Assessment of Spartak Moscow’s 2023 season and context for 2024
Leonid Fedun, the former owner of Spartak Moscow, shared his evaluation of the club’s 2023 performance with Sports Express. He offered a candid take on the year, describing it as extremely average for Spartak. His critique focused on the club’s spending and outcomes, suggesting that based on financial activity, the team should have finished at least in second place in the season standings.
Following eighteen rounds in the Russian Premier League, Krasnodar holds the lead with 38 points. In second place sits Zenit Saint Petersburg with 36, while Dinamo Moscow trails closely in third with 32. As the season progresses, fans and analysts alike anticipate how the campaign will unfold in March 2024, when competitive action is scheduled to resume.
The broader competitive landscape for Russian football has been shaped by international sanctions that began in spring 2022. At that time, the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) suspended participation by the Russian national team and all Russian clubs in events governed by these bodies. Since the suspension, Russian teams and the national squad have been limited to friendly matches against foreign opponents, which has influenced planning, development opportunities for players, and the overall tempo of domestic competition. Observers note that the pause has affected various clubs differently, depending on their academy structures, transfer strategies, and financial resilience. The pause also intersected with the league’s long-term project to maintain competitive integrity while Russia navigates its place in European football.
Earlier in the period, Sergei Semak spoke about the challenges faced in nurturing young talent within the club’s system. He highlighted the tension between maintaining competitive results in the short term and investing in youth development for the longer arc of the team’s future. This tension is not unique to Spartak Moscow; many clubs in the league have wrestled with balancing immediate on-pitch success against cultivating a pipeline of homegrown players who can contribute at the highest levels amid evolving competitive and financial pressures. Stakeholders watching Spartak’s trajectory are particularly attentive to how the club will adapt its youth pathways and player development philosophy as the league gradually returns to a more typical calendar and as international competition slowly normalizes for Russian teams. [Source: Sports Express]