The Soviet Union football league system, was a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubsin Soviet Union which included "teams of masters" from constituent union republics. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, allowing even the smallest club the theoretical possibility of ultimately rising to the very top of the system. For most of its time, the all-Union level had two tiers, while for good potion of the Soviet period there existed third and much less period forth tiers. The exact number of Soviet teams of masters varied from year to year as clubs have joined and left leagues, fold or merge altogether. On occasions a season competition format included multiple stages with several groups including the top tier. The third tier since its revival in 1963 consisted from about 5 to 9 groups known as zones winners of which qualified to promotional play-off tournament. Rotation between republican competitions and the all-Union football "pyramid" existed only for the Russian SFSR and the Ukrainian SSR. The Soviet Unionfootball league system was dominated by teams of masters from the Russian SFSR and particularly from Moscow. The focal game of the top league initially involved the Moscow derby between Spartak and Dinamo. Following the World War II, there appeared winning CDKA, which was also known as the team of lieutenants. Following some reforms in organization of competitions in early 1960s the top league champion's title was gained by clubs outside of Moscow as the Soviet Union football league system was expanded with more teams of masters from various union republics and their regions. By 1980 the main game of the Soviet Top League became a rivalry between Russian and Ukrainian capitals Spartak Moscow and Dinamo Kiev . The pyramid for women's football in the Soviet Union existed only 1990 and 1991 ran separately to three tiers.
1990–1991
1971-1989
1970
1963-1969
1960-1962
1953-1959
1950-1952
1947-1949
1945-1946
1936-1941
Initially, for the Spring championship of 1936 there were only seven teams participating in the top group, while for the Fall championship the number of participants was increased to eight. A similar case scenario took place in the second group as for the spring championship saw some withdrawals. In the third group the number of participants was unchanged at eight for both parts of 1936 season. At same time in the fourth group initially there were five teams for the spring half and six for the autumn. In 1937 the number of participants continue to grow. Some reshuffling took place between groups A and B, although initially both consisted of eight teams. Groups V and G increased their team pools to 10 and 12 participants, respectively. Also for the 1937 there was introduced the Group D with two subgroups. In 1938 all of groups were merged into one big super league of 26 teams. In 1939 and 1940 season Group A consisted of 14 teams. There also was a revival of Group B with 23 teams at first and then reduced to 14 as well. In 1941 season there was only Group A championship which was heavily adjusted to 15 teams.
