Soviet Cup

For the rugby union competition of the same name, see Soviet Cup (rugby). For the ice hockey competition of the same name, see Soviet Cup (ice hockey). For the bandy competition of the same name, see Russian Cup (bandy).

Soviet Cup

Organising body	Football Federation of the USSR
Founded	1936 (1936)
Abolished	1992
Region	Soviet Union
Number of teams	80 (1991–92)
Qualifier for	European Cup Winners' Cup (from 1965)
Last champions	Spartak Moscow (10th title)
Most successful club(s)	Spartak Moscow (10 titles)

The Soviet Cup, or USSR Cup (Russian: Кубок СССР), was the premier football cup competition in the Soviet Union conducted by the Football Federation of the Soviet Union. The 1991–92 season of the tournament was known as Soviet/CIS Cup (Russian: Кубок СССР—СНГ). As a knockout tournament 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, unless it already qualified for the European Cup, in turn passed the qualification to the finalist. In case if a team would win the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and not win its national league cup titles the next year, it qualified to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup along with the new cup holder. The first participation in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup took place in 1965–66 when Dynamo Kyiv qualified for the European competition for winning the 1964 Soviet Cup.

On initiative of Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper starting from 1977, the Soviet Cup winner was invited to contest the Soviet Top League winner in a single match competition known as the Season's Cup which served as the Soviet Super Cup but was not considered official.

Format

Format of competitions was constantly changing.

The very first edition of the competition in 1936 was a single-elimination tournament (more precisely sudden-death tournament) throughout all rounds. It was played during the season's summer intermission of the 1936 split season. The tournament consisted of seven rounds starting with the Round of 128.

The first changes took place in the 1938 Soviet Cup when there was introduced a preliminary (qualification) stage as the number of participants grew. The competition still was a single-elimination tournament with only more added rounds (up to 9). The Soviet Cup also featured the 1938 Cup of the Ukrainian SSR. All teams of masters (All-Union league teams) started from the final stage. The competition rounds were in-mixed within the league's playing calendar for the first time. The final stage contained 6 rounds.

In 1939 the competition was expanded as number of participants grew over 6 times. Starting from 1939 the preliminary stage was expanded and included republican football cup for each union republic, winners of which would qualify for the Soviet Cup finals.

In 1940 the competition was split. The league teams (Groups A and B) were scheduled to play for the All-Union Sports Committee Cup, while non-league teams (republican level) were competing in a separate bracket, winner of which would play the All-Union Sports Committee Cup holder. However, due to scheduling issues the All-Union Sports Committee Cup was postponed and never took place.

Involvement of the republican cup winners was suspended after the World War II and reintroduced in 1949. Those winners continued to qualify for the Soviet Cup until 1955 and starting from 1957 they were rerouted to the Soviet Amateur Cup. There is a legend that during that period the competition was nicknamed as the "Cup of Millions".

Until 1984 the Soviet Cup corresponded to the calendar of the whole Soviet football "spring"-"fall", however after that it changed to "fall"-"spring" calendar which synchronized it with the most of Europe.

In 1959-1960 the competition was conducted for two years. From 1965 to 1968 seasons were overlapping each other.

Until 1957, in the tournament participated "teams of physical culture" (Soviet "newspeak" (phraseology) for non-professional, amateur teams). After 1957 teams of physical culture competed in a separate competition known as the Soviet Amateur Cup. Since then, the tournament was restricted to professional clubs (teams of masters) of the All-Union competition (tiers 1 through 3).

In 1979 to 1982 there was a group stage better teams of which would continue in a traditional single-game elimination format.

The 1992 Soviet Cup Final took place after the fall of the Soviet Union in the independent Russia.

All tournaments final were played in a single game in Moscow, but until introduction of penalty kicks in early 1970s as a tiebreaker some finals that ended in tie were replayed. Introduction of the penalty shoot-out was adopted for tiebreaker took place in 1972 after such procedure was adopted by FIFA in 1970.

Until 1955 the tournament finals were played at Central Stadium "Dynamo", after being transferred to Central Stadium of Lenin (today Luzhniki Stadium).

Trophy

Picture of trophy

The cup itself is an artistically crafted crystal vase in a silver frame. The cup is crowned with a bronze figurine of a football player with a ball. The names of the teams that won the cup are engraved on the lid and base.

The trophy's height is 57 cm (22 in), weight is 6 kg (13 lb). In 1992, after Spartak Moscow won the last USSR Cup, the trophy was given to the club forever.

The cup itself was bought in an ordinary Moscow thrift store. The first chairman of the All-Union Football Section, Aleksei Sokolov, took a liking to the small pitcher, which it was decided to make a transferable trophy. Few people knew about the Davis Cup in the Soviet Union at that time, and accusations of plagiarism could not follow by definition.

Together with the All-Union Council on Physical Culture and Sport inspector Morar, Aleksei Sokolov created a sketch of the future prize. The jewelers attached silver legs to the base and built a lid with a small hole on top. There they mounted a figurine of a football player, donated by Raspevin, a great fan of this game. The crystal chest of the trophy was decorated with the coat of arms of the USSR.

Venues of the final match

All finals were played in the Soviet Union capital, Moscow. In 1936 to 1955 it was Central Dynamo Stadium, while since 1957 it was Luzhniki Stadium which was known then as Lenin Central Stadium. There were also exceptions such as the venue of the final in 1977 and 1987/88 was Dynamo, while in 1978 it was the only time when Torpedo Stadium hosted the final match. The last final match in 1992 at Luzhniki was played following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

While Spartak Moscow is the absolute leader in total number of trophies won, Dinamo Kiev won the most Soviet Cup in those finals played in Luzhniki Stadium. Also, Luzhniki were even favorable to the Western Ukrainian team of Karpaty.

Venues by the number of final matches

• 32 – Lenin Central Stadium, Moscow
• 18 – Dynamo Central Stadium, Moscow
• 1 – Torpedo Stadium, Moscow

Seasons and final games

List of Soviet Cup winners

Season	Dates	Teams	Winners	Score	Runners–up
1936	July 18 – August 28	94	Lokomotiv Moscow	2–0	Dinamo Tbilisi
1937	May 23 – July 16	125	Dynamo Moscow	5–2	Dinamo Tbilisi
1938	May 5 – September 14	64*	Spartak Moscow	3–2	Elektrik Leningrad
1939	July 29 – September 12	49	Spartak Moscow	3–1	Stalinets Leningrad
1940	September 22 – November 10	canceled, only its qualification stage had been completed
1941	no competition due to the Nazi Germany aggression against the Soviet Union
1942
1943
1944	July 30 – August 27	24	Zenit Leningrad	2–1	CDKA Moscow
1945	September 9 – October 14	32	CDKA Moscow	2–1	Dynamo Moscow
1946	October 6 – 20	16	Spartak Moscow	3–2 (a.e.t.)	Dinamo Tbilisi
1947	June 1 – July 21	19*	Spartak Moscow	2–0	Torpedo Moscow
1948	September 25 – October 24	20	CDKA Moscow	3–0	Spartak Moscow
1949	June 16 – November 4	54*	Torpedo Moscow	2–1	Dynamo Moscow
1950	September 10 – November 6	69	Spartak Moscow	3–0	Dynamo Moscow
1951	August 11 – October 14	51	CDSA Moscow	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Kalinin team
1952	August 21 – November 2	50	Torpedo Moscow	1–0	Spartak Moscow
1953	September 2 – October 10	56	Dynamo Moscow	1–0	Zenit Kuybyshev
1954	August 15 – October 20	67	Dynamo Kyiv	2–1	Spartak Yerevan
1955	May 25 – October 16	16*	CDSA Moscow	2–1	Dynamo Moscow
1956	no competition
1957	April 28 – October 26	24*	Lokomotiv Moscow	1–0	Spartak Moscow
1958	June 9 – November 2	16*	Spartak Moscow	1–0 (a.e.t.)	Torpedo Moscow
1959–60	June 11, 1959 – October 31, 1960	32*	Torpedo Moscow	4–3 (a.e.t.)	Dinamo Tbilisi
1961	May 9 – October 29	64*	Shakhtyor Stalino	3–1	Torpedo Moscow
1962	April 22 – August 11	32*	Shakhtyor Donetsk	2–0	Znamya Truda Orekhovo-Zuyevo
1963	April 7 – August 10	48*	Spartak Moscow	2–0	Shakhtar Donetsk
1964	April 16 – September 27	52*	Dynamo Kyiv	1–0	Krylya Sovetov Kuybyshev
1965	April 4 – August 15	56*	Spartak Moscow	0–0	Dynamo Minsk
				2–1 (a.e.t.) (replay)
1965–66	April 2, 1965 – November 8, 1966	79*	Dynamo Kyiv	2–0	Torpedo Moscow
1966–67	April 23, 1966 – November 8, 1967	85*	Dynamo Moscow	3–0	CSKA Moscow
1967–68	March 16, 1967 – November 8, 1968	107*	Torpedo Moscow	1–0	Pakhtakor Tashkent
1969	March 23 – August 17	32*	Karpaty Lviv	2–1	SKA Rostov-on-Don
1970	March 31 – August 8	32*	Dynamo Moscow	2–1	Dinamo Tbilisi
1971	March 6 – August 8	38	Spartak Moscow	2–2	SKA Rostov-on-Don
				1–0 (replay)
1972	February 20 – August 13	36	Torpedo Moscow	0–0	Spartak Moscow
				1–1 (5–1 p) (replay)
1973	March 4 – October 10	36	Ararat Yerevan	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Dynamo Kyiv
1974	March 6 – August 10	36	Dynamo Kyiv	3–0 (a.e.t.)	Zorya Voroshilovgrad
1975	March 16 – August 9	36	Ararat Yerevan	2–1	Zorya Voroshilovgrad
1976	March 21 – September 3	42	Dinamo Tbilisi	3–0	Ararat Yerevan
1977	March 27 – August 13	48	Dynamo Moscow	1–0	Torpedo Moscow
1978	March 3 – August 12	48	Dynamo Kyiv	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Shakhtar Donetsk
1979	February 28 – August 11	48	Dinamo Tbilisi	0–0 (5–4 p)	Dynamo Moscow
1980	February 25 – August 9	48	Shakhtar Donetsk	2–1	Dinamo Tbilisi
1981	February 20 – May 9	48	SKA Rostov-on-Don	1–0	Spartak Moscow
1982	February 19 – May 9	40	Dynamo Kyiv	1–0	Torpedo Moscow
1983	February 19 – May 8	40	Shakhtar Donetsk	1–0	Metalist Kharkiv
1984	February 18 – June 24	48	Dynamo Moscow	2–0 (a.e.t.)	Zenit Leningrad
1984–85	31 July 1984 – 23 June 1985	50	Dynamo Kyiv	2–1	Shakhtar Donetsk
1985–86	June 24, 1985 – May 2, 1986	74	Torpedo Moscow	1–0	Shakhtar Donetsk
1986–87	May 2, 1986 – June 14, 1987	80	Dynamo Kyiv	3–3 (4–2 p)	Dynamo Minsk
1987–88	June 6, 1987 – May 28, 1988	80	Metalist Kharkiv	2–0	Torpedo Moscow
1988–89	May 2, 1988 – June 25, 1989	80	Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk	1–0	Torpedo Moscow
1989–90	May 2, 1989 – May 2, 1990	80	Dynamo Kyiv	6–1	Lokomotiv Moscow
1990–91	April 14, 1990 – June 23, 1991	78	CSKA Moscow	3–2	Torpedo Moscow
1991–92	April 17, 1991 – May 10, 1992	80	Spartak Moscow	2–0	CSKA Moscow

Notes:

• The "teams" column includes number of participants in the final stage (tournament proper). Those with asterisk (x*) indicates that there was a preliminary (qualification) stage with additional number of participants.

Overall statistics

Until 1959-1960 season, the competition was dominated by Muscovite clubs, particularly Spartak and CSKA. Unlike the round-robin competitions, Dinamo Kiev was not as successful yet managed to get as close as possible to Spartak surpassing all other clubs out of Moscow and other Soviet cities. The first non-Moscow team that won the trophy was Zenit Leningrad which won it in the first post war season of 1944. It became the single achievement for the team out of the "northern capital". In 1961 and 1962, the competition was won back-to-back by Shakhter Donetsk which became a unique achievement. In 1969, Karpaty Lvov won the competition while playing in the second tier (Pervaya Liga) by beating SKA Rostov-na-Donu in Moscow. In 1970s teams from the Caucasus region (Dinamo Tbilisi and Ararat Yerevan) have shown good performance winning 4 trophies with 2 for each.

The only other than Moscow or Leningrad teams from Russian SFSR that won the Soviet Cup was SKA Rostov-na-Donu in 1981. Twice reached the finals but did not manage to win it were Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev, Dinamo Minsk, Zaria Voroshilovgrad.

Performance by club

Club	Winners	Runners-Up	Semi-finalists	Years Won
Spartak Moscow	10*	5	7	1938, 1939, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1958, 1963, 1965, 1971, 1992*
Dinamo Kiev	9	1	4	1954, 1964, 1966, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1990
Torpedo Moscow	6	9	5	1949, 1952, 1960, 1968, 1972, 1986
Dinamo Moscow	6	5	10	1937, 1953, 1967, 1970, 1977, 1984
CSKA Moscow	5	3	11	1945, 1948, 1951, 1955, 1991
Shakhter Donetsk	4	4	6	1961, 1962, 1980, 1983
Dinamo Tbilisi	2	6	7	1976, 1979
Ararat Yerevan	2	2	2	1973, 1975
Lokomotiv Moscow	2	1	7	1936, 1957
Zenit Leningrad	1	2	7	1944
SKA Rostov-na-Donu	1	2	0	1981
Metallist Kharkov	1	1	1	1988
Karpaty Lvov	1	0	2	1969
Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk	1	0	5	1989
Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev	0	2	2
Dinamo Minsk	0	2	2
Zaria Voroshilovgrad	0	2	1
Elektrik Leningrad	0	1	1
Kalinin city team	0	1	0
Znamia Truda Orekhovo-Zuyevo	0	1	0
Pakhtakor Tashkent	0	1	0
Neftchi Baku	0	0	4
Dinamo Leningrad	0	0	3
Dinamo Tashkent	0	0	1
Rotor Volgograd	0	0	1
VSS Moscow	0	0	1
SKA Kiev	0	0	1
SKA Odessa	0	0	1
Admiralteyets Leningrad	0	0	1
Qairat Almaty	0	0	1
Chernomorets Odessa	0	0	1
Sokol Saratov	0	0	1
Sudostroitel Nikolayev	0	0	1
Iskra Smolensk	0	0	1
Tavriya Simferopol	0	0	1
Žalgiris Vilnius	0	0	1
Pamir Dushanbe	0	0	1
Fakel Voronezh	0	0	1
Total	51	51	102

• Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, clubs from around the fallen Soviet Union refused their further participation among which were Ukrainian clubs who effectively forfeiting their chances at the Cup, Belarusian Dinamo Minsk, Kazakhstani Khimik Dzhambul, and others, leaving only Pamir Dushanbe as the non-Russian club still in the competition.

Performance by republic

Republic	Winners	Runners-up	Semi-finals	Winning clubs
Russian SFSR	31	32	59	Spartak Moscow (10), Dinamo Moscow (6), Torpedo Moscow (6), CSKA Moscow (5), Lokomotiv Moscow (2), Zenit Leningrad (1), SKA Rostov-na-Donu (1)
Ukrainian SSR	16	8	24	Dinamo Kiev (9), Shakhter Donetsk (4), Metallist Kharkov (1), Karpaty Lvov (1), Dnepr Dnepropetrovsk (1)
Georgian SSR	2	6	7	Dinamo Tbilisi (2)
Armenian SSR	2	2	2	Ararat Yerevan (2)
Byelorussian SSR	0	2	2
Uzbek SSR	0	1	1
Azerbaijan SSR	0	0	4
Kazakh SSR	0	0	1
Lithuanian SSR	0	0	1
Tajik SSR	0	0	1
Total	51	51	102

Best coaches

Valeriy Lobanovsky (1939-2002).

Boris Arkadiev (1899-1986).

Nikita Simonyan (1926).

Valentin Ivanov (1934-2011).

Place	Name	Medals		Champion clubs
		gold	silver
1	Viktor Maslov	6	3	Torpedo Moscow (3), Dynamo Kyiv (2), Ararat Yerevan (1)
2	Valeriy Lobanovsky	6	-	Dynamo Kyiv
3	Boris Arkadiev	4	1	CDKA Moscow (3), Lokomotiv Moscow (1)
	Nikita Simonyan	4	1	Spartak Moscow (3), Ararat Yerevan (1)
5	Oleg Oshenkov	3	1	Shakhtar Donetsk (2), Dynamo Kyiv (1)
6	Valentin Ivanov	2	5	Torpedo Moscow
7	Aleksandr Sevidov	2	2	Dynamo Moscow
8-11	Nodar Akhalkatsi	2	1	Dinamo Tbilisi
	Konstantin Beskov	2	1	Dynamo Moscow
	Konstantin Kvashnin	2	1	Spartak Moscow, Torpedo Moscow
	Viktor Nosov	2	1	Shakhtar Donetsk

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

External links

• USSR (Soviet Union) – List of Cup Finals on the RSSSF
• ХПЗ, "Дзержинец", "Авангард" и "Металлист" – Вехи истории клуба!.