Foundation and early period (1883–1941) , founders of Spartak Moscow In the early days of Soviet football, government agencies such as the police, army, and railroads created their own
clubs. Many statesmen saw in the wins of their teams the superiority over the opponents patronising other teams. Almost all the teams had such kind of patrons;
Dynamo Moscow aligned with the
Militsiya,
CSKA Moscow with the
Red Army, and Spartak, created by a trade union public organization, was considered to be "the people's team". The history of the football club and sports society "Spartak" originates from the Russian Gymnastics Society (), which was founded on 16 May 1883. The society was founded under the influence of the Pan-Slavic "
Sokol movement" with the aim of promoting the "Sokolsk gymnastics" and then sports including fencing, wrestling,
figure skating, skating, football, hockey,
lawn tennis, boxing, skis, athletics, and cycling. In the RGO Sokol began to play football in the summer of 1897; the professional football section was founded in the spring of 1909. On 1 August 1920, the football team began to officially act under the name MCS, or Moscow Sports Club. In 1923, the MCS, later named Krasnaya Presnya (Red Presnya), was formed by
Ivan Artemyev and involved
Nikolai Starostin, especially in its football team.
Presnya is a district of Moscow renowned for the radical politics of its inhabitants; for example, it represented the centre of the
Moscow uprising of 1905. The team grew, building a stadium, supporting itself from ticket sales and playing matches across the
Russian SFSR. As part of a 1926 reorganization of football in the Soviet Union, Starostin arranged for the club to be sponsored by the food workers union and the club moved to the 13,000 seat
Tomsky Stadium, known as Pishcheviki. The team changed sponsors repeatedly over the following years as it competed with Dinamo Moscow, whose 35,000 seat
Dynamo Stadium lay close by. As a high-profile sportsman, Starostin came into close contact with Alexander Kosarev, secretary of the
Komsomol (Communist Union of Youth) who already had a strong influence on sport and wanted to extend it. In November 1934, with funding from Promkooperatsiia, Kosarev employed Starostin and his brothers to develop his team to make it more powerful. Again the team changed its name, this time to "Spartak Moscow" (the name
Spartak means "
Spartacus", a gladiator who led an
uprising against
Ancient Rome). The club founders, four Starostin brothers, played a big role in the formation of the team. The Starostins played for the red-whites in the 1930s but right before
World War II they were subjected to
repression as the leaders of the most hated team by the state authorities. Elder brother Nikolai Starostin wrote in his books that he had survived in the State Prison System due to his participation in football and with Spartak (after the
political rehabilitation, in 1954, he would later return to the team as the squad's manager). In 1935, Starostin proposed the name
Spartak. It was inspired by the Italian novel
Spartaco, written by
Raffaello Giovagnoli, and means
Spartacus ("Spartak" in Russian), a
gladiator-slave who led a rebellion against
Rome. Starostin is also credited with the creation of the Spartak logo. The same year, the club became a part of newly created
Spartak sports society.
Czechoslovak manager
Antonin Fivebr is credited as the first head coach of Spartak, though he worked as a consultant in several clubs simultaneously. In 1936, the
Soviet Top League was established, where its first championship was won by Dynamo Moscow while Spartak won its second, which was held in the same calendar year. Before World War II, Spartak earned two more titles. In 1937, Spartak won the football tournament of
Workers' Olympiad at
Antwerp.
Post-war period (1945–1991) in 1982 During the 1950s, Spartak, together with Dynamo, dominated the Soviet Top League. When the
Soviet national team won gold medals at the
Melbourne Olympics, it consisted largely of Spartak players. Spartak captain
Igor Netto was the captain of the national team from 1954 to 1963. In the 1960s, Spartak won two league titles, but by the mid-1960s, Spartak was no more regarded as a leading Soviet club. The club was even less successful in the 1970s and in 1976 Spartak was relegated into the
lower league. The following season in 1979, fans stayed with the team despite being relegated to the lower division, keeping the stadium full.
Konstantin Beskov became the head coach. He had made his name playing for Spartak's main rivals,
Dynamo Moscow). He introduced several young players, including
Rinat Dasayev and
Georgi Yartsev. Spartak returned the following season and won the title in 1979, beating
Dynamo Kyiv. On 20 October 1982,
disaster struck during the
UEFA Cup match between Spartak and Dutch club
HFC Haarlem. Sixty-six people died in a
crowd crush during the match, making it Russia's worst sporting disaster. In 1989, Spartak won its last USSR Championship, rivals Dynamo Kyiv 2–1 in the closing round. Spartak's
striker Valery Shmarov scored the "golden"
free kick with almost no time left. The next season, Spartak reached the
European Cup semi-final, consequently eliminating
Napoli on penalties and
Real Madrid (with 3–1 away victory), but losing to
Marseille.
Modern period (1991–present) Initial success (1991–2004) ,
IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper in 1988 A new page in the club's history began when the Soviet Union collapsed and its championship ceased to exist. In the newly created Russian league, Spartak, led by coach and president
Oleg Romantsev, dominated and won all but one title between 1992 and 2001. Season after season the team also represented Russia in the
Champions League. Problems began in the new century, however. Several charismatic players (
Ilya Tsymbalar and
Andrey Tikhonov among others) left the club as a result of conflict with Romantsev. Later, Romantsev sold his stock to oil magnate Andrei Chervichenko, who in 2003 became the club president. The two were soon embroiled in a row that would continue until Romantsev was sacked in 2003 with the club suffering several sub-par seasons until Chervichenko finally sold his stock in 2004. The new ownership made a number of front office changes with the aim of returning the team to the top of the Russian Premier League. , the most successful coach in club history Spartak has been entitled to place a golden star on its badge since 2003 to commemorate winning five Russian championships in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996 and 1997. They have won the championship another four times since 1997.
Title-less run (2004–2016) In 2004,
Leonid Fedun became the club's President and second-largest shareholder behind his business partner
Vagit Alekperov. In the
2005 season, Spartak, led by
Aleksandrs Starkovs, finished second in the league to beat
Lokomotiv Moscow,
Zenit Saint Petersburg and
Rubin Kazan to the last Champions League place. Following a mixed start to the 2006 season and public criticism from
Dmitry Alenichev, the team's captain and one of its most experienced players, Starkovs left his position to
Vladimir Fedotov. had two spells as a Spartak player, from 1992 to 2000 and in 2011, before being appointed assistant manager In the 2012–13 season, Spartak qualified for the
2012–13 UEFA Champions League group stage and finished last after disappointing performances against
FC Barcelona,
Celtic and
Benfica. In the league, Spartak finished in fourth place while in the cup it was eliminated in the round of 16 by
FC Rostov 0–0 , completing a disappointing season. Since 2013, the club have added another three stars as rules allowed teams to include titles won during the Soviet era. The next 3 seasons (2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16) were somewhat similar as Spartak finished 6th, 6th and 5th accordingly while the club did not qualify for European Competitions.
Revival (2016–2022) By the beginning of the 2016–17 season, under ex-
Juventus manager
Massimo Carrera, Spartak had acquired a squad consisting of foreign talents such as
Quincy Promes,
Fernando,
Zé Luís,
Lorenzo Melgarejo and Russians such as
Denis Glushakov,
Roman Zobnin and
Ilya Kutepov. Spartak won the
2016–17 Russian Premier League with the squad, winning most derbies and ultimately finishing with a difference of 7 points. helped Spartak win the first league title in 16 years. The following season, Spartak participated in the
2017–18 UEFA Champions League group stage. Despite suffering its greatest ever loss in a 7-0 result against
Liverpool F.C. at
Anfield, the club achieved considerable victories, including a 5-1 win against
Sevilla FC. Having finished second
2020-21 Russian Premier League under manager
Domenico Tedesco, whose contract expired at the season's end, Spartak followed up with a successful run in the
2021–22 UEFA Europa League, now led by
Rui Vitoria. Spartak topped its group, which included
Napoli (which it defeated both home and away),
Leicester City and
Legia Warsaw. It was set to face
RB Leipzig in the round of 16, but the club - along with all Russian club and national teams - was suspended from
FIFA,
UEFA and the
ECA until further notice, and the clubs continued to play with themselves. On 29 May 2022, in the final match of
Paolo Vanoli (manager since December 2021), Spartak won the
2021–22 Russian Cup.
New ownership (2022–present) resigned after selling the club. On August 22, 2022, PJSC Lukoil Oil Company announced the acquisition of Spartak Moscow and Otkritie Arena. This occurred after numerous changes at the club, such as the appointment of Spanish specialist
Guillermo Abascal as manager, his assistants Carlos Maria Valle Moreno and
Vladimir Slišković, physical training coaches Fernando Perez Lopez and Alexander Zaichenko, and goalkeeper coach
Vasily Kuznetsov. At 33 years of age, Abascal became the youngest manager in the club's history. It was also reported that Leonid Fedun has resigned as President of the club and member of the board of directors. Under his leadership of more than 18 years, he left behind a mixed legacy. The club had won only a single Russian league, cup and supercup. Second place in the league was achieved six times, and four times the club head reached the group stage of the Champions League. A stadium solely for the use of the club was built for the first time. On September 26, 2022 Alexander Matytsyn, first vice president of Lukoil, became chairman of the board of directors of FC Spartak. Lukoil's top managers Pavel Zhdanov, Ivan Maslyaev, and Yevgeny Khavkin joined the board of directors, as did Spartak's general director Yevgeny Melezhikov (left the club in the summer of 2023), academy president
Sergei Rodionov, as well as independent directors Oleg Malyshev and Yusuf Alekperov. Englishman
Paul Ashworth was appointed sporting director. In December 2023, it was announced that the club was reviving a second team, closed in 2022 due to lack of funding. However today Spartak Moscow offer youth sectors for both boys and girls as well as having a women's team playing in the Russian Women's Premier League. ==Honours==