Football in Russia
Association football is the most popular sport in Russia, surpassing ice hockey by a wide margin.
[2][3][4][5] On 28 February 2022, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and in accordance with a recommendation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), FIFA and UEFA suspended the participation of Russia, including in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
[7][8] While the national teams and the clubs used to be linked to state institutions or mass organizations, in 1991 some of them became private enterprises.
Furthermore, many teams of the erstwhile Soviet Top League, were now divided between the national football associations of the newly independent republics.
Many of the top brand names lost their financing from the government and were left to rot, waiting for some forms of sponsorship.
The Russian league is rapidly regaining its former strength because of huge sponsorship deals, an influx of finances and a fairly high degree of competitiveness with roughly 5 teams capable of winning the title.
[10][11] The Russian national team gained attention when they defeated traditional European powerhouse Netherlands 3–1 in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions Spain.
Some players such as Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko earned big-money moves to the English Premier League after impressing at the tournament.
[12] Currently, the majority of Russian footballers play in a home league mainly due to the foreign players limits.
)[14] On 28 February 2022, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and in accordance with a recommendation by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), FIFA and UEFA suspended the participation of Russia, including in the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
The next level of football is the Amateur Football League (aka Third Division), which is split into ten zones: North-West (Severo-Zapad), Golden Ring (Zolotoe Koltso), Moscow City (Gorod Moskva), Moscow Region (Podmoskovye), Center, South (Yug), Volga Region (Privolzhye), Ural and West Siberia (Ural i Zapadnaya Sibir), Siberia (Sibir), and Far East (Dalniy Vostok).
Many federal subject leagues provide a much stronger competition, so clubs often prefer to stay at the 5th level rather than enter the AFL.
Since the collapse of Soviet Union the Russia national team has had success in Euro 2008 before it took ten years to repeat this feat, this time as host of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
