FC Spartak Moscow players.