The Murky World of Russian Football

Soviet and Russian soccer, the nation’s favourite past-time, has been long riddled by state interference. The nation’ s professional leagues have long been the subject of bizarre stories. In Soviet times each club, the overwhelming majority of whom were based in Moscow, were affiliated with some arm of the state- Dinamo of the KGB, CSKA of the Army, Lokomotiv of the railways and  Spartak of the Kolkhoz to name the main contenders. In the 1930s a rivalry was struck up between Spartak, seen as a representative of the people and named after Sparta, led by their founder the perenially state harrassed Nikolai Starotsin, and Dynamo under the patronage of the football crazy KGB head Felix Dzerzhinsky. In 1936 they were to meet in an eagerly anticipated exhibition on an incredible artificial surface in Red Square in front of Stalin himself. Fearing violence before the game, Dinamo pulled out at the last minute, but Spartak went ahead and fielded two sides for the crowd. After 40 minutes however, The Great Friend of All Athletes seemed to be growing tired of the spectacle laid before him, and the players unanimously agreed, that the best thing for their collective safeties was to pack it in.

Following the independence of the Russian Federation the leagues were and still are plagued by betting scandals, but they seem to be somewhat stabilising, if only at the professional level. That was until, in recent weeks first division side FC MVD (literally “Ministry of the Interior Football Club”) were disbanded after a scandal in which it was alleged a million dollars of state funds were embezzled by the hierarchy at the ministry to run the football club. The team had seen a recent rise in fortunes as the senior police official Nikolai Ovchinnikov took it as a personal mission to see the team succeed. Despite an embarrassing defeat in the summer to a convicts’ XI, that had been going well. Fortunately for FC MVD, it appears the allegations were false, but the damage is already done. Stripped of their league status they must rebuild again. Few in Russian sporting circles however, are sad to see the back of another state run football franchise.