MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. Russia’s renowned football club Spartak Moscow, which is currently boasting a strong lead over its domestic opponents to claim this year’s Russian Football Premier League’s (RFPL) championship title, will be celebrating its 95th anniversary on Tuesday.
Last Sunday, Spartak defeated another Russia's top-notch FC Zenit at home and tightened its grip on winning the national champions’ trophy.
The official birthdate of the Spartak Moscow football club is April 18, 1922, when its predecessor, Moscow Sports Hobby Club, held the club’s first-ever friendly match victory against the Zamoskvoretsky Sports Club, beating it 3-2.
Following numerous renaming since then, the club received its brand name of Spartak Moscow on November 14, 1934. The club’s name was officially approved on January 28, 1935 and on April 12 of the very same year, Spartak Moscow FC enjoyed a crushing 7-1 victory over the then-named Tryokhgorka football club.
Exactly a week later, on April 19, 1935, the All-Union Council on the Physical Culture Committee of the USSR Communist Party approved a new football club, its charter and regalia under the name of Spartak Moscow FC.
Throughout its almost one century-long history, Spartak Moscow FC was 12-time USSR champion, nine-time Russia champion and holder of other numerous titles and trophies, but had until recently no stadium of its own to play home matches.
The situation changed, however, when the Russian authorities opened the Otkritie-Arena on September 5, 2014, which was also named as the Spartak Stadium and became one of the two main venues in the Russian capital for hosting matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The official opening of the Otkritie-Arena in the northwest of the Russian capital was held on September 5, when Spartak FC played its inaugural home match against Serbian FC Crvena Zvezda. The first match of the international level was played at the Okritie-Arena on October 12, when Rusia played against Moldova in a qualifier for the UEFA Euro Cup 2016 in France.