Full name | Профессиональный футбольный клуб ЦСКА Москва (Professional Football Club, Central Sport Club of the Army, Moscow) |
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Nickname(s) |
Koni (Horses) Krasno-sinie (Red-blues) Armeitsy (Militarians) |
Founded | 27 August 1911 |
Ground | VEB Arena |
Capacity | 30,000 |
Owner | Yevgeni Giner |
Chairman | Yevgeni Giner |
Manager | Viktor Goncharenko |
League | Russian Premier League |
2015–16 | 1st |
Website | Club home page |
PFC Central Sport Club of the Army, Moscow (Russian: Профессиональный футбольный клуб – ЦСКА) is a Russian professional football club. It is based in Moscow, playing its home matches at the 30,000-capacity Arena CSKA. 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 last-ever season in 1991. The club has also won 6 Russian Premier League titles, and the 2004–05 UEFA Cup.
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, with the Ministry of Defence as a shareholder. Russian businessman Roman Abramovich's Sibneft corporation was a leading sponsor of the club from 2004 to 2006.
Officially, CSKA is a professional club and thus no longer a section of the Russian military's CSKA sports club. The Russian Ministry of Defense is a PFC CSKA shareholder, however, and the central club claims them as their own (see CSKA Moscow). 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. CSKA won the Soviet championship seven times (1946, 1947, 1948, 1950, 1951, 1970, 1991), silver – 1938, 1945, 1949, 1990, bronze – 1939, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1964, 1965; the Soviet Cup five times (1945, 1948, 1951, 1955, 1991); the Russian Cup in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013; won the Russian Premier League champions title in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2015–16 finishing second in 1998, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2010 and 2014–15, bronze 1999, 2007, 2012 and the Russian Super Cup in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009,2012–13. After winning the Soviet championship in 1951, the club started the 1952 championship with 3 wins, but were forced to withdraw from the league as punishment for a disappointing showing of the Soviet Union football team at the Helsinki Olympics. In 2004, the club received a major financial infusion from a sponsorship deal with Sibneft, an oil company owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. Abramovich did not take an ownership interest in the club, as he was the owner of English Premier League club Chelsea and UEFA rules allow only one club controlled by any one entity (person or corporation) to participate in European club competition in a given season. The partnership with Sibneft lasted until 2006, when VTB became the sponsor of the club. CSKA started 2009 without a shirt sponsor.