The Soviet Union football league system was a series of interconnected leagues for men's

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

clubs in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

which included "teams of masters" (a term for a professional association football team) from constituent

union republics The Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Union Republics ( rus, Сою́зные Респу́блики, r=Soyúznye Respúbliki) were national-based administrative units of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( ...

. The system has a hierarchical format with

promotion and relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system. For most of its time, the all-union level had two tiers, while for a good portion of the Soviet period there existed a third tier, and for a much less period, a fourth. The exact number of Soviet teams of masters varied from year to year as clubs (teams) joined and left leagues, folded or merged altogether. On occasions a season competition format included multiple stages with several groups including the top tier. The third tier (better known as the Second League) since its revival in 1963 consisted from about five to nine groups known as zones, the winners of which qualified to a promotional play-off tournament. Rotation between republican competitions and the all-union football "pyramid" existed only for the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

and the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

. The Soviet Union football league system was dominated by teams of masters from the

and particularly from

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. The focal game of the top league initially involved the Moscow derby between Spartak and Dinamo (see

Oldest Russian derby The Oldest Russian derby is a football rivalry played between Moscow rivals FC Spartak Moscow and FC Dynamo Moscow. The derby became less intense as Dynamo Moscow has not won a title since 1976 and only once succeeded in domestic competitions s ...

). Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, there appeared winning CDKA (today known as CSKA), which was also known as the team of lieutenants. Following some reforms in the organization of competitions in the early 1960s, the top league champion's title was gained by clubs outside of Moscow as the Soviet Union football league system was expanded with more teams of masters from various union republics and their regions (provinces). By 1980 the main game of the

Soviet Top League The Soviet Top League, known after 1970 as the Higher League (russian: Чемпионат СССР по футболу: Высшая лига), served as the top division of Soviet Union football from 1936 until 1991. The professional top level ...

became a rivalry between Russian and Ukrainian capitals Spartak Moscow and Dinamo Kiev (Dynamo Kyiv) (see Spartak Moscow–Dynamo Kyiv rivalry). The pyramid for women's football in the Soviet Union existed only in 1990 and 1991 (during the process of

dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

) ran separately to three tiers.

1990–1991

1971-1989

1970

1963-1969

1960-1962

1953-1959

1950-1952

1947-1949

1945-1946

1936-1941

Initially, for the Spring championship of 1936 there were only seven teams participating in the top group, while for the Fall championship the number of participants was increased to eight. A similar scenario took place in the second group as the spring championship saw some withdrawals. In the third group the number of participants was unchanged at eight for both parts of the 1936 season. At same time in the fourth group initially there were five teams for the spring half and six for the autumn. In 1937 the number of participants continue to grow. Some reshuffling took place between groups A and B, although initially both consisted of eight teams. Groups V and G increased their team pools to 10 and 12 participants, respectively. Also for the 1937 there was introduced the Group D with two subgroups. In 1938 all of groups were merged into one big super league of 26 teams. In 1939 and 1940 season Group A consisted of 14 teams. There also was a revival of Group B with 23 teams at first and then reduced to 14 as well. In 1941 season there was only Group A championship which was heavily adjusted to 15 teams.

Evolution of the Soviet football league system

{{Football in the Soviet Union Football league systems in Europe 1936 establishments in the Soviet Union 1991 disestablishments in the Soviet Union