Football was a popular sport in the Soviet Union, with the national football championships being one of the major annual sporting events.^[1][2][3][4] 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 USSR. 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.^[5]

Since 1936, the USSR 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).^{[citation needed]}

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 USSR Championships.^[6]

Competitions

League (round-robin)

Male

• Tier 1 – Top League (1971–1992)
  • single group with number of participant and format changing
• Tier 2 – 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 – 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

National team

At its peak the Soviet national team was amongst the strongest in the world.^[7] The national team's greatest achievements was winning Euro 1960 and reaching the 1966 FIFA World Cup semi finals.