PhD, Associate Professor A.V. Mutiyev¹
PhD V.V. Minin¹
A.V. Reshetnyak¹
V.V. Karasev^2
1V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Simferopol
²LLC Tavriya Football Club, Simferopol

Keywords: football, history, early XX century, Sevastopol.

Background. Russian football takes pride in its long history subject to quite a few studies, albeit it should be mentioned that many of its aspects are still underexplored including the origin and evolution of the Crimean football on the whole and the Sevastopol football school in particular with its traditions that arguably may be ranked among the oldest in Russia [1]. Studies of that kind are particularly important in the context of the last political events with repatriation of the Crimean football and an important contribution of the lately established Crimean Football Union that enjoys a special status and takes persistent efforts to secure the UEFA support for the club movement in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol and its fast incorporation into the national and global sport universe.

Objective of the study was to give an account of the football origin and evolution in the Crimea in the early XX century.

Methods and structure of the study. Applied for the study purposes were the Crimean and imperial periodicals of that time, archive materials, research publications, reference literature and the Internet data.

Study findings and discussion. Football in Crimea emerged much in the same way as in Russia on the whole. It was the sea ports of Sevastopol, Kerch and Feodosia where it was imported to by the foreign visitors and seamen [8]. Its historical records report the local amateur football groups that soon evolved into the first football teams. The first documented ‘football group’ was established in Sevastopol back in 1909 to make fast progress to a sound football team. The new game was gaining popularity very fast at that time, and it took only one year for the group to split up into two fully-fledged ‘Red’ and ‘Yellow’ teams, both named by the colors of their competitive shirts as was quite traditional at that time in the other pioneering Russian cities [5]. Having two skillful teams, the Sevastopol enthusiasts actively competed in 1910 both on the city arena and with the nearest neighbors from the city of Simferopol [8]. According to the Kerch-Yenikal mayor’s archives, the fist football group in the city of Kerch was formally founded by the Lawn Tennis and Foot-Ball Club on April 11 (24) 1909 (see the photo hereunder) under leadership of Ivan Simmelidi [10].

Kerch-based Lawn Tennis and Foot-Ball Club Group in 1909 [10]

It was as soon as in 1911-1912 that the beginner amateur football groups were formally registered and recognized including the Sevastopol and Feodosian Amateur Sport Groups, Simferopol Football Club etc. The Crimean Resort Bulletin of 1912 reads among other things: ‘The sporting spirit is getting viral in the Feodosian community: lately the local enthusiasts have formed an amateur sport group. They are ambitiously looking forward to making good progress and winning a popular support for the new movement. At this juncture, the group hosts football team competitions with up to 25 players fiercely competing in every match’ [10]. It is only natural that there were no stadiums at that time, and the teams competed and trained in yards and on vacant sites. In the city of Sevastopol they competed on the Kulikovo Field and Rudolf Hill [9]; in Feodosia on the site next to the Rukavishnikov’s estate [10]; and in Kerch on the Mount Mitridat. The local newspaper ‘Yuzhnye Vedomosty’ [Southern Bulletin] reads at that time: ‘As soon as the spring comes to the city, the local commercial school children start planting the Mount Mitridat. They have installed a trapeze on the top and are leveling a site for the football and lawn tennis games’ [6].

Since 1910 the archives reported the first intercity matches in the Crimea which were readily covered by the local media. The first event of that kind was a match of the Simferopol and Sevastopol Football Teams on July 25, 1910 in Simferopol that ended up in a draw. The return match was played in Sevastopol on August 8 and was won by the hosts 4:0 [8]. In July 1913, the Feodosia Football Team played a match with the Kerch Football Team and lost it 5:0 [3]. The new game was fast to gain popularity, with the football groups and team enthusiastically formed by a variety of local educational establishments, military units and sport associations like Sokol [Falcon] and Makkabi. The Feodosia newspaper ‘Yuzhnye Vedomosty’ of June 10 (27) 1913 reads: ‘A match of the Sokol Sport Association team with the Simferopol Football Team SFK will take place on June 29 and 30 on the site next to the Rukavishnikov’s estate’ [10].

It was in 1912 that the first printed edition covering the-then football techniques was out of print in the city of Sevastopol. A group of officers of the 13 Artillery Brigade collected funds to produce an instruction manual for the military academies and senior students of secondary educational establishments under the title of ‘Instruction Manual for the Track and Field Sports and Football Game’ [8]. A report by the Kerch-based Lawn Tennis and Foot-Ball Club of 1912 mentions a Five Cities Cup [7, p. 72] and a match of the Feodosia and Kerch Football Teams that ended up 2:2 [3]. It may be pertinent to note that this cup format was used for the Russian-first imperial inter-regional tournament that was hosted by Feodosia in August 1912. The Five Cities Cup was a brainchild of K.S. Levin, Berdyansk Sport Group leader. ‘To Sports!’ Magazine Issue #36 of August 4, 1912 reads: ‘It was in July this year that the picked teams from the five sea ports of Berdyansk, Kerch, Mariupol, Taganrog and Feodosia competed for the Five Cities Cup launched by K.S. Levin, Berdyansk Sport Group leader. The Mariupol team was the third on the scoreboard having defeated the Kerch team 7:0, Feodosia team 8:3, making a draw of 2:2 with the Taganrog team; and defeated by the Berdyansk team 0:3’. Competing for the Five Cities Cup in Feodosia were 10 teams of the five cities plus a few guest teams from the cities of Genichensk, Alexandrovsk (now Zaporozhye) and Novocherkassk that played 18 matches on the whole. The Moscow ‘K Sportu!’ and ‘Russkiy Sport” Magazine found the event amazingly well organized [4, 7].

It may be pertinent to mention in this context a special contribution made to the Crimean and Sevastopol sports by Sergey Petrovich Pesterev, founder and the first chair of the Sevastopol Amateur Sport Group, competitor in the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm and the First and Second Pan-Russian Olympiad of 1913 and 1914. It was the Sevastopol Amateur Sport Group that co-founded on January 19 (6) 1912 the Pan-Russian Football Union as a supreme football body in the Russian Empire [9]. Intercity matches in the Crimea were regular at that time, with the teams being much the same as in the modern Crimean premier league cup. Arthur Macferson, the-then head of the Russian Football Union acknowledged the success of the competitions saying that ‘this tournament is pretty well organized and no doubt that it will contribute to the progress of the Russian players defending the colors of the dignified cities of the radiant Taurida’ [8]. The Sevastopol and Simferopol picked teams were in position to compete in every Russian Empire Cup and it was only due to the financial constraints that they failed to join the First (1912) and Second (1913) Cups, with the First World War largely destroying the Third (1914) Cup.

It should be mentioned, however, that the war failed to fully kill the Crimean football life. Thus in June 1915 the Sevastopol Amateur Sport Club hosted two commercial football matches of the top ranking Crimean teams of those days on its Kulikov Field - the first Simpferopol SFK Football Club and the first host city team, with 25% of the income used to support the servicemen’s families [8]. On September 28 and 29, 1916, the Melitopol Staduim FC and Jankoy Yesidir FC played two matches, with the Melitopol team winning the first match 4:1 (1:1 in the first time), and with the score of the second match unfortunately lost in the records [2].

Conclusion. The archives and study reports show a fast progress of the Crimean football in the early XX century in many cities of Crimea, with football activists forming amateur teams and running first matches of the municipal and regional teams. The Sevastopol-based amateur football group of enthusiasts was among the founders of the Russian Football Union, with the Crimean teams ranked among the national football leaders and competing in the top imperial events at that time. The study data and analyses give reasons to conclude that the Crimean football was an indispensable part of the Russian football movement in its origin and evolution.

References

1. Balayan B.S., Mutyev A.V., Nemirovsky G.M. Krym. Sport. Mir. Vsemirnaya seriya: Narody i vremena [Crimea. Sport. Peace. World Series: Peoples and Times]. Vol. 6. Simferopol: IT ARIAL publ., 2015, 184 p.
2. Didenko V.M. Iz istorii Melitopolya: ot ‘Sokola’ do ‘Olkoma’ [From history of Melitopol: from ‘Falcon’ to ‘Olkoma’]. [Electronic resource]. Melitopol: МГТ publ., 2014. Access mode: http://vmelitopole.ru/istoriya/melitopol-v-sostave-rossijskoj-imperii, free access. Ver. from the screen.
3. Istoricheskaya spravka – zarozhdenie i stanovlenie futbola v Feodosii[Historical background - origin and formation of football in Feodosia [Electronic resource]. Feodosia: Official website of Feodosian Football Federation. Access mode: http://feosport.ru/events/news.html, free. Ver. from the screen.
4. K sportu! [To sports!]. Moscow, 1912, no. 36. 4 August.
5. Liventsev D.V. Na zare voronezhskogo futbola [At the dawn of Voronezh football]. Kultura fizicheskaya i zdorovye, 2014, 2 (49), pp. 48-50.
6. Na Mitridate [On Mithridates]. Yuzhnye vedomosti: Simferopol (Tavrichesk. gub.), 1914, no. 26, 26 (13) March, 8 p.
7. Rybakov V. Futbol, Dnepropetrovsk, i ne tolko…K 100-letiyu dnepropetrovskogo futbola: vospominaniya, hroniki, ocherki, statistika (1911-1962) [Football, Dnepropetrovsk, and more ... To the 100th anniversary of Dnepropetrovsk football: memories, chronicles, essays, statistics (1911-1962)]. [Electronic resource]. Book 1, part 1-2. Dnepropetrovsk, 2001-2007, 192 p. Access mode: http://www.litmir.co/br/?b=278531&p=192, free.
8. Sapozhnikov E.I. Iz istorii sevastopolskogo futbola. Sergey Pesterev [From the history of Sevastopol football. Sergey Pesterev] [Electronic resource]. Sevastopol: FC Sevastopol - official site, 2013, March 6. Access mode: http://fcsevastopol.ru/news/4421.html, free. Ver. from the screen.
9. Chushyan S. Futbolnaya imperiya. Kak na Rusi v futbol igrali do ‘Spartaka’, TsSKA i ‘Zenita’ [Football Empire. The way Russian played football before Spartak, CSKA and Zenit [] [Electronic resource]. 2016.10 December. Access mode: http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/944728, free access. Ver. from the screen.
10. Khoroshko S. Kerch. 100 futbolnykh let [Kerch. 100 years of football]. Kerch: MCP RGTime publ., 2017, 32 p.
11. Yuzhnye vedomosti [Southern statements]. Simferopol (Tavrichesk Gubernia), 1913, no. 27, June 27 (July 10). 8 p.

Corresponding author: andryushenko-lil@mail.ru

Abstract

Historical studies of the origin and early history of different sport disciplines in our country have always been topical, particularly in the theoretical and educational aspects. Objective of the study was to give an account of the football origin and evolution in the Crimea in the early XX century. Applied for the study purposes were the Crimean and imperial periodicals of that time, archive materials, research publications, reference literature and the Internet data. The archives and study reports show a fast progress of the Crimean football movement in the early XX century in many cities, with football activists forming amateur teams and running first matches of municipal and even provincial teams. The Sevastopol-based amateur football group of enthusiasts was among the founders of the Russian Football Union, with the Crimean teams ranked among the national football leaders and competing in the top imperial events at that time. The study data and analyses give the reasons to conclude that the Crimean football was an indispensable part of the Russian football movement in its origins and evolution.