Top Football Clubs in Russia: Who to Root for This Season

Russia is often considered a gloomy northern country, so one might expect that winter sports are the most popular ones here, but in reality, Russians have a soft spot for football – even though we may not be as good at it as we are at hockey. Which clubs do Russian fans support and what are their stories?

The history of many Russian football clubs goes back to the 1910s-1920s, when the oldest and the most prominent ones were established. Interestingly enough, during the early Soviet times, a “football player” wasn’t really a proper profession. Taking sport too seriously was considered a bourgeois idea and players usually had another job on the side. Now, of course, the situation is different, and the top players are superstars.

Initially, football clubs were created by state organizations and the players were recruited among their employees. Nowadays, even if the club has nothing to do with said structures anymore, the references are still there, as can be seen if we take a look at some of the most popular clubs and their nicknames: 

• FC Zenit St. Petersburg – players of the current champion team of the Russian Premier League can be nicknamed zenitovtsy or zenitchiki (“the zeniters”). The club got its name from a homonymous sports organization in the defense industry, which in its turn was probably named so because of anti-aircraft systems (in Russian they are called zenitnye, as in “pointing to zenith”).

• FC CSKA Moscow – CSKA is short for Central Sports Club of the Army, as it used to be the official club of the Soviet Army. One of their nicknames is still armeitsy (“members of the army”).  

• FC Dynamo Moscow – during the Soviet times, this club was affiliated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (the Soviet police), which is why you can hear them being referred to as menty (vulgar slang word for “police”).

• FC Lokomotiv Moscow – this club was established among the railway workers and is still owned by the Russian Railways, so sometimes they are called zheleznodorozhniki (“railroaders”). 

• FC Spartak Moscow – Spartak was named after Spartacus, the famous leader of the slave uprising against the Roman Republic. This club is sometimes referred to as narodnaya komanda (“the people’s team”) because it was mostly supported by common people as opposed to the police or army.

Apart from these, so to say, “metropolitan” clubs, lots of other interesting teams from all over the country are a part of the Russian Premier League. For example, FC Rostov, founded in 1930 at the Rostselmash factory, FC Krasnodar, a much younger but quite successful club established in 2008, and many many others.

Now that you know the basics, feel free to pick a club to support, or just enjoy the games knowing a little bit more about Russian football.

If you want to learn more about sports, check out our articles about ITMO University's student sports club KronBars and our special fan area at Zenit Arena.