Football in Russia Football in Russia Association football is the most popular sport in Russia, beating ice hockey by a huge margin. When the USSR broke up into 15 different countries, the once renowned sports structure of the union collapsed. Football was the second most popular sport in the Soviet Union. While the national teams and the clubs used to be linked to state institutions or mass organizations, in 1991 some of them became private enterprises. Just like in many other spheres of business, corrupt and sometimes bloody division of power began. Furthermore, many teams of the erstwhile Soviet Top League, which was
Treaty on the Creation of the USSR adjoined to the Soviet Union on 3, 5 and 6 August respectively. The final republic was the Moldovian SSR that merged the large territory of Bessarabia with the Moldovian ASSR previously part of the Ukrainian SSR. After World War II, no new republics were established, instead, the Karello-Finnish SSR was downgraded into an autonomous republic and re-annexed by the RSFSR on July 16, 1956. On December 8, 1991, the leaders of the Ukrainian and Belorussian SSRs, and the RSFSR met to agree on the annulment of the 1922 treaty, which was terminated on December 25, 1991, effectively dissolving the USSR.