The oldest Russian football club. The first football clubs of the Russian Empire: Obak Club, Sporting, Odessa Football Club and others. A separate village was built for the British

Football Russia

October 24, 1897 - the first football match in Russia took place in St. Petersburg. At first, this game, which was called "English air game" or "foot ball", was perceived as fun for the public.

At the end of the 1890s, there were three teams in St. Petersburg - Nevsky Club, Nevka and Victoria. And they were composed mainly of the English, who “brought” football to Russia at the end of the 19th century. But gradually the “football virus” infected Russians as well. The first teams were created, championships in St. Petersburg and Moscow were held, and even the first international matches were held.

The first football team, which consisted only of Russian players, was created in 1897 in St. Petersburg at the “Circle of Sports Lovers” (later it became known as “Sport”). And the first real football match took place on October 24 (12 old style) 1897.

That day, on the parade ground of the First Cadet Corps, the teams of the Vasileostrovsky Society of Football Players (VOF) and the “Circle of Sports Lovers” met. The latter lost with a large score of 0:6. The Vasileostrovsky football players' society had already existed for 6 years by that time. Therefore, this team consisted mainly of Englishmen, who played much better than the Russians at that time.

By the way, football was not yet attractive enough to the public. This is probably why history has not preserved for us either the authors of the goals scored or the number of spectators present at this first match. But the press did not ignore this game. St. Petersburg journalists wrote about the last match: “The British were distinguished by their teamwork and technique, and the Russians by their dedication.” According to the conditions, the competition was to last an hour and a half with one break.

This is how the Petersburg Leaf newspaper described the meeting: “Vasileostrovtsy, dressed in blue, placed five “skirmishers” on the fore-worth line. They had three on the second line. These were guard posts. In front of the city, or rather its gates, stood two “beks”. Finally, in the city itself stood its defender.”

If we talk about the rules, the matches of that time were characterized by extraordinary cruelty. The players fought knee-deep in mud and played with virtually no rules. Therefore, football players often left the field without teeth, with broken arms and legs. And the game was unlike modern football. For example, the ball rarely stayed on the ground, flying through the air from player to player and from goal to goal. And the defenders tried to hit the ball as high as possible. And the highest “candle” even caused approving applause from the public.

Goalkeepers rarely caught balls, trying to simply hit them with their hands, and goalkeepers with their feet, without trying to fall to the ground correctly. At the same time, it was considered especially chic to hit a flying ball with your fist somewhere in the center of the field or to hit the ball from above with your fist and ricochet off the ground “to light a candle.” This is what aroused the wild delight of the stands.

As for forwards, for a striker it was considered the highest valor to push the ball into the goal together with the goalkeeper. Football referees turned a blind eye to pushing, poking, kicking, tripping and even tackling from the rugby arsenal, as this was considered a manifestation of true sportsmanship, courage and athleticism.

The international debut of football players from the Russian Empire took place in October 1910, when the Czech team Corinthians (Prague) visited the country. In 1911, the first attempt was made in Russia to create a football team from representatives of several cities. The reason for this was the arrival of the Olympic champions of that time - the British team (in Russia they competed under the name “English Wanderers”). Until this day, the teams of Moscow and St. Petersburg had experience of international meetings, but it was extremely insignificant, and the team of another country had never played against us.

And suddenly, at the invitation of the British living in St. Petersburg, the founders of football themselves come. Newspapers wrote about the first of these matches: “Long before the start of the game, the public began to gather, and by five o’clock in the afternoon all the stands were overcrowded. There is a lively conversation in the audience about the upcoming game. Nobody talks about the possibility of the Russians winning the match, but only about the results under which Russia will be beaten.”

It is now difficult to say definitively how many games were played. There are two opinions on this matter. First, the matches that took place on August 20, 21 and 22, 1911 in St. Petersburg ended in crushing defeats for the Russians - 0:14, 0:7 and 0:11, respectively. Secondly, on August 22, 1911, the Russian team played its first international match, which was a friendly match with the England team. This meeting was not included in the registers of the Russian Football Union and the International Football Federation - the list of official matches of the Russian national team. And its result is unknown.

The country's first football championship took place only in 1912. At the same time, the All-Russian Football Union was formed, which was admitted to FIFA in the same year. In 1913, the All-Russian Football Union united football leagues of 33 cities and 155 clubs with a total number of football players of about 8 thousand.

And then the First World War began, and somehow they forgot about football in our country. But they remembered him after the Revolution and the Civil War. In 1923, the RSFSR national team made a victorious tour of Scandinavia, beating the best football players from Sweden and Norway. Then our teams met many times with the strongest athletes in Turkey. And they always won.

1930-40s - the time of the first fights with some of the best teams in Czechoslovakia, France, Spain and Bulgaria. And here our masters showed that Soviet football is not inferior to advanced European football. Goalkeeper Anatoly Akimov, defender Alexander Starostin, midfielders Fedor Selin and Andrey Starostin, forwards Vasily Pavlov, Mikhail Butusov, Mikhail Yakushin, Sergei Ilyin, Grigory Fedotov, Pyotr Dementyev, were generally considered to be among the strongest in Europe.

And in 1956, the USSR team won Olympic gold. But that, as they say, is a completely different story...

How was football played in Russia before Spartak, CSKA, Dynamo and Zenit? Fun and enthusiastic. Thus, at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, the Russian Empire team lost to the German team 0 - 16. This is still the largest victory for German football players in history. But the Russians had beautiful names for football teams, in which many foreign players from England played.

Sport

The first Russian football club was founded by the children of summer residents. The ebullient energy of youth became the reason for the emergence of the “Society of Running Lovers”. Summer residents-runners conducted athletics classes on the tracks of the Tsarskoye Selo hippodrome. All this splendor was called “Tyarlevsky Derby”. The main organizer was Pyotr Moskvin. A good start is half the battle. The athletes moved from the dusty dacha paths to St. Petersburg and practiced athletics on Petrovsky Island. From that time on, they began to be called the “Petrovsky Society of Running Enthusiasts.” In 1890, the circle held its first joint running competitions with the British Strela club, which was located on Krestovsky Island. In 1896, the club was officially registered under the name “St. Petersburg Circle of Sports Lovers” (abbreviated as KLS, or simply “Sport”). It was the British who instilled a passion for football in the athletics community. The "Sport" team became champions of the city more than once and even became the record holder for the number of international meetings in pre-revolutionary football, which it began to hold in 1907, including with Corinthians (Prague, Czech Republic) in 1910 (0:6) , with the national team of Leipzig (1:4) and Budapest (3:2) in 1913, with the Civil Service club (Edinburgh, Scotland) in May 1914 (0:3). From the mid-1900s, strong players began to appear on the team not only from Russian clubs, but also from other countries (England, Denmark, Finland; among them H. Morville, a player of the Danish national team at Olympic Games-12, Finn B. Wiberg, also a participant OI-12).

"Shiryaevo field"

The spread of football in Moscow began in 1895 with amateur matches of English workers on the territory of the Gopper plant. A year later, the British, working at various enterprises in Moscow, united by football fan R.F. Fulda, created a commission at the Moscow Hygiene Society for the organization of outdoor games. The activities of the commission bore fruit, a football field was equipped and the first football club in Moscow, “Sokolniki” or “Shiryaevo Pole,” was formed. The first games were of an amateur nature, the “teams” were called “parties”, but more and more people began to learn about the games on Shiryaev Field. There was even a game between the Russians and the British, in which the British confidently won. "Party" Sokolnikov "learned the lesson of that game, they began to actively train and twice became third in the most prestigious football tournament of that time - the Fulda Cup. After the disbandment of the team, some of its players moved to the Dynamo team formed in 1923. At first, the Dynamo even played in FCS uniforms (white T-shirts with a black collar and black shorts).

Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club

The Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club was created in 1909 by a weaver, the Englishman Benz. Another Russian football club created by the British was based on Kuznetskaya Street in Zamoskvorechye. The team consisted of six Russian football players and five Englishmen. In 1910, the club received a new sports ground on Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya Street, opposite Neskuchny Garden. For that time, such a site, with locker rooms, benches, fences, and artificial turf, was a real gift for both athletes and football fans. The fact was that football, which not so long ago was considered an amateur pastime for overgrown boys, had finally risen to its feet. On December 3, 1911, the first issue of the magazine “To Sport” was published in Moscow, where one interesting confession was made: “Of all the sports in Moscow, the most widespread is currently football. Just 3-4 years ago there were only a few dozen football players , now the number of players probably exceeds a thousand." Thus, all conditions for training and development were created for the Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club. The club justified them. He won the Fulda Cup twice.

"Nevka"

The first football tournament of the St. Petersburg Football League took place in 1901. It was held on the initiative of John Richardson, one of the founders of the Nevsky Cricket, Football and Tennis Club. English entrepreneur Thomas Aspden established a special challenge prize. Subsequently, it began to be called the “autumn cup”. Legally, this tournament was not yet a League Cup, but 1901 is considered to be the year of its birth. It is significant that in the first Russian football championship the English and Scottish teams fought for the championship. The older and more experienced Scots led the score for a long time, but the result turned out to be a draw - 2:2. Without losing a single match and eventually gaining 6 points out of 8, the Scots team “Nevka”, led by captain D. Hargreaves, became the first champion of St. Petersburg.

Merkur

The Merkur football club was founded in St. Petersburg in 1906. The team united amateur athletes. The club repeatedly became the champion of St. Petersburg. Merkur players were part of the city team and took part in the second game against Moscow, which took place on September 29, 1907 in St. Petersburg. At that time they did not say “team cities”; the confrontation was “city against city”. Today it is interesting to read notes about that match. “By the beginning of the game, the Muscovites had only ten players: one of them got lost and did not immediately find the field on which the game was taking place. They were waiting for him, but in the end, due to the hasty departure of the Muscovites, they started without him. The Petersburgers played the first half of the game with the wind... All the chances of winning are now in the hands of the “Muscovites”, and no one expects “St. Petersburg” to win, since there are only 15 minutes left until the end of the game. But then something incredible happens. in a few minutes, score three goals one after another, deciding the game in their favor. After the third goal, the “Moscow” defense was so confused that the “St. Petersburg” forwards freely circled it and successfully scored the last two goals. “Moscow’s” backs and forwards worked well. , especially Nash, who repeatedly carried the ball all the way to the “behind line” (goal line); the “St. Petersburgers” had good Grigoriev, Danker, Egorov and both backs.”

Kolomyagi

Football club "Kolomyagi" was founded in St. Petersburg in 1904. This was one of the most honored and famous football clubs. Its players repeatedly won the city championship and played in the St. Petersburg national team. Kolomyaga players were also part of the Russian national team that took part in the 1912 Olympic Games. The unplayed team, in which there was strong competition between Moscow and St. Petersburg, played extremely poorly, losing in the consolation tournament match to the Germans with a score of 0:16. However, there is no point in judging individual players in a game like this. Football in Russia was just beginning and it is still unknown how its development would have gone if there had not been a revolution, when there was “no time for sports”...

When they talk about the oldest football club in Russia that has survived to this day, they usually say that it is FC "Znamya Truda" from Orekhovo-Zuyevo, which was founded on November 16, 1909 by the English workers of the Morozov manufactory, the Charnock brothers, under the nameSports Club "Orekhovo" (KSO). KSO was at the beginning the strongest club since the founding of the Moscow Football League in 1909 and won the Moscow Championship in class "A" (R. Fulda Cup) in 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913...

For a general understanding of the issue, let me clarify that we are not just talking about the oldest football club in Russia, but about the oldest club in Russia that has survived and survived to this day, in which they play football professionally.

But there is at least one Russian Football Club that is ancient Sports Club "Orekhovo" ( CSR) and which has survived to this day:

This is the Kolomna Football Club, which was founded in 1906 as the Kolomna Gymnastic Society (KGO), a branch of the Russian Gymnastic Society (RGS), part of the Sokol Movement in Russia. The history of Kolomna football begins precisely in 1906, when the first football team, the KGO (Kolomenskoye Gymnastic Society), was created at the Struve brothers’ machine-building plant (Kolomensky Plant), a branch of the Russian Gymnastic Society. The uniform of the KGO team repeated the red and white colors of the Russian Geographical Society, but the emblem was different: red T-shirts with the KGO emblem and white shorts.

A year later, “KGO” played its first match with the players of the “British Sports Union” (BCS).This game took place in Yegoryevsk and ended in a victory for KGO 3:1.This is a very, very good result, considering that BCS, in which only the British played, was a strong team at that time and which was the winner of the first unofficial Moscow Championship in 1909. In the pre-revolutionary period, the Kolomna team was admitted to the Moscow Football League and the Football League of Dacha Clubs. In 1911, Kolomna had its own city league - the Kolomna Football League (KFL).

In 1909-1910, the Moscow Football League was organized in Moscow, which held the Moscow Championship. On the Moscow-Ryazan Railway, the Football League of Dacha Clubs held its competitions. The KGO football team was accepted into both leagues and played with the best teams in Moscow and the Moscow region: Union, KFS (Shiryaevo Pole - Sokolniki), BCS Moscow, SKL, SKS, Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club (ZKS), KSO (Orekhovo), etc. ...

Beginning of the 20th century. Football field of the Kolomna Gymnastics Society (KGO). This is where the origins of Kolomna football come from.

Kolomna football players have won the provincial championship and cup (Moscow challenge prize) more than once, and the “Silver Album” is a challenge provincial football prize. The lines from the then well-known magazine “Russian Sport” in the country for 1912 say a lot about the level of Kolomna football in those years: “We must not forget that on the periphery there are football teams that are not inferior in their class of play to the metropolitan teams, and, in particular, one of the strongest teams in the Kolomna district - the Kolomna Gymnastic Society - when playing with the famous KFS teams" , “SKL”, etc. often emerged victorious.”

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the CFL suspended its operations. But football teams KGO ", "Olympus", and Awakening" continued their activities.After the revolution, in 1923, the Kolomna team took part in the first USSR championship, held as part of the first all-Union festival of physical culture in Moscow, where the Kolomna team did not get lost and were able to immediately make it to the semifinals, thus entering the top four strongest teams in the country.

POST-WAR HISTORY

For the first time in the post-war years, football Kolomna was represented on the all-Union arena by the Dzerzhinets team in 1948. The locomotive builders spent two seasons in the second group, taking, respectively, 9th and 10th places among 14 teams. After that, “Dzerzhinets” for 11 years participated only in the championships of the society and the Moscow region.

In 1960, the team of the diesel locomotive plant, Avangard, returned to the all-Union arena in class B, where they spent eight seasons from 1960 to 1969, with a break in 1961-62. The best result of the performance was 4th place in 1964. After the reform of the country’s football industry in 1970 (then class “B” was abolished), diesel locomotive builders completely lost their place in all-Union competitions. The team began to play for the Moscow Region Championship in the top group, but soon slipped into the second.

At this time, another team from the Oka Heavy Machine Tool Plant (ZTS) took leading roles in the city. Machine tool builders are five-time champions of the Moscow region, five-time winners of the Moscow Region Cup and six-time winners of the cosmonaut prize V.N. Volkov. In 1988, Oka became the winner of the zonal KFC championship tournament and 20 years later returned big-time football to the city, debuting in 1989 in the second union league. And in 1990, the revival of Avangard began. The confrontation between the two Kolomna teams led to the fact that in the first Russian championship in 1992, both clubs started in the same zone of the second league and finished next door. In four more Russian championships, Kolomna was represented by both teams, the best result of the performances was 2nd place taken by Avangard in 1993.

CHANGE OF NAMES OF THE CLUB KGO (Kolomenskoye Hymanistic Society) - VANGUARD:

1906-1919 “KGO” (Kolomenskoye Gymnastic Society)
1919-1923 “SFK” (Golutvin Section of Physical Culture)
1923-1936 “KFK” (Physical Culture Circle)
1936-1942 “Dzerzhinets”
1942-1945 "Tractor"
1945-1952 “Dzerzhinets”
1953-1993 "Vanguard"
1993 — “Victor-Avangard”
1994—1997 Avangard-Kortek

APPEARANCE OF FC "KOLOMNA"

Before the start of the 1997 season, the municipal football club "Kolomna" was created in Kolomna, which united two Kolomna teams: FC Avangard, founded in 1906 as the KGO (Kolomenskoye Gymnastic Society), and FC Oka, founded in 1923. like CLIF(Football Fans Club). And before the start of the 1998 season, FC Kolomna teamed up with the Gigant team (Voskresensk), the 1997 Russian champion among amateur football clubs in the Moscow Region zone.

Kolomna's last major achievement came in 1999, when the club took second place in the second division. Then came the decline of the team, in 2000 - 12th place. According to the results of the 2001 championship, Kolomna (19th place out of 20 teams) was supposed to leave professional football, but by the decision of the PFL, the Kolomna team was left in the Center zone. But the next season, finishing 18th out of 20 teams, the club lost its place in the second division and is now forced to compete in the amateur teams tournament...

Later, FC Kolomna spent ten seasons in the third division, where the best result was sixth place (2008, 2011/2012) and reaching the final of the Moscow Region Cup (2011/2012, 2012).

In 2012, it was decided to hold the exercise therapy championship in the Moscow Region zone in one round. Kolomna has strengthened itself with a number of non-resident football players who have experience playing in higher leagues. In addition, the club's students showed themselves quite brightly. This season, the team managed to reach the final of the Amateur Cup for the second time in a row and the Kolomna team lost in a bitter fight in a penalty shootout to Shchelkovo’s Sparta, and also, most importantly, took first place in the championship and, based on sporting principles, rose to the second division.

In the first season after returning to professional football, the club's roster was completely renewed, and the team started well: in the first part of the championship, they lost only twice at home. However, with the arrival of the new head coach, Eduard Demin, she completely failed the spring segment of the championship, achieving only one victory - in the last match, the principal rival “Znamya Truda” was beaten with a minimal score. The final thirteenth place out of seventeen participants, a club with one of the poorest budgets, was considered satisfactory.

The club spent the 2015/16 season extremely unsuccessfully: taking last place, in 28 matches of the Russian Football Championship in the “West” zone, only two victories were won. In total, only 10 points were scored - exactly half as many as their closest rival, Karelia Petrozavodsk (20). Towards the end of the season, on May 1, head coach Vladimir Bondarenko left the team. On May 23, he was replaced by ex-head coach of Podillya Alexander Bodrov. In the period before Bodrov's appointment, former club player Sergei Piskarev was the acting head coach of the team.

September 18, 12016. Football match "Dynamo-2" (Moscow) - FC "Kolomna" (Kolomna) 1:1

On May 25, it became known that Kolomna had successfully completed the licensing procedure and was allowed to participate in the PFL Championship and the Russian Cup in the 2016/2017 season. At the moment, FC Kolomna occupies the penultimate place (13 out of 14) in the Second League of the PFL (Zone "West")...

Football was brought to our country by the British along with the Blackburn Rovers uniform.

RIA Novosti visited the town of Orekhovo-Zuevo near Moscow and learned how the club’s football players fight in the Professional Football League, not forgetting their British roots.

A separate village was built for the British

Football came to Russia at the end of the 19th century. It is generally accepted that the first official game took place in St. Petersburg, but this is not entirely true. It is true that in 1897 there was a match in which the “Sport” team lost to the “Vasileostrovsky Society of Football Players” with a score of 0:6. But 10 years before that, in Orekhovo near Moscow (the unification with the village of Zuevo will take place after the October Revolution in 1917) they were already playing. The British, who were workers in the manufactory of a major philanthropist, brought a new entertainment for the local residents.

In order to learn more about the history of the oldest club, I went to the local history museum in Orekhovo-Zuevo itself, where workers explained how an entire English quarter appeared a hundred kilometers from Moscow.

“In 1840, England lifted the embargo on the use of textile equipment,” says guide Olga Krasnova. “Savva Vasilyevich Morozov, the founder of a great dynasty of merchants and philanthropists, invited Ludwig Knop to his new factory, who equipped the factory with English equipment. Specialists arrived with this equipment. from England, who brought an interesting and unknown game."

English specialists lived in comfort, with all the amenities and behind high fences. A village was built for them, which was popularly called “English”. The houses stood for a very long time; the last one, according to Krasnova’s recollections, burned down in 2006. There was a tuberculosis center there.

The British gradually began to form teams, to which first only their own, and then local Russian workers were invited. By the way, the Old Believers did not take the game seriously: football was something unusual for them, but over time, public opinion changed.

Through the efforts of the Charnok brothers, the first professional football team was created in 1909 - the Orekhovo Sports Club. Harry Charnock, who in the Russian manner always introduced himself as Andrei Vasilyevich and headed a small Morozov factory, became chairman and then president of the new team, his brother Clement was on the committee of the Moscow football league.

The Znamya Truda stadium, like the football club, is the oldest currently operating in the country. It was here that the current general director of the club, Igor Mayorov, brought me.

“There were wooden stands, a wooden dressing room. On the eastern stand there was such a symbolic cannon, and it shot blue ribbons. The priest read a prayer service, and the stadium was opened,” says Mayorov, to the sound of a hammer and a drill. The fact is that the arena is currently undergoing reconstruction.

Construction of the first stadium in Tsarist Russia began after 1912. The opening took place two years later: on April 7, 1914, the Orekhov team hosted the student team of the University of London.

- Do I understand correctly that the blue ribbons from that cannon were in honor of Blackburn Rovers? - I ask.

Yes,” Mayorov answers. - Employees were invited from there, that’s why there were these colors.

- Now the team plays some home matches in blue colors?

Harry and Clement Charnock were fans of this particular English club. Blue T-shirts were issued from Britain. However, the shorts were ordered to be sewn by the players themselves. True, no one indicated what size they should be. Some players took to the field in shorts almost reaching their ankles.

One of the first foreign players in Russian football wanted to overthrow the Soviet regime

The British were here more than 100 years ago. Now, if Znamya Truda wants to acquire foreign players, according to the PFL regulations, this will not be possible. But in the summer, the founders of football could still be here: the oldest existing club in the world, the English Sheffield, was organizing a tour in Russia.

Initially, the Orekhovo-Zuev team was one of the participants in the mini-tournament, the general director even agreed with the hotel and allocated a bus for the history brothers, but at the last moment “Sheffield” stopped communicating and preferred to play the game with an amateur team in Ramenskoye.

Continuing the conversation about connections with Blackburn, Mayorov said that he would not mind finding contact with the management of Rovers. Later I made a request to the British club. You never know, they could have added some other interesting fact to the history of the emergence of football in Russia, but I never received an answer.

A week after my visit to Orekhovo-Zuevo, I contacted Sergei Bondar, a former football player and coach of Znamya Truda, now he works as the sports director of the FNL. According to the players' stories, Bondar is an expert on the history of Orekhovsk football.

“This is an industrial region, where teams appeared in every factory. Even the Communist Party had its own team. There was a team “Groza”, which, under the pretext of playing football, held its meetings. This caused concern among the authorities. That is, we know both 1905 and The Morozov strike happened a little earlier. People were not very willing to play because (there was) a massive crowd of people,” Bondar shared the story.

In addition to the communist team, an English spy also played in Orekhovo. Robert Lockhart was considered one of the best CSR players. True, a year later, when the First World War began, many British either left for their homeland or went to the front. Lockhart remained, and it later turned out that he had prepared a conspiracy against Soviet power, uncovered in August 1918 by the Cheka.

“Lockhart is a military attaché who played in Orekhovo-Zuevo. He was a fairly good football player. Robert was the brother of a football player on the England team that won the Olympic Games (1912 - ed.), so he used this surname,” said Sergei. “At the same time, he was an intelligence officer. He collected information. These were the first legionnaires in Russia (laughs). Subsequently, he was one of the most important participants in the diplomatic conspiracy.”

“I wanted to kill Lenin and establish a dictatorship in Moscow. Such a serious event (laughs). I later wrote in my memoirs,” the ex-coach added.

Football players live in the stadium - and that’s good

Despite the low attendance of Znamya Truda in the PFL (about 300-400 people per match), the club has a fan movement. One of the founders of the Assembly of Workers, Pavel Korolev, explained who supports the team.

We have such a movement of the working class, as it should be for the Banner of Labor. People are aged, have families and mostly from working niches. Yes, there are no sold-out crowds of 30,000 people here, but there is also its own romance. And I’ve also been a fan of Lokomotiv since childhood, but at some point I realized that it’s even more interesting for myself here. And the football boys fight on the field, they don’t get millions, he thought.

- Tell me, are your performances somehow connected with the history of the club?

It hasn't come to that yet. The movement is not that big, there aren’t that many participants. Here you can’t even always go on trips, you have to rent a bus, but it’s still costly.

- Do you have a banner with the English flag and the club emblem?

There are British roots, of course, with Blackburn. We want to realize this too, maybe start some kind of friendship.

This season Znamya Truda is playing at the reserve Torpedo stadium. The general director's office is located there, the accounting department is located and... the football players live. Small rooms for two and four people.

“Football players live in the stadium, and that’s good. There are cars where they can wash, there is a canteen where they are fed. This is not the worst option. You can play and achieve results,” says head coach Anatolie Certoaca.

The coach himself lives separately in a hotel, but the players have no questions about their living conditions. All points are discussed before signing the contract. “When they came, they agreed to these conditions, they knew everything. Before inviting me, I explain everything to them: what kind of food there will be, what the salary will be. Three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. An agreement was signed with the canteen near the station, we go there,” added Certoaca.

With us they received 19 thousand, there they offered 70

The issue of money in the second league is acute. Players get no more than supermarket clerks, and some get less. But the general director and coach are against the players working part-time after training.

I will react negatively to this, I’ll be honest,” the coach answers the question about additional income for the players. - First of all, he is a football player. This is a professional club. I also have one job and he has one. He must give himself completely to her. It will be scattered, there can be no conversation about it. You need to develop yourself, and please, they will call you to another club, and the salary there will be higher.

- What place does Znamya Truda occupy in the PFL in terms of salaries?

I will probably not be mistaken if I say that the first place is from the end. The guys who played last year were noticed (by other clubs). We paid attention to the team, and then began to invite them individually.

- The players didn’t ask to let them go?

I understand them. They came up to me: “Vasilich, we are happy with everything here, but if the salary was a little more... We would stay.” They didn’t mention exorbitant prices, that’s what they were talking about. If they received 19 thousand from us, they were offered 70. Is there a difference? One received 26 from us, and they offered him 50. There is a two-fold difference, they went there, and that’s it. There was no way we could hold them back.

Goalkeeper and team captain Vitaly Chilyushkin is one of those who earn money outside the club. He is a coach at a children's school.

- Where can a second league football player go on vacation?

It depends on the player whether he has a family and children. It's hard to put something aside. And if a young man lives at the base, we also have food here. You can save almost your entire salary. My family and I are flying to Turkey in November for the third year in a row. Türkiye in November and Türkiye in summer are completely different price categories.

- If there is enough for Turkey, that’s already good.

And this despite the fact that my wife works.

- Sorry for asking, which of you earns more?

- (Laughs) My wife, by the way, earns good money for Orekhovo-Zuevo, but since I have two jobs, I still get more.

“On the right there were living football players, on the right there were dead ones. They were all smiling.”

On May 27, 2004, Znamya Truda went to the next championship game (then the team played in the amateur league - ed.). We had to go to the town of Shchelkovo near Moscow, where the match was supposed to start at 17:00. Around 3 p.m., the team bus was involved in an accident, killing nine players and club staff.

Bus FC "Znamya Truda". Archive photo

The road at the accident site has now been widened, so there is no memorial plaque left there. The city has a monument - a soccer ball and a temple in memory of the fallen football players.

"The guys played here, and such a terrible tragedy happened. They were buried right here (from the stadium). There were nine coffins here. Then they were taken to cemeteries. The memory should be here. There is no need to bring people to the track, where there will be another accident. Previously We were leaving, the bus was standing on the road,” Mayorov said.

Andrei Shagarov, one of the survivors of that terrible accident, agreed to tell me about what happened 15 years ago. Now he works as a coach at a children's school in Kurovskoye (Orekhovo-Zuevo). He is also interested in painting and paints in his free time.

On May 27, on a sunny day, we were leaving on the Pazik. You know, I'll tell you this - God exists. He ordered that someone be taken away and someone left alive. Dimka Svitavsky, a Tambov boy (then 21 years old), now he is disabled. He suffered nine brain hemorrhages after the accident. The day before the accident, they called him back to “Tambov”, I told him: “Of course, we have to go, they are interested in you, what should you do here.” Days passed, he went with us on the bus. Pashka Sukhov, the late team captain. He was offered to go in the car to the game, but he refused - I would sit with the team.

According to the official version, a container ship with a cargo of chemicals was moving towards Nizhny Novgorod, and a football team bus was driving towards them. One of the road users cut off the truck, after which the truck ended up in the oncoming lane, where it collided with the bus.

1. “Banner of Labor” (Orekhovo-Zuevo)

One of the oldest football clubs in Russia, founded on November 16, 1909 by factory workers from Morozovsk. Became the champion of Moscow 4 times in a row (1910-1913). Changed its name 9 times. The best achievement was reaching the final of the USSR Cup in 1962. Since 2007, it has been playing in the second division - first in the “Center” zone, and now in the “West” zone, and has still not risen above 12th place there.

2. CSKA (Moscow)

Founded on August 27, 1911 as a society of ski lovers. Changed its name 7 times. It began to be called CSKA only in 1960. Since Soviet times, he has become a champion 13 times, won the national cup 12 times, won the UEFA Cup and won the Russian Super Cup 6 times. CSKA became the first Russian club to keep the originals of all trophies. Over the last 16 seasons, it has not fallen below fifth place in the championship.

3. FC Kolomna

The Kolomna football club from the city of the same name was founded back in 1906 as a gymnastics society at a machine-building plant. In general, initially such a team did not exist, but in 1997 the Kolomna government decided to unite 2 football clubs - Avangard, founded in 1906, and Oka, created in 1923. In the modern history of the club, there has not been much success. Kolomna spent only 3 seasons in the West zone of the second division and never rose above 13th place.

4. “Chernomorets” (Novorossiysk)

The football club from Novorossiysk with an unremarkable emblem is also one of the oldest in Russia. It began in 1907. During this time, it changed its name 9 times. The first performance in the USSR Championship dates back to 1960. In 1988 he became the champion and winner of the RSFSR Cup. He competed 8 times in the Russian Championship, where he took sixth place 2 times. Since 2012, he has been playing in the “South” zone of the second division and is fighting well for access to the FNL.

5. Zenit (Penza)

Next year the Penza football club will celebrate its 100th anniversary. He has many achievements, but, however, within his region. It changed its name as many as 15 times (for 12 years it was even called “Spartak”). The club has never played in the country's top league and has never advanced beyond the 1/32 stage of the cup. For the last 7 years he has been playing in the “Center” zone of the second division and plays very unpredictably - he took both fifth and fourteenth places. At the end of the season, he settled on 11th place in the standings.