Spartak Moskva

FC Spartak Moscow (in Russian: Футбольный клуб «Спартак» Москва, and officially Futbolʹnyĭ Klub Spartak Moskva) is a football club from the capital Moscow, Russia, part of the Spartak Sports Society. It is named in honour of the Roman slave Spartacus. The club was founded on 18 April 1922 and plays its home matches at the Otkrytie Arena, which has a capacity of 44,000 spectators and was inaugurated in 2014. It currently plays in the Russian Premier League, the top division of Russian football.

The club was one of the most important in the former Soviet Union, where it won twelve league championships. After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 and the creation of the Russian league, Spartak became the dominant force in Russian football by winning nine of the first ten Russian league championships between 1992 and 2001, the only exception being the 1995 league title, in which it finished third. Its honours also include ten Soviet Cups, three Russian Cups and six CIS Cups. Spartak is a regular in UEFA tournaments and has reached the semi-finals of all three European competitions.

The team is easily recognisable by its traditional kit, which consists of a red shirt with a white horizontal band, white shorts and red socks. The crest was designed in 1935 by Nikolai Starostin and consists of a red diamond with a white diagonal stripe and the Cyrillic letter "С" (equivalent to the Latin "S") in the centre. Historically the club is known as Narodnaya komanda ("the people's team") and was one of the most popular football clubs in the Soviet Union and in Russia, since its founding was not subject to any Soviet government body or institution, but was instead part of the Spartak sports society, named in honour of the Roman slave Spartacus.