Football is the number one sport in Russia. More than that, it was also the number one sport in the USSR and the CIS.
In a country that in the course of the past 100 years has gone through several historic and fundamental transitions, football has remained one of the most constant and particularly unifying factors. The tides of change in the biggest country on earth are also mirrored in the different names under which players, coaches and other officials made their mark in the international game.
From Russia… to USSR
Founded in 1912, Russia played its first-ever international match on 30 June; not at home, but at the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Football Tournament, losing 1-2 to Finland in the quarterfinals. Between 1912 and 1914 the national team contested a total of eight matches, drawing three and losing five.
World War I and the Socialist Revolution put a stop to football for several years. When in 1922 the game was officially taken up again at an international level, a new country had emerged on the world stage: USSR.
Olympic successes and a EURO premiere
During the following 70 years, the “Sbornaja” (men’s national team) became a hallmark when USSR won the first-ever European championship in 1960 and later finished three times as runners-up in this competition (1964, 1972 and 1988). A sign of things to come came in 1956, when the USSR team won the gold medal at the Olympics in Melbourne and where the legendary Lev Yashin thrilled the football world with his goalkeeping skills. Thirty-two years later in Seoul, USSR again stood on the top of the Olympic podium.
Regaining its former strength
A brief spell under the denomination of the CIS and an appearance at the 1992 European Championship in Sweden marked the transformation, which finally saw Russia staging its comeback after seven decades with a 2-0 win over Mexico in Moscow on 28 October 1992.
Ever since then, Russian football has been gradually regaining its former strength. Clubs such as CSKA and Zenit St. Petersburg (2005 and 2008 UEFA Cup holders) rose to prominence through their success at the continental level, while Russia’s national team thrilled football fans at home and abroad with its dazzling displays, such as at EURO 2008, capturing the bronze medal and featuring a new generation of bright and talented players.
Long-term challenge
Always a country that has been thinking and planning for the future, Russia now is ready for the biggest challenge there is: winning the right to host and to organize the FIFA World Cup™.