The history of the Spartak club dates back to the 20s of the 20th century. Today it is one of the most popular clubs in the country, the most titled club in Russia. The cliché "Spartak - People's Team", which has existed since Soviet times, is still relevant today.
Club Background
The history of the Spartak club originates long before its official foundation. The predecessor of the Spartak sports society was the Russian Gymnastics Society called Falcon, which was founded in 1883. At the same time, they began to develop football there only in 1897. They played all summer in Petrovsky Park.
After the October Revolution, the Sokol team has its own stadium in the Presnensky district, before that the team had to constantly rent fields in different parts of Moscow. This place was advised to the club by Nikolai Starostin, who himself lived nearby.
At that time, the team changed its name several times, was called the Moscow Sports Circle of the Krasnopresnensky District and simply “Krasnaya Presnya”, later there were the names “Promcooperation”, “Dukat” and even “Food Workers”.
The birth of "Spartacus"
In the history of the football club "Spartak" is a special day on April 18, 1922 - the date of its official foundation. Under a new name, he held his first friendly game in history against the Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club. Spartacists won with a score of 3: 2. This is the story of the creation of the Spartak club.
The first official game after renaming also ended in favor of the red and white - the team from Orekhov was defeated with a score of 3: 1. The basis was the Starostin brothers, who today are considered the main founders of the club.
The team officially received its current name in 1934. The history of the name of the Spartak club is very interesting; it refers to the Roman legionnaire, popular at that time, whose feat was admired by many.
Participation in the USSR Championship
The official history of the Spartak club dates back to the founding of the USSR football championship. This happened in 1936. The first championship was held in the spring, the red and white were identified in group A - an analogue of the modern Super League.
The whole season consisted of only six matches. Spartak won half of them, tied once and lost twice. With this result, the team won bronze medals, and the club “Dynamo” became the first champion. But in the fall the Spartacists first issued the championship. Red and white only once lost to Tbilisi “Dynamo” (0: 1), in 4 matches out of 7 they won.
Since those years in the history of the Spartak club there has been a rivalry with Dynamo Moscow, which only intensified after the Starostins brothers were repressed by order of Beria, the curator of the blue and white .
It is interesting that in the first union championships, the coach of Spartak was Czech Antonin Feivebr, who had previously worked in the Spanish Valencia. In 1937, he was replaced by Konstantin Kvashnin, with whom the red and white in 1938 won the second gold. He continued to win “Spartak” and under Peter Popov (1st place in 1939).
The USSR Championship 1941 was interrupted by the Great Patriotic War. Many players were called to the front. Anatoly Velichkin died in battle, left striker Stepan Kustylkin died of wounds.
Post war history
The decision to resume the union championship was made in 1945. “Spartak” was much inferior to opponents in the selection of players, in addition, the team often changed coaches. As a result, for the first time in the club’s history, Spartak (Moscow) was in danger of relegation from the elite division. Thanks to an even weaker game, several outsiders managed to avoid this, taking 10th place out of 12 teams.
In 1946, Albert Volrath replaced the head coach. He makes the red and white strong middle peasants, but the team is not yet able to fight for medals.
In 1948, Konstantin Kvashnin took a place on the coaching bridge. “Spartak” gains confidence, wins 7 games in a row during the championship, after 20 rounds goes to 1st place. However, the ending of the season is unsuccessful, the CDKA becomes the champion, and the red-white ones have only bronze medals.
The Age of Simonyan
Since 1949, in “Spartak” Nikita Simonyan shines in the position of striker. For two years in a row he became the top scorer, scoring a total of 60 goals.
In 1952, the CDKA team was disbanded, which formed the basis of the USSR national team at the Helsinki Olympics. The team lost in the 1/8 finals of Yugoslavia, after which it was decided to take such tough measures. “Spartak”, confidently seized the lead after the first rounds, managed to regain the league title in the absence of a major competitor.
The following year, the red and white draw a gold double, having strengthened themselves with the players of the army teams, the disbandment of which continues, in particular, Anatoly Isaev and Vsevolod Bobrov are moving to the Spartak camp.
Starostin returned to Spartak in the middle of 50, in 1956 the team won the championship gold again, and it was the red-and-white ones this time that formed the basis of the national team at the Olympics in Melbourne. In the finals, Soviet football players beat Yugoslavia (1-0), winning gold medals.
In 1959, the head coach took the recent leader of Spartak attacks Nikita Simonyan, who replaced Gulyaev in this post after 6th place in the championship. The team is updated and in 1962 won the USSR championship for the eighth time.
First League relegation
For 60-70 years, the club performed unstably, unsuccessful performances followed the champion seasons. At the head of the team Gulyaev and Simonyan were replaced. In 1976, for the first time in the history of the Spartak football club (Moscow), the team flew to the First League.
After such a failure, Starostin invites the head coach Konstantin Beskov, who completely rebuilds the team, to replace him. At first, the season does not work out, the rivals, although lower in class, are especially tuned to games with a nine-time champion. After the first round, Spartak is only the fifth. However, in the second part of the championship, victories over the main competitors “Nistru” and “Pakhtakor” and a confident game in attack allow you to place 1 place 2 rounds before the finish.
Already in 1979, “Spartak” was able to regain the championship. Red-white demonstrated a particularly vivid game in the second round. “Lokomotiv” was defeated with a score of 8: 1, George Yartsev shone ahead . Muscovites ahead at the finish Kiev Dynamo and Donetsk Shakhtar, taking 1st place.
The tragedy in the "Luzhniki"
In the history of FC Spartak club there were also tragic pages. Having won silver medals the following year, the team got the right to play in the UEFA Cup.
In the second round, the rivals got the Dutch “Harlem”. In the first match on October 20 with a score of 1: 0 in favor of the red and white, part of the fans, having frozen, reached for the exit. Everyone rushed to the subway. A stampede was formed on the C stand due to a falling staircase, killing 66 people. The monument to the dead today is installed in the Luzhniki Stadium.
“Spartacus” in that draw, having passed the Dutch, in the next round lost to “Valencia”.
Golden era in Russian football
After the collapse of the USSR, Spartak, led by Oleg Romantsev, became the flagship of national football. Since 1992, the team won the Russian championship 9 times, only in 1995 losing the championship to the Vladikavkaz “Alania”.
But at the beginning of the XXI century the team found itself in a deep crisis. Many attribute this to the acquisition of the club by Andrei Chervichenko in 2002. Already in 2003, the red-and-white will finish in 10th place, and in the Champions League they lose all matches with a difference of 1:18. The head coach of the team Oleg Romantsev, who led the team to victories in the last decade, leaves the club due to a conflict with the leadership. Coaching leapfrog, mass acquisition of legionnaires begins.
In early 2004, Chervichenko sells a controlling stake to Leonid Fedun, but the situation cannot be quickly rectified. Coaches continue to change almost every year, “Spartak” wins silver medals several times, but does not succeed in reaching gold.
Modern history
The season of 2016-2017, the red-white started unsuccessfully. In the qualifications of the Europa League they were knocked out by the Cypriot AEK. After that, the head coach Alenichev resigned, and Italian Massimo Carrera took his place .
Under the leadership of the new mentor, the club confidently won the first round, ahead of the pursuers by at least 6 points. In the spring part of the championship they continued to win, in the 27th round they officially issued the champion title after 13 years without trophies.
In the 2017/18 season, the team won bronze medals.
Thus, in the history of Soviet and Russian football, Spartak won 22 times. 13 times became the owner of the cup of the country. The highest achievement of the team in the European Cup is participation in the semifinal of the tournament in 1991, where the Muscovites lost to the French Marseille.
Now the team is still being trained by Carrera, the owner of the club is Leonid Fedun , and the general director is Sergey Rodionov. The club is supported by many famous fans: Oleg Gazmanov, Dmitry Nazarov, Mikhail Efremov, Dmitry Kharatyan.