1. "Znamya Truda" (Orekhovo-Zuevo)

One of the oldest football clubs in Russia, founded on November 16, 1909 by workers of the manufactory from Morozovsk. He became the champion of Moscow 4 times in a row (1910-1913). Changed its name 9 times. The best achievement was the passage to the USSR Cup final in 1962. since 2007 he has been playing in the second division - first in the "Center" zone, and now in the "West" zone and has not yet risen above 12th place there.

2. CSKA (Moscow)

Founded on August 27, 1911 as a society of ski lovers. 7 times changed its name. It became known as CSKA only in 1960. Since Soviet times, he has become 13 times the champion, 12 times the owner of the national cup, won the UEFA Cup and 6 times took the Russian Super Cup. CSKA became the first Russian club to keep the originals of all trophies. Over the past 16 seasons, he has not dropped below fifth place in the championship.

3. FC Kolomna

Football club "Kolomna" from the town of the same name was founded back in 1906 as a gymnastic society at an engineering plant. In general, initially such a team did not exist, but in 1997 the government of Kolomna decided to unite two football clubs - Avangard, founded in 1906 and Oka, created in 1923. In the modern history of the club, no particular success has been observed. Kolomna spent only 3 seasons in the West zone of the second division and never rose above 13th place.

4. "Chernomorets" (Novorossiysk)

The football club from Novorossiysk with an unremarkable emblem is also one of the oldest in Russia. It dates back to 1907. During this time, it changed its name 9 times. The first performance in the USSR championship dates back to 1960. In 1988 he became the champion and owner of the RSFSR Cup. He played 8 times in the Championship of Russia, where he took the sixth place 2 times. Since 2012, he has been playing in the South zone of the second division and is fighting well to get into the FNL.

5. Zenit (Penza)

Penza football club next year will celebrate a round date - 100 years. Has many achievements, but, however, within the framework of its region. It changed its name as many as 15 times (for 12 years it was even called "Spartak"). The club has never played in the top league of the country and did not go beyond the 1/32 stage in the cup. For the last 7 years he has been playing in the Center zone of the second division and is playing very unpredictably - he occupied both fifth and fourteenth places. In the ended season, he stopped at the 11th line of the standings.

The history of Russian club football is diverse. Many of today's fans probably think that football in our country began with Spartak, Dynamo, or, in extreme cases, with Lokomotiv. In fact, of the eminent current clubs, only CSKA has the right to be considered a team that can really be called the oldest. And the patriarchs of Russian football were completely different glorious clubs, which many have not even heard of now.

5 FC Znamya (Noginsk) - founded in 1911

In 1911 the city of Noginsk was called Bogorodsk. It was here that one of the first real football fields in the country was built. The first district football team of the Glukhovsky manufactory was also created here. The sports team represented the small village of Glukhovo, which later became one of the microdistricts of the city of Noginsk near Moscow.

The club reached relatively high achievements only in 1936. Already under the proud name "Red Banner" the team took part in the historic first USSR Cup and even reached the semifinals, but at this stage they lost to Dinamo Tbilisi with a score of 1: 5. Later the club played in the lower divisions.

The best achievement of those years was the second place in the second zone of class "B", which was taken in 1959.

In the early nineties of the last century, Viktor Laptev, a man who was very fond of football, became the mayor of Noginsk. On his initiative, the club was recreated under the name "Avtomobilist", since the financial support to the team was provided by the enterprise of the Moscow region "Mostransavto". At first, the club participated in the KLF competitions, but already in 1993 it won the national championship among amateur clubs and, having received professional status, began to participate in the championship of the third league of Russian football.

The highest achievement of Avtomobilist, like that of its predecessors, also falls on the Cup, now in Russia. In 1997, the team reached the 1/16 finals, where Oleg Romantsev's Spartak Moscow was waiting for it. It was no longer possible to win here, but the cup match in Noginsk remained in history not by count, but by a carnage at the stadium between the local riot police and Spartak fans because of an explosion package thrown on the field. The guards won, in a few minutes completely (!) Clearing the guest platform.

In 1998, the club from Noginsk won the second division championship and even played in the play-offs for reaching the first league, but lost to Spartak-Chukotka on aggregate.

After a while, due to financial problems, the club was deprived of its professional status and played at the regional level. In 2010, it was given the final historical name "Banner", and in 2011, in the year of the centenary of its foundation, it was announced for the Russian championship in the 3rd amateur league, where "Banner" plays now. By the way, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Alexander Samedov play for the club at the amateur level.

4 PFC CSKA - 1911 year of foundation

The history of this club also began in 1911. A football section was organized in the society of ski lovers (!). And in the very first match the OLLS team defeated rivals with a score of 6: 2 in the Moscow championship. In 1923, in the already socialist country, they began to create specialized teams from various departments. The collective received the name "OPPV" - the Experimental demonstration site of the Vsevobuch, which was supervised by the Red Army.

In 1928, the Central House of the Red Army was opened in the capital, where the command was transferred, renaming it CDKA. At that time we played mainly for the Moscow championship.

In 1936, the team took part in the first championship of Russia, but the laurels did not wither. But in the post-war years, the club became one of the leaders of the championships, competing with Dynamo. The "command of lieutenants" began to be called the CDSA, since the Red Army was renamed Soviet.

There was also a completely black page in the history of the team. In 1952, on the basis of the team, it was decided to create the country's Olympic team. At the Olympic tournament, the army team lost to the Yugoslav national team in the 1/8 finals. Since the USSR at that time had almost hostile relations with Yugoslavia, the defeat was considered political and the team was disbanded. Parting with football lasted 2 years.

Later in the union and Russian championships, the club performed differently in its current name. There were also periods of the championship, and the team had to go down to the first league three times.

The 1998 season was especially remembered by the fans. The army team started the tournament extremely unsuccessfully, having suffered several defeats in a row. At least the young coach Oleg Dolmatov was put in place to save the team from the next relegation. Under his leadership, the football squad produced an impressive unbeaten run and finished the season in 2nd place.

Since then, the team has been led by many talented mentors. Under the leadership of Valery Gazzaev, the army team even won the UEFA Cup. In total, this legendary football club has 13 championship victories and 12 Cup victories.

3 FC Znamya Truda (Orekhovo-Zuevo) - founded in 1909

One of the oldest clubs in the country. It was founded in 1909 under the name of the Sports Club "Orekhovo" by the English workers of the manufactory factory. He was a multiple champion of pre-revolutionary Moscow.

The highest achievement of the team already in the days of the USSR was reaching the Cup final, where Orekhovtsy lost to Shakhtar Donetsk in 1962. Since then, Znamya Truda has remained the only finalist of the National Cup who has never played in the Major League.

For some time the team played at the amateur level, periodically moving to the PFL level. However, the club has not yet achieved high achievements even at this level.

2 FC "Chernomorets" (Novorossiysk) - 1907 year of foundation

The club was founded in 1907. Now he plays in the second division in the "South" zone with varying success, and there were times in the history of the team that were much more successful. Playing in the Major League in 2000, the club finished 6th in the championship and won the right to play in the UEFA Cup.

The lot was not lucky - the rivals of the Novorossiys went to the Spanish "Valencia". The result was predictable - 0: 1 at home and 0: 5 away.

Before the collapse of the USSR, the team played in the second league, in the Russian championship it moved to the first.

From here "Chornomorets" twice went to the top division, but could not stay there, eventually dropping into the second league.

1 FC Kolomna - founded in 1906

The oldest of the existing Russian clubs. It was founded in 1906 at a local machine-building plant called "KGO", which meant: Kolomna Gymnastics Society. A year later, the team held the first international match with the footballers of the British Sports Union and, by the way, won with a score of 3: 1. In 1923, the club took part in the symbolic USSR Championship at the all-Union holiday physical culture in Moscow and won honorary bronze medals there.

FC Kolomna is recognized as the very first football team in Russia.

In the Russian and allied football championships, the club did not rise above the second league.

RPL clubs table by seniority - from oldest to newest

Club name	Year of foundation
CSKA	August 27, 1911
Spartak Moscow)	April 18, 1922
Dynamo (Moscow)	April 18, 1923
Lokomotiv (Moscow)	July 23, 1922
Zenit (St. Petersburg)	May 25, 1925
FC Rostov (Rostov-on-Don)	May 10, 1930
FC Ural	1930 year
Krylya Sovetov (Samara)	April 12, 1942
Akhmat (Grozny)	1946 year
Arsenal Tula	1946 year
Rubin Kazan)	April 20, 1958
FC "Orenburg"	January 1, 1976
FC Krasnodar	February 22, 2008
Ufa	February 18, 2009
Tambov	2013 g.
PFC Sochi	July 4, 2018

How did you play football in Russia before Spartak, CSKA, Dynamo and Zenit? Fun and enthusiastic. So, at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, the Russian Empire team lost to the German national team 0 - 16. This is still the biggest victory of German footballers in history. But the Russians had beautiful names of football teams, in which many legionnaires from England played.

Sport

The first Russian football club was founded by the children of summer residents. The ebullient energy of youth was the reason for the emergence of the "Society of Running Fans". Summer residents-runners conducted athletics classes on the tracks of the Tsarskoye Selo hippodrome. All this splendor was called "Tyarlevskoe Derby". The main organizer was Pyotr Moskvin. A good start- half the battle. From the dusty dacha tracks, the athletes moved to St. Petersburg and went in for athletics on Petrovsky Island. From that time on, they began to be called the "Petrovsky Society of Running Lovers". In 1890, the circle held its first joint running competition with the British Arrow club, which was located on Krestovsky Island. In 1896 the club was officially registered under the name "St. Petersburg Circle of Sports Amateurs" (abbreviated as KLS, or simply "Sport"). The passion for football was instilled in the athletics society by the British. The Sport team more than once became the champions of the city and even became the record holder for the number of international meetings in pre-revolutionary football, which it began to hold since 1907, including with Corinthians (Prague, Czech Republic) in 1910 (0: 6) , with the national team of Leipzig (1: 4) and Budapest (3: 2) in 1913, with the club "Civil Service" (Edinburgh, Scotland) in May 1914 (0: 3). Since the mid-1900s, strong players began to appear in the team not only from Russian clubs, but also from other countries (England, Denmark, Finland; among them H. Morville - a player of the Danish national team at the Olympic Games-12, Finn B. Wiberg, also a participant OI-12).

"Shiryaevo field"

The spread of football in Moscow began in 1895 with amateur matches of English workers on the territory of the Gopper plant. A year later, the British, who worked at various enterprises in Moscow, united by the football fan R.F. Fulda, created a commission for the arrangement of outdoor games at the Moscow Hygienic Society. The activities of the commission bore fruit, a football field was equipped and the first football club in Moscow "Sokolniki" or "Shiryaevo pole" was formed. The first games were of an amateur nature, "teams" were called "parties", but more and more people began to learn about the games on Shiryaev field. There was even a game between the Russians and the British, in which the British confidently won. “The Sokolniki party learned the lesson of that game, they began to train actively and twice became the third in the most prestigious football tournament of that time - the Fulda Cup. After the disbandment of the team, some of its players moved to the Dynamo team formed in 1923. At first, even Dynamo played in FCC uniform (white T-shirts with black collar and black underpants).

Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club

The Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club was founded in 1909 by an English weaver Benz. Another Russian football club created by the British was based on Kuznetskaya Street in Zamoskvorechye. The team consisted of six Russian footballers and five Englishmen. In 1910, the club received a new sports ground on Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street, opposite the Neskuchny Garden. For that time, such a playground with changing rooms, benches, fences, artificial turf was a real gift for both athletes and football fans. The fact was that football, not so long ago considered amateur fun for overgrown boys, finally got on its feet. On December 3, 1911, the first issue of the magazine "K Sportu" was published in Moscow, where one curious admission was made: "Of all the sports in our country, football is currently the most widespread. 3-4 years ago there were only a few dozen football players. , now the number of players is probably over a thousand. " Thus, all conditions for training and development were created for the Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club. The club justified them. He won the Fulda Cup twice.

"Nevka"

The first football tournament of the St. Petersburg Football League took place in 1901. It was initiated by John Richardson, one of the founders of Nevsky Cricket Football and Tennis Club. English entrepreneur Thomas Aspden has established a special challenge prize. Subsequently, it was called the "autumn cup". Legally, this tournament was not yet a League Cup, but it was 1901 that is considered to be the year of its birth. It is significant that in the first Russian football championship the English and Scottish teams fought for the championship. The older and more experienced Scots were leading for a long time, but the result was a draw - 2: 2. Without losing a single meeting and eventually gaining 6 points out of 8, the Scots team "Nevka", headed by captain D. Hargreaves, became the first champion of St. Petersburg.

Merkur

The football club "Merkur" was founded in St. Petersburg in 1906. The team brought together amateur athletes. The club has repeatedly become the champion of St. Petersburg. Players "Merkur" were part of the city's national team and took part in the second game against "Moscow", which took place on September 29, 1907 in St. Petersburg. At that time they did not say "city teams", the confrontation was "city against city". Today it is interesting to read the notes about that match. “By the start of the game, the“ Muscovites ”had only ten players: one of them got lost and did not immediately find the field on which the game was taking place. the first half of the game with the wind ... All the chances of winning are now in the hands of the “Muscovites”, and no one expects the victory of “Petersburg”, since there are only 15 minutes left until the end of the game. But then something incredible happens. in a few minutes to score three goals one after the other, deciding the game in their favor. After the third goal, the “Moscow” defense was so confused that the “Petersburg” forwards freely circle it and successfully score the last two goals. Backs and forwards worked well for “Moscow” , especially Nash, who repeatedly dribbled the ball all the way to the "behind-line" (goal line); the "Petersburgers" were not bad at Grigoriev, Danker, Egorov and both backs. "

Kolomyagi

The Kolomyagi football club was founded in St. Petersburg in 1904. It was one of the most honored and renowned football clubs. Its players have repeatedly won the city championship, played in the St. Petersburg national team. Kolomyaga players were also part of the Russian national team that took part in the 1912 Olympic Games. The unplayed team, in which there was strong competition between “Moscow” and “Petersburg”, played very badly, losing in the consolation match to the Germans with a score of 0:16. However, it is not worth judging individual players in such a game. Football in Russia was just beginning and it is still not known how its development would have gone, had it not been for a revolution, when there was "no time for sports" ...

Alexander LOMONOSOV,
Anatoly BELOV

In the era of the USSR, it was believed that the date of foundation of FC CSKA was April 29, 1923. And it would be strange if the club representing the Red and later the Soviet Army had a pre-revolutionary history. But...

FIRST FOOTBALL SECTION - IN 1911

On June 1 (14), 1901, at the general meeting, the charter of the Ski Fans Society (OLLS) was approved. F.W. Hennig became the first chairman. The OLLS board was located at the address: Mashkov per., 8, apt. 6., Sports Station - Sokolnicheskaya Zastava, corner of Kamer-Kollezhsky Val and 2nd Polevoy Lane, Savvina village.

Only in 1911 (according to other sources in 1910) a football section was organized at the club. The first official match in the Moscow championship was played by the OLLS football team in 1911. In the Moscow championship in class "B", the OLLS team played from 1911 to 1917, in the major league from 1918 to 1922. Achievements: champion of Moscow in 1922 (spring). OLLS scored 9 points (4 wins and 1 draw, 15 goals scored and 3 conceded). In the championship line-up of OLLS were: F. Shimkunas, K. Schmidt, M. Isaev, P. Lebedev, V. Ratov, S. Dmitriev-Moro, S. Chesnokov, P. Savostyanov, M. Ratov, K. Tulpanov, K. Zhiboyedov, B. Dubinin, N. Ivanov, S. Nazaretov, S. Bagrov, N. Maitov, Smirnov, Martynov; 2nd prize-winner - 1921 (autumn), 1922 (autumn); 3rd prize-winner 1918 (autumn), 1920 (autumn).

On June 11, 1922, in the final of the Moscow absolute championship (KFS-Kolomyaga Cup), played out between the winners of the higher and lower leagues, the OLLS players met with the ISS team, which some consider to be the ancestor of Spartak. N. Starostin acted as part of it (we will not comment on the legitimacy of such a statement, it deserves a separate discussion). OLLS footballers won 4: 2.

On June 25, 1922, the spring champion of Moscow (OLLS) met for the first time with the champion of Petrograd ("Sport") in the fight for the Tosmen Cup. The Moscow footballers won 1: 0 in a bitter struggle and in fact became the club champions of the country.

In 1918, almost all OLLS players became Red Army fighters. From the very first days of the organization of Vsevobuch, most of the club members took short-term courses and received the title of instructors in pre-conscription training of young people. The head of this regional point of Vsevobuch was the chairman of OLLS Dmitry Markovich Rebrik. Thus, since 1918, OLLS was actually part of the department of the All-Learning Education and defended its colors, having close ties with the Red Army.

OFFICIAL BIRTHDAY

On April 14, 1923, order No. 160 / R of the Chief Chief of General Military Training Mekhonoshin was issued on the establishment of an Experimental Military Sports Ground. This order instructed to transfer the site and the ski station (Society of Ski Lovers - "OLLS") in Sokolniki to the direct jurisdiction of the Main Directorate.

On April 27, 1923, an order of the Revolutionary Military Council was issued, which stated the following: "In Moscow, at the Central Directorate of Military Training of Workers, the Central Sports Organization of the Red Army -" Experimental Military Sports Ground of Vsevobuch (OPPV) "was created.

On April 29, 1923 in Sokolniki, two teams from the Vsevobuch Experimental Demonstration Ground entered the football field. The match ended with the score 3: 2 in favor of the first team. This day, as approved by the order of the USSR Minister of Defense of June 23, 1963, is the official date of the foundation of CSKA. Therefore, the order did not make serious changes to the well-functioning structure of the club, essentially changing only its name - OPPV instead of OLLS, in accordance with the actual affiliation of the team. The former head of the OLLS D.M. Rebrik became the head of the OLLS. The OPVV football team has retained the traditional colors (navy blue t-shirts and white shorts). The team wore the same uniform after 1928, when it was renamed CDKA. And only in 1939, she first entered the field in red T-shirts and blue shorts.

The OPPV players played their first official match in the Moscow championship on June 17, 1923 against Russkabel. The result of this match turned out to be not festive for the debut - a defeat with a score of 1: 3. The goal of prestige, which became the first goal of the army team in the official championships, was scored by the leader of the attacks of the OPPV team, Konstantin Zhiboyedov. The OPPV team performed in the following composition: F. Shimkunas, M. Isaev, V. Grigoriev, I. Smirnov, V. Ratov, B. Barlyaev, B. Dubinin, P. Savostyanov, M. Ratov, K. Tulpanov, K. Zhiboyedov ... The composition of the OPPV team in 1923 does not actually differ from the composition of the OLLS in 1922.

Since 1924, in connection with the liquidation of the Main Directorate of Vsevobuch, the army sports center began to be called the Voenved Experimental Sports Ground with the former abbreviated name OPPV. The name of the football team has changed accordingly.

In February 1928, when the country celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Red Army, the executive committee of the Moscow City Council handed over to the military department a complex of structures and a park on Commune Square, where the Central House of the Red Army was located. OPPV became a part of it. The football team became known as CDKA (Central House of the Red Army).

ON THE SITE OF THE UNIVERSITY COULD BE A STADIUM

On December 8, 1931, the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR decided to create the All-Army Voluntary Physical Culture Society, to develop its charter and name. A commission was created under the leadership of the Deputy People's Commissar for Military and maritime affairs and Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR S.S. Kamenev, on whose initiative it was decided to name the All-Army Physical Culture Society - "Spartak". “In honor of the leader of the Roman gladiators, as a symbol of courage, fortitude, courage and victory,” the commission's decision emphasized.

For the new army stadium "Spartak" two seats were offered in Moscow, to choose from. The first option is the Frunze Central House of Culture Park (on Commune Square), the second is the Lenin (Vorobyovy) Hills, near the recreation center of the Central House of Culture and the ski and sled base of the Park of Culture and Leisure, which was located opposite the Novodevichy Convent (right here, at the foot of the springboard, along For many years before the competition, army footballers held their training camps). It was planned to have 25-30 thousand, as they said, numbered seats at the stadium.

Now it is difficult to imagine what would have happened if these decisions had been implemented and the army stadium "Spartak" would have stood on the site of the new building of Moscow University. However, the decision to create the All-Army Society "Spartak" remained on paper.

At the beginning of April 1941, a new renaming into the command of the Red Army took place. The Red Army team performed under this name until June 1941. On June 22, she was supposed to play in Kiev with the local Dynamo, but the game did not take place, as the war began that day.

In February 1951, the Central House of the Red Army was renamed the Central House of the Soviet Army. The football team became known as CDSA.

On August 18, 1952, on the day of the scheduled meeting with Dynamo Kiev, the CDSA team was withdrawn from the rally and disbanded. The formal reason for this was the unsuccessful performance of the USSR national team at the Olympic Games.

In 1953, the army teams of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District and the CDSA, which played in the all-Union sports arena as separate teams, united. On September 30, 1953, an order was issued by the Minister of Defense of the USSR, which ordered the creation in Moscow of the Central Sports Club of the Ministry of Defense - CSK MO. He was transferred to the sports facilities and staff of the Department of Physical Culture and Sports of the CDSA, a stadium and ski station in Sokolniki, stables and an equestrian arena in Khamovniki, as well as a sports base of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District on Leningradsky Prospekt. The football team did not exist at the time.

THE ARMY TEAM CALLED CSKA

In January 1954, the football team was rebuilt and continued to be called CDSA. On January 15, she held her first training session.

From February 1957, the football team became known as CSK MO (Central Sports Club of the Ministry of Defense).

On April 9, 1960, the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published an article under the heading "New names of army teams." Here is the CSKA part:

"The editorial board of the newspaper" Krasnaya Zvezda "received numerous letters from readers in which proposals were made to change the names of sports teams of the Central Sports Club of the Ministry of Defense - CSK MO, participating in championship competitions Soviet Union and in international meetings.

Taking into account the proposals of the soldiers and the appeal established in the press to the commands of the Soviet Army - "army men", the command recognized it expedient to henceforth refer to:

The teams of the Central Sports Club of the Ministry of Defense - CSKA teams, which means the Central Sports Club of the Army ... ".

The CSKA football team played their first match under the new name on April 10, 1960 in Tbilisi with Spartak (Vilnius) and won with a score of 2: 0.

BY THE WAY

In fact, FC CSKA, formed in 1911, is the oldest existing football club in Russia. This is exactly what the official encyclopedic reference book of the Russian Football Union ("RUSSIAN FOOTBALL for 100 years." 1997), and the authoritative encyclopedia of European football published in Germany (Hardy Grune. "Enzyklopadie der europaischen Fussballvereine. Die Erstliga-Mannschaften Europas seit 1985", Germany, Kassel: AGON Sportverlag. 2000).

CSKA FOOTBALL TEAM AT DIFFERENT TIMES CALLED

The final will be Dream-Team. Austrian Tim made his way to the decisive match of the Australian Open "Soviet Sport" - about the second semi-final of the Australian "major". 01/31/2020 18:00 Tennis Veliev Emil

Mariusz Joop: In 2013, I had a liver transplant. There was a risk that it would not take root. Our correspondent met with the former Moscow defender, who explained the fashion for Poles in the RPL, talked about his work as a Vistula coach and health problems at the end of his playing career. 02/21/2020 13:30 Football Juma Ivan

Just a century ago, the now popular football was far from the most famous sport. At least in Russia, it was only at the beginning of the 20th century that he made his way, and, surprisingly, became a reality both as a sport for the "upper circles" of society, and as entertainment for the proletarians - the so-called "wild" football.

How different classes perceived football in different ways and how the British diaspora in Russia played it, you can learn from Sergei Arkadiev's book "Another football is possible." VATNIKSTAN publishes an excerpt from his work, published last year by Pulp Fiction.

“Kashnin showed football. Playing the ball with your feet. We split into two camps. Each camp had a gate. At the gate of the watchman. The essence of the game: to break through with the ball into the opponent's goal. And do not touch the ball with your hands at all. But the temptation is to grab the ball, throw it and win! But this is impossible! "
(Newspaper "Otkliki Kavkaza", Armavir, No. 5, October 3, 1909)

Today we can only guess when they first started playing football on the territory of modern Russia. The Russian Football Union uses October 24, 1897 as a starting point - the day when the match between the teams of the Vasileostrovsky Society of Football Players and the Circle of Sports Fans took place in St. Petersburg. The meeting came to the attention of the press of that time. A special zest was given to it by the fact that the composition of the Vasileostrovites, who won with a score of 6–0, consisted entirely of the British, while the Russians also played in the KLS (or simply - “Sport”).

Overseas fun

Europeans, especially the British, played leading roles in Russian football in the next decade. In the first unofficial Cup tournament of St. Petersburg, held in 1901, the English and Scottish teams fought in the final. In Moscow, the British Sports Club, which did not know defeat, dominated. Its chairman was the director of the stearic plant in Lefortovo Godfrey, and only British subjects were taken as participants, and there was no end to them. By 1910, the club numbered as many as 180.

Young Russian capitalism needed energetic foreign managers. The directors of the newly opened enterprises were occupied by guests from Western Europe. Together with them came specialists, engineers, accountants, clerks who served at the same enterprises, and after work played football, a popular game in their homeland.

Match between the national teams of St. Petersburg and Stockholm. St. Petersburg, April-May 1913

They say that a certain magazine "Samokat" wrote about such games of the colonists back in 1868. Nikolai Travkin in his "Anthology of Football of the Russian Empire" refers to the "Yearbook of the All-Russian Football Union for 1912", which said that in 1878 in Odessa matches were held between the team of the Odessa British Athletic Club with the teams of British ships, port officials and Romanian club "Galati". In 1879, the Charter and Rules of the English St. Petersburg Football Club were published. Mentions about "respectable-looking" Englishmen who played football on the field near the machine-building plant "V.Ya. Gopper and Co ”, are found in the Moscow press for 1895. But all these were publications from the series "their morals". English and German colonists lived separately in Russia, and therefore the game remained popular only in their circles.

The fourth, after Moscow, Petersburg and Odessa, the center of the origin of football in Russia was the village of Orekhovo and its environs (the territory of the modern city of Orekhovo-Zuevo), which belonged to late XIX century to the Vladimir province. In a village with strong Old Believer traditions, manufactories of the Morozov family were opened. The business manager, Englishman James Charnock, a former member of Blackburn Rovers FC, and his brother Harry tried to organize a football club in Orekhovo back in 1887. However, the Orekhovo sports club was officially formed much later - in 1908. By that time, there were already several dozen registered teams in Russia. Football was played in Kherson, Nikolaev, Kharkov, Riga, Tver, Saratov, Astrakhan, Blagoveshchensk and Port Arthur.

The first steps

The first journalistic review of a football match, as mentioned above, was published in the capital's press in 1897. The author of "Petersburg newspaper", justifying the Russian players, wrote that their rivals - the English team "Vasileostrovtsy" - have been playing together for 6 years. At the turn of the century, football in the city on the Neva developed rapidly. In 1901, a league founded by the Englishman Ivan Richardson began to operate in St. Petersburg.

The first official Moscow club was the Sokolnichesky Sports Club, organized in 1905. Several years earlier, an international group of enthusiasts, led by Roman Fulda, had begun gathering at Thornton's dacha in Sokolniki to hone their ball game skills. Until his emigration to Germany in 1922, Fulda played a colossal role in the history of the development of football in Russia, was the first to translate the rules of the game into Russian, donated his money to the cup for the Moscow championship, and even was the second coach of the national team at the Olympic Games in 1912. Fulda, along with his associates, became a member of the commission for the arrangement of outdoor games at the Moscow Hygienic Society and begged for the opportunity to hold matches in Sokolniki.

Soon the games moved to the neighboring Shiryaevo field, which gave the team a second unofficial name. No one had any equipment. The soccer balls were ordered from the UK. Andrey Savin in his book Football Moscow: People. Events. Facts ”cites the recollections of one of the pioneers of Russian football Leonid Smirnov about how it all began: “We, the first footballers, had no idea about sports shorts, T-shirts and boots. We played in our everyday costume: long trousers, in simple boots, and some even in boots ... Many years passed until we got to panties, boots and T-shirts. None of us dared to bare our knees for a long time. Such was the time then, the customs were completely different! "

It is curious that the first team to put on a football uniform was the Bykovo children's club, which eventually became, in modern terms, a farm club for Sokolniki. Team "Bykovo" got its name from the suburban area in which it was located. The Shiryaeva Pole players came here to have a rest for the summer, continuing their training. In order to have someone to practice with, Shiryaevites taught the game to local youth. The parents of young football players, who felt that it was too expensive to buy another set of trousers for playing football for children, decided to sew them a short (so as not to tear) uniforms themselves.

But it was not the uniform and not the equipment that were the most expensive. A football club membership card cost a lot of money. For example, in SCS, a one-time entrance fee was equal to 20 rubles, and the annual membership fee was 30 rubles. For comparison, 20 rubles at that time was the average salary of a factory worker or a minor employee. Football clubs united the elite of society, children of wealthy families. Many teams refused on principle to add commoners to their ranks. The Orekhovo club became, in fact, the first team to play for the workers: the grimy Orekhovskaya men who occupied their seats at the team's home stadium were very different from the specious gentlemen who attended football "parties" in the capitals. But the liberal owners of the Nikolskaya Manufactory also preferred to look for players on the side, they even advertised in the English newspaper The Times that the company needed workers who could play football well. The foreigners who arrived, by the way, then were enough for two teams. But Russian hard workers began to "get infected" with football quickly enough and eventually began to make their way into the teams.

In the summer, many players went to their dachas, where they continued playing football, from time to time making voyages to others. summer cottages: Bykovo - to Tarasovka, or Losiny Ostrov - to Mamontovka. There were often not enough players, and the players were looking for strong guys from local villagers, artisans and workers. Summer was coming to an end, the summer residents were leaving, and the locals who had gained experience were accustomed to new game their other fellow countrymen, many of whom then went to work in the cities.

Call of the people

Over the years, football has become more widespread and popular. Long-distance and international friendly matches were held in Russia. They played not only on large football fields, of which more and more were opening in the two capitals, but also in the courtyards of educational institutions, and at the factory walls.

"Young" football was a tough sport. "The game passed without any misunderstandings, which happens very rarely at football matches,"- wrote one of the reporters of the time. There were fights between rivals, between spectators and players, beatings of referees, attacks on football players outside football fields. One can judge about the relationship of the representatives of the working class who were included in the official teams with the noble persons who formed the basis of the clubs, if only by the fact that in the agenda of the constituent meeting of the Moscow Football League, held on June 12, 1910 in the Hermitage restaurant touched on the problems of morality in football. “Teams can bring together people from different classes - rich and poor, noble family and bourgeoisie, business owners and workers, intellectuals and commoners. But coming to a training session or a game, everyone should forget about their origin. To forget sincerely, with all my soul, so that it does not manifest itself in the little things, in the tone, in the manner of speaking ”,- recalls the decision of IFL functionaries Mikhail Sushkov, a famous Moscow football player who was present at that evening.

Match "Morozovtsy" - "British" on August 26, 1912

Nevertheless, the bourgeoisie and the nobility continued to jealously guard football as "their" game. Few of the workers' footballers, as physically more developed, were even offered to be considered professionals and, on this basis, prohibited from playing in the formally amateur Moscow and St. Petersburg leagues. In the meantime, an alternative movement of "wild" teams flourished in the cities.

“In the working-class districts of the city outskirts there have long existed many football clubs, which included workers, office workers, students who were not able to pay the rather high membership and entrance fees provided for by the statutes of registered clubs, acquire expensive sports uniforms and equipment, and which did not have influential acquaintances. who could give the necessary recommendations for entry ",- Andrei Savin writes in the book “Football Moscow: People. Events. Facts".

"Wild" occupied wastelands, constructing rods from sticks or crumpled caps. Instead of soccer balls ordered from Europe, they used rags stuffed with paper, sometimes the balls were made of leather, in which case a bull's bubble played the role of a camera. Legendary Soviet footballer and coach Andrei Starostin recalled that he himself began to play on the Khodynskoye field, which was one of the centers of Moscow's "informal" football. "All the" stars "of the early generations of our football have gone through the school of education in" wild "football",- the player wrote in his book "Football Flagship".

Permanently acting "wild" teams were gradually formed, with their own form, their own history, their own "stars". Teams were formed mainly on a territorial and professional basis. What is even worth the name of the strongest Moscow team in 1912 - "House No. 44"! The names were invented without the pathos and officialdom of "big" colleagues. So, for example, in Kharkov there was a football team "Tsap-Tsarap".

The politicization of these amateur associations is an unexplored question. Researchers usually emphasize the apolitical nature and heterogeneity of “wild” teams. But how apolitical could their participants have been in the period between the revolution of 1905 and the strikes of 1910-1912? Class antagonism was felt even in the context of street play. Anyone who claims that football was specially instilled in the proletariat in order to distract it from politics and the struggle for their rights should have a couple of points in mind. Illegal games on self-made fields were repeatedly dispersed by the police, who were wary of any meetings of proletarians outside of working hours, and representatives of official clubs from the upper strata of society tried to put a spoke in the wheels of the “savages”, in every possible way hindering their development. The judges were forbidden to judge the games of the plebeians, and the membership and entrance fees of the leagues were constantly overestimated in order to prevent representatives of the new wave from entering their society.

"Chesnokovtsy"

But there were enthusiasts who were ready to invest in the development of working football. In 1912, the Zamoskvoretsk League of Wild Teams appeared in Moscow. It was organized by the judge Allenov, and the events of the championship were regularly covered by the print edition "K Sportu", thanks to the player and chronicler Boris Chesnokov who worked there. His brief biography is presented in the excellent book of the American sports historian Robert Edelman “Moscow Spartak. The history of the people's team in the country of workers. "

Chesnokov was born into the family of a railroad employee. As a child, he often moved from city to city with his family because of his father's work. Boris was fond of different kinds sports and at a very young age, being a student of the Moscow 4th gymnasium, for the first time tried himself on the football field. Falling in love with the game with all his heart, he continued to play with friends in the yard, and later on cleared and self-equipped fields. Boris and his two brothers - Ivan and Sergei - organized meetings of amateur workers' teams, subsequently formalizing the emerging society into the Rogozh Sports Club (RCC). This is how the first workers' sports club in Russia appeared.

It existed until 1915 and was dispersed by the police. By destroying the community, the repressive authorities were unable to destroy the passion for the game, which covered more and more working circles. Yes, and Chesnokov did not give up, continuing to support working football. In 1916, he became the chairman of the citywide Moscow Football League of Wild Teams. Working in the editorial office of the magazine "K Sportu", he not only covered the news from the fields of unrecognized championships, but also appealed to the official football structures of Moscow, urging them to take a step towards the "wild". Thanks to his acquaintances, Chesnokov added the main RKS players, including himself, to the Novogireevo football club. After that, the club twice became the champion of the city, moreover, the first champion to play without foreign legionnaires. Even the formidable "Morozovites" remained behind them. In 1917, Boris Chesnokov suffered a leg injury and was forced to end his football career. He continued to write his sports notes and eventually became the first sports columnist for the Pravda newspaper.

Football team of the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. 1913 year

As can be seen from the chronology, neither during the First World War, nor during the days of the revolution and the Civil War in Russia did they stop playing football. But time left its mark. In 1914, all the German players of the Russian teams (at that time the Russian championship was already being held), according to the law of wartime, were exiled to the Vyatka province. The English masters soon also preferred to return to their homeland, but this could not affect the popularity of the game. The matches of the national team stopped and they were replaced by the games of soldiers with prisoners of war.

In the first post-revolutionary months there was a real "boom" of "wild" football. Players who once kicked homemade rag balls had unprecedented opportunities and many of them became famous footballers in the future. Since 1918, teams began to appear in the Moscow Football League, whose participation in the championship in the tsarist years was simply impossible, for example, the Jewish sports club "Maccabi". Football has survived on the ruins of the empire, still holding onto the shoulders of enthusiasts. But before its full adoption by the new Soviet regime, there were still about 10 years left.