The winner of the competition was awarded a qualification to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, unless it already qualified for the European Cup, in turn passed the qualification to the finalist. In case if a team would win the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup and not win its national league cup titles the next year, it qualified to the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup along with the new cup holder. The first participation in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup took place in 1965–66 when Dynamo Kyiv qualified for the European competition for winning the 1964 Soviet Cup.
On initiative of Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper starting from 1977, the Soviet Cup winner was invited to contest the Soviet Top League winner in a single match competition known as the Season's Cup which served as the Soviet Super Cup but was not considered official.
Format
Format of competitions was constantly changing.
The very first edition of the competition in 1936 was a single-elimination tournament (more precisely sudden-death tournament) throughout all rounds. It was played during the season's summer intermission of the 1936 split season. The tournament consisted of seven rounds starting with the Round of 128.
The first changes took place in the 1938 Soviet Cup when there was introduced a preliminary (qualification) stage as the number of participants grew. The competition still was a single-elimination tournament with only more added rounds (up to 9). The Soviet Cup also featured the 1938 Cup of the Ukrainian SSR. All teams of masters (All-Union league teams) started from the final stage. The competition rounds were in-mixed within the league's playing calendar for the first time. The final stage contained 6 rounds.
In 1939 the competition was expanded as number of participants grew over 6 times. Starting from 1939 the preliminary stage was expanded and included republican football cup for each union republic, winners of which would qualify for the Soviet Cup finals.[citation needed]
In 1940 the competition was split. The league teams (Groups A and B) were scheduled to play for the All-Union Sports Committee Cup, while non-league teams (republican level) were competing in a separate bracket, winner of which would play the All-Union Sports Committee Cup holder. However, due to scheduling issues the All-Union Sports Committee Cup was postponed and never took place.[citation needed]
Involvement of the republican cup winners was suspended after the World War II and reintroduced in 1949. Those winners continued to qualify for the Soviet Cup until 1955 and starting from 1957 they were rerouted to the Soviet Amateur Cup. There is a legend that during that period the competition was nicknamed as the "Cup of Millions".[citation needed]
Until 1984 the Soviet Cup corresponded to the calendar of the whole Soviet football "spring"-"fall", however after that it changed to "fall"-"spring" calendar which synchronized it with the most of Europe.[citation needed]
In 1959-1960 the competition was conducted for two years. From 1965 to 1968 seasons were overlapping each other.[citation needed]
Until 1957, in the tournament participated "teams of physical culture"[1] (Soviet "newspeak" (phraseology) for non-professional, amateur teams). After 1957 teams of physical culture competed in a separate competition known as the Soviet Amateur Cup.[nb 2] Since then, the tournament was restricted to professional clubs (teams of masters) of the All-Union competition (tiers 1 through 3).[citation needed]
In 1979 to 1982 there was a group stage better teams of which would continue in a traditional single-game elimination format.[1]
All tournaments final were played in a single game in Moscow, but until introduction of penalty kicks in early 1970s as a tiebreaker some finals that ended in tie were replayed. Introduction of the penalty shoot-out was adopted for tiebreaker took place in 1972 after such procedure was adopted by FIFA in 1970.
The cup itself is an artistically crafted crystal vase in a silver frame. The cup is crowned with a bronze figurine of a football player with a ball. The names of the teams that won the cup are engraved on the lid and base.
The trophy's height is 57cm (22in), weight is 6kg (13lb). In 1992, after Spartak Moscow won the last USSR Cup, the trophy was given to the club forever.
The cup itself was bought in an ordinary Moscow thrift store.[6] The first chairman of the All-Union Football Section, Aleksei Sokolov, took a liking to the small pitcher, which it was decided to make a transferable trophy.[6][7] Few people knew about the Davis Cup in the Soviet Union at that time, and accusations of plagiarism could not follow by definition.
Together with the All-Union Council on Physical Culture and Sport inspector Morar, Aleksei Sokolov created a sketch of the future prize.[8] The jewelers attached silver legs to the base and built a lid with a small hole on top. There they mounted a figurine of a football player, donated by Raspevin, a great fan of this game. The crystal chest of the trophy was decorated with the coat of arms of the USSR.
Venues of the final match
All finals were played in the Soviet Union capital, Moscow. In 1936 to 1955 it was Central Dynamo Stadium, while since 1957 it was Luzhniki Stadium which was known then as Lenin Central Stadium. There were also exceptions such as the venue of the final in 1977 and 1987/88 was Dynamo, while in 1978 it was the only time when Torpedo Stadium hosted the final match. The last final match in 1992 at Luzhniki was played following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
While Spartak Moscow is the absolute leader in total number of trophies won, Dinamo Kiev won the most Soviet Cup in those finals played in Luzhniki Stadium. Also, Luzhniki were even favorable to the Western Ukrainian team of Karpaty.
The "teams" column includes number of participants in the final stage (tournament proper). Those with asterisk (x*) indicates that there was a preliminary (qualification) stage with additional number of participants.
↑The team of the Moscow Military District that represented the city of Kalinin and was literally known as the team of the Kalinin City (Russian: команда г. Калинина).
↑In November of 1961 the city of Stalino was renamed Donetsk after river Siversky Donets following the so-called de-Stalinization process.
Overall statistics
Until 1959-1960 season, the competition was dominated by Muscovite clubs, particularly Spartak and CSKA. Unlike the round-robin competitions, Dinamo Kiev was not as successful yet managed to get as close as possible to Spartak surpassing all other clubs out of Moscow and other Soviet cities. The first non-Moscow team that won the trophy was Zenit Leningrad which won it in the first post war season of 1944. It became the single achievement for the team out of the "northern capital". In 1961 and 1962, the competition was won back-to-back by Shakhter Donetsk which became a unique achievement. In 1969, Karpaty Lvov won the competition while playing in the second tier (Pervaya Liga) by beating SKA Rostov-na-Donu in Moscow. In 1970s teams from the Caucasus region (Dinamo Tbilisi and Ararat Yerevan) have shown good performance winning 4 trophies with 2 for each.
The only other than Moscow or Leningrad teams from Russian SFSR that won the Soviet Cup was SKA Rostov-na-Donu in 1981. Twice reached the finals but did not manage to win it were Krylya Sovetov Kuibyshev, Dinamo Minsk, Zaria Voroshilovgrad.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December 1991, clubs from around the fallen Soviet Union refused their further participation among which were Ukrainian clubs who effectively forfeiting their chances at the Cup, Belarusian Dinamo Minsk, Kazakhstani Khimik Dzhambul, and others, leaving only Pamir Dushanbe as the non-Russian club still in the competition.
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