The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (russian: Кубок СССР),, be, Кубак СССР, uz, СССР Кубоги, kk, КСРО Кубогы, ka, სსრკ თასი, az, ССРИ кубоку, lt, TSRS taurė, ro, Cupa URSS ( Moldovan Cyrillic: Купа УРСС), lv, PSRS kauss, hy, ԽՍՀՄ Գավաթ, et, NSVL Karikas. was the premier

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, Kick (football), kicking a Football (ball), ball to score a Goal (sport), goal. Unqualified, Football (word), the word ''football'' normally means the form of football tha ...

cup competition in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

conducted by the

Football Federation of the Soviet Union The Football Federation of the USSR (russian: Федерация футбола СССР) was a governing body of football in the Soviet Union and since 1972 the main governing body of football in the country. The Federation was created late i ...

. As a

knockout tournament A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

it was conducted parallel to the All-Union league competitions in double round-robin format. The winner of the competition was awarded a qualification to the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

, unless it already qualified for the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competiti ...

, in turn passed the qualification to the finalist. In case if a team would win the

and not win its national league cup titles next year, it qualified to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup along with the new cup holder. The first participation in the

took place in 1965–66 when

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Union, Soviet Dynamo Sports Club, Dynamo Sports Soc ...

qualified for the European competition for winning the 1964 Soviet Cup.

Format

Format of competitions was constantly changing. Until 1984 the Soviet Cup corresponded to 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 ...

calendar "spring"-"fall", however after that it changed to "fall"-"spring" calendar which is now the most popular in Europe. In 1959-1960 the competition was conducted for two years. From 1965 to 1968 seasons were overlapping each other. The 1992 Soviet Cup Final took place after the

fall 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 ...

in the independent Russia. All tournaments final were played in a single game in Moscow, but until introduction of penalty kicks as a tie-breaker some finals that ended in tie were replayed. Until 1955 the tournament finals were played at Central Stadium "Dynamo", after being transferred to Central Stadium of Lenin (today

Luzhniki Stadium Luzhniki Stadium ( rus, стадион «Лужники», p=stədʲɪˈon lʊʐnʲɪˈkʲi, ''Stadion Luzhniki'') is the national stadium of Russia, located in its capital city, Moscow. The full name of the stadium is Grand Sports Arena of the ...

Finals

Overall statistics

Performance by club

Performance by republic

Best coaches

Another coach Albert Vollrat won two cups in 1946 and 1947.

Notes

References

External links

USSR (Soviet Union) – List of Cup Finals
rsssf.com. Retrieved 16 May 2006. {{Football in the Soviet Union

Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, w ...

Recurring sporting events established in 1936 Recurring events disestablished in 1992 1936 establishments in the Soviet Union 1992 disestablishments in Europe