1.
PFC CSKA Moscow
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PFC Central Sport Club of the Army, Moscow is a Russian professional football club. It is based in Moscow, playing its matches at the 30. The club is the most known division of the CSKA Moscow sports club, founded in 1911, CSKA had its most successful period after World War II with five titles in six seasons. It won a total of 7 Soviet Top League championships, including the season in 1991. The club has also won 6 Russian Premier League titles, CSKA was the official team of the Soviet Army during the communist era. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union it has become privately owned, Russian businessman Roman Abramovichs Sibneft corporation was a leading sponsor of the club from 2004 to 2006. Officially, CSKA is a club and thus no longer a section of the Russian militarys CSKA sports club. The Russian Ministry of Defense is a PFC CSKA shareholder, however, the Moscow Army men won their 10th national title back in 2006 and they are one of the most successful clubs in Russian football, having an extensive legacy in Soviet football as well. In 2004, the received a major financial infusion from a sponsorship deal with Sibneft. The partnership with Sibneft lasted until 2006, when VTB became the sponsor of the club, CSKA started 2009 without a shirt sponsor. On 4 November 1992, CSKA qualified for the stage of the UEFA Champions League which contained only 8 teams after defeating Spanish champion FC Barcelona 4–3 on aggregate. On 16 March 2010, CSKA qualified for the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League after defeating Sevilla FC 3–2 on aggregate and they were later eliminated from competition by Internazionale, losing by 1–0 scorelines in both Milan and Moscow. On 7 December 2011, CSKA qualified for the phase of the UEFA Champions League after winning crucial 3 points by defeating Internazionale with scoreline 1–2 in Milan. On 6 December 2016, CSKA announced that manager Leonid Slutsky would leave the club after seven years at the club, following their last game of 2016,6 days later,12 December, Viktor Goncharenko was announced as the clubs new manager, signing a two-year contract. As of match played 6 December 2016 CSKA Moscow won their first, sergei Ignashevich lifted the 2005 UEFA Cup after CSKA ran out 3-1 winners over Sporting CP in Sportings own Estádio José Alvalade stadium. Goals from Aleksei Berezutski, Yuri Zhirkov and Vágner Love saw CSKA become the first Russian club to win a major European title, CSKA was nicknamed Horses because the first stadium was built on the old racecourse/hippodromo in Moscow. Its capacity is small for a club of its stature. This is one of the reasons the club uses other venues in the city
2.
FC Dynamo Moscow
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FC Dynamo Moscow is a Russian football club based in Khimki, Moscow Oblast, currently playing in the Russian Football National League. Despite this, it has never won the modern Russian Premier League title, during the Soviet era, it was affiliated with the MVD and with the KGB and was a part of Dynamo sports society. Chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus NKVD, Lavrentiy Beria, was a patron of the club until his downfall, from 10 April 2009 the VTB Bank has been the owner of Dynamo after acquiring a 74% share in the club. Boris Rotenberg Sr. was chairman until he resigned on 17 July 2015, on 29 December 2016, Dynamo Sports Society agreed to buy VTB Bank shares back for 1 ruble. Dynamos traditional colours are blue and white and their crest consists of a blue letter D, written in a traditional cursive style on a white background, with Moscow written below it, partially covering a football underneath. The clubs motto is Power in Motion, initially proposed by Maxim Gorky, the famous Russian author, Dynamo Moscow has its roots in the club Morozovtsi Orekhovo-Zuevo Moskva founded as a factory team in 1887. The team was renamed OKS Moskva in 1906 and won a series of Moscow league championships from 1910 to 1914. After the Russian Revolution, the club found itself under the authority of the Interior Ministry and its head Felix Dzerzhinsky, chief of the Cheka. The club was renamed Dynamo Moscow in 1923 but was referred to disparagingly as garbage. Dynamo won the first two Soviet Championships in 1936 and 1937, a Soviet Cup in 1937, and another pair of titles in 1940 and 1945. They were also the first Soviet club to tour the West when it played a series of friendlies in the United Kingdom in 1945, complete unknowns to the British, the Soviet players first drew 3–3 against Chelsea and then defeated Cardiff City 1–10. They defeated an Arsenal side reinforced with Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen and they drew 2–2 against Scottish side Rangers. They continued to be a side at home after World War II. Dynamo captured another five championships between 1949 and 1959, as well as their second Soviet Cup in 1953, honours were harder to come by after that time. The club continued to some success in the Soviet Cup. Even so, Dynamos 11 national titles make it the countrys third-most decorated side behind Dynamo Kyiv, Dynamos greatest achievement in Europe was in the 1971–72 European Cup Winners Cup, where they reached the Final at Camp Nou in Barcelona, losing 3–2 to Rangers. This was the first time a Russian side had reached a final in a European competition, at the end of the 2008 season, Dynamo finished third, qualifying for the 2009–10 Champions League preliminary round. On 29 July 2009, Dynamo recorded a 0–1 away win against Celtic at Celtic Park, which gave them a strong advantage going into the second leg
3.
Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
4.
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg
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Football Club Zenit, also known as Zenit Saint Petersburg, is a Russian football club from the city of Saint Petersburg. Founded in 1925, the plays in the Russian Premier League. Zenit were the 2007,2010, 2011–12 and 2014–15 champions of the Russian Premier League, Zenits history is tightly connected with the political history of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The players of local teams were amateurs and loosely associated with each other. At the same time, several football clubs were founded in Saint Petersburg. Players membership was unofficial and very loose, however, sometimes allowing the players to play for several different teams during the same season. The club was renamed several times and its owners and leaders were under pressure for many decades. The origins of Zenit date back to the beginning of the 20th century to several teams in Saint Petersburg that were playing locally. The oldest documented predecessor of Zenit was the team Murzinka, founded in 1914, which played in the Obukhovsky stadium from 1914 until 1924, when the team came to be known as Bolshevik. The team and stadium survived the drama of World War I, the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, in 1925, another predecessor team of Zenit was formed, of workers from the Leningradsky Metallichesky Zavod, they were called the Stalinets in the 1930s. Historians documented that both teams of Zenit were playing independently until their official merger at the end of 1939. The Stalinets were not the team named Zenit that took part in the 1938 USSR championship. The current name of FC Zenit was registered in 1936, three years before the Stalinets merged with it, FC Zenit was ordered to take in members of the Stalinets metallurgical workers team after the end of the 1939 season. Zenit won their first honours in 1944, claiming the war-time USSR Cup after defeating CSKA Moscow in the well-attended final, the club was always adored in Leningrad, but was not able to make much of a significant impact in the Soviet League. Composer Dmitry Shostakovich and film star Kirill Lavrov were well known as ardent supporters of Zenit, Zenit won the bronze medal in 1980, also reaching the Soviet Cup Final and winning the Soviet League title in 1984. In 1985, Zenit beat the Soviet Cup holder in the Soviet Super Cup, the LOMO optical plant took up the ownership of the team after the war. In 1990, FC Zenit were re-registered as an independent city-owned professional club, after being relegated in the first year of the Russian League, Zenit returned to the top flight in 1996 and has been decent since. They claimed the 1999 Russian Cup, finished third in the League in 2001, made the Cup final in 2002, became the runners-up in the Premier League, in December 2005, Gazprom took a controlling stake in the club
5.
Georgia (country)
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Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi, Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres, and its 2016 population is about 3.72 million. Georgia is a unitary, semi-presidential republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy, during the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia. The kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia adopted Christianity in the early 4th century, a unified Kingdom of Georgia reached the peak of its political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under hegemony of various powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire. Russian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in various treaties with Iran. Since the establishment of the modern Georgian republic in April 1991, post-communist Georgia suffered from civil, the countrys Western orientation soon led to the worsening of relations with Russia, culminating in the brief Russo-Georgian War in August 2008. Georgia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and it contains two de facto independent regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which gained limited international recognition after the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. Georgia and a part of the international community consider the regions to be part of Georgias sovereign territory under Russian military occupation. Georgia probably stems from the Persian designation of the Georgians – gurğān, in the 11th and 12th centuries adapted via Syriac gurz-ān/gurz-iyān, starting with the Persian word gurğ/gurğān, the word was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. This term itself might have established through the ancient Iranian appellation of the near-Caspian region. The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi, the medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos, a great-grandson of Japheth. However, scholars agree that the word is derived from the Karts, the name Sakartvelo consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i, specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli, ancient Greeks and Romans referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians. Today the full, official name of the country is Georgia, before the 1995 constitution came into force the countrys name was the Republic of Georgia. The territory of modern-day Georgia was inhabited by Homo erectus since the Paleolithic Era, the proto-Georgian tribes first appear in written history in the 12th century BC. The earliest evidence of wine to date has found in Georgia. In fact, early metallurgy started in Georgia during the 6th millennium BC, the classical period saw the rise of a number of early Georgian states, the principal of which was Colchis in the west and Iberia in the east
6.
FC Anzhi Makhachkala
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Football Club Anzhi Makhachkala is a Russian football club based in Makhachkala, capital of the Republic of Dagestan. Founded in 1991, the club competes in the Russian Football Premier League, the club was founded in 1991 by former Dinamo Makhachkala player Magomed-Sultan Magomedov, then head of Dagnefteprodukt, and took part in its first season in the Dagestan League the same year. They ended up as champions with an unbeaten record and 16 wins out of 20 matches. Due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the club entered Zone 1 of the Russian Second Division in 1992, a key player in Anzhis early history was Azerbaijani international forward Ibragim Gasanbekov, who was the teams top scorer in all of their first seven seasons. He was league top scorer in 1993 and 1996, in 1999, Anzhi won the First Division, and were thus promoted to the top-flight Premier League for the first time. The side missed out on a bronze-medal finish on the last day of the season, on 20 June 2001, the club played in the final of the Russian Cup for the first time, losing to Lokomotiv Moscow on penalties after a 1–1 draw. In their seventh season in the First Division, Anzhi won the league, on 5 December 2010, defender Shamil Burziyev died in a car accident at the age of 25. Kerimovs investment was immediate as the club made signings in the 2011 winter transfer window, the first significant signing came on 16 February, when the club announced the free transfer of Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos, a FIFA World Cup winner in 2002. Further signings included €10 million on another Brazilian, the former Corinthians midfielder Jucilei, boussoufas transfer was finalised in the last minute of the window, on 10 March. In summer 2011, the signed the Hungarian Balázs Dzsudzsák. Anzhi also bought Russian midfielder Yuri Zhirkov from Chelsea for a similar fee, on 23 August 2011, Cameroonian striker Samuel Etoo signed from Inter Milan for approximately €28 million on a world-record €20.5 million annual salary. In February 2012, the appointed the experienced Dutchman Guus Hiddink as its new manager following Yuri Krasnozhans two-month-long spell in charge. Hiddinks first signing was Congolese defender Christopher Samba, joining for £12 million from Blackburn Rovers, on 30 January 2012, Roberto Carlos announced his plans to retire at the end of the season. He ended his career on 9 March and took up a role as the clubs director. On 10 October 2012, Anzhi opened an academy, the first in Dagestan in order to develop youth talents for the first team. The academy is being run by Anzhi Sporting Director Jelle Goes, on 22 July 2013, Hiddink resigned from his post as manager, ending an 18-month stint. His newly appointed assistant, countryman René Meulensteen, was promoted to the manager position, however, after 16 days as the team manager, Meulensteen was sacked. On 7 August 2013, Kerimov decided to reduce the annual budget by two-thirds
Sergei Ovchinnikov (Lokomotiv Moscow)
Sargis Hovsepyan (Zenit)
Bohdan Shershun (CSKA Moscow)
Elvir Rahimić (CSKA Moscow)
