Football at the 1979 Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR

The football tournament at the 1979 Summer Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR was a preparatory competition for the Soviet Union Olympic football team for the upcoming 1980 Summer Olympics. The competition took place on July 20 through August 5, 1979 as part of the Spartakiad of Peoples of the USSR.

Out of all the union republics, the Estonian SSR was not participating, while Russia was represented with 3 teams: Moscow City, Leningrad City and Russian Federation.

The competition took place during the mid-season break of the 1979 Soviet Union football championship. Less than a week later after the tournament, an aircraft with Pakhtakor Tashkent players who were traveling to the away game against Dinamo Minsk crashed in the sky over Dniprodzerzhynsk.

Qualification groups
All times local (UTC+3)
 * Group 1 (Moscow)
 * CSKA Stadium, Lokomotiv Stadium


 * Group 2 (Moscow)
 * Torpedo Stadium


 * Group 3 (Kiev)
 * Dynamo Stadium


 * Group 4 (Minsk)
 * Traktor Stadium

Consolation tournament

 * For 9-12 places (Kiev)


 * For 13-16 places (Minsk)

Semifinals groups

 * Group A


 * Group B

Playoffs games

 * 7th place game.


 * 5th place game.


 * 3rd place game.

Moldavian SSR
Head coach: Vyacheslav Kirichenko (Nistru Kishinev), assistant: Vladimir Gasperskiy (Avtomobilist Tiraspol)

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Nistru Kishinev.

Kazakh SSR
Head coach: Igor Volchok (Kairat Alma-Ata), assistant: Leonid Ostroushko (Kairat Alma-Ata)

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Kairat Alma-Ata.

Turkmen SSR
Head coach: Valery Nepomnyashchy (Kolkhozchi Ashkhabad), assistant: Viktor Savenkov

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Kolkhozchi Ashkhabad.

Moscow
Head coach: Konstantin Beskov (Spartak Moscow), assistant: Nikolai Starostin (Spartak Moscow)

Kyrgyz SSR
Head coach: Rivgat Bibayev (Alga Frunze), assistant: Anatoliy Kolmykov

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Alga Frunze.

Azerbaijan SSR
Head coach: Ahmad Alasgarov (Neftchi Baku), assistant: Vladimir Shuvalov

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Neftchi Baku.

Georgian SSR
Head coach: Nodar Akhalkatsi (Dinamo Tbilisi), assistant: Kakhi Asatiani (Dinamo Tbilisi)

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Dinamo Tbilisi.

Lithuanian SSR
Head coach: Benjaminas Zelkevičius (Žalgiris Vilnius), assistant: Stanislovas Ramjalis (Žalgiris Vilnius)

Except for one player (see the roster), whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Žalgiris Vilnius.

Russian SFSR
Head coach: Vladimir Ivashkov, assistant: Nikolai Samarin (SKA Rostov-na-Donu)

Uzbek SSR
Head coach: Oleh Bazylevych (Pakhtakor Tashkent), assistant: Idgai Tazetdinov (Pakhtakor Tashkent)

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Pakhtakor Tashkent.

Ukrainian SSR
Head coach: Valeriy Lobanovskyi (Dynamo Kyiv), assistant: Volodymyr Bohdanovych

Tajik SSR
Head coach: Mark Tunis (Pamir Dushanbe), assistant: Sharif Nazarov (Pamir Dushanbe)

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Pamir Dushanbe.

Belorussian SSR
Head coach: Eduard Malofeyev (Dinamo Minsk), assistant: Leonid Harai (Dinamo Minsk)

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Dinamo Minsk.

Latvian SSR
Head coach: Gennadi Bondarenko (Daugava Riga), assistant: Boris Reingold

Armenian SSR
Head coach: Yozhef Betsa (Ararat Yerevan), assistant: Grachik Khachmanukyan

Whole squad was based on the senior team of FC Ararat Yerevan.

Leningrad
Head coach: Yury Morozov (Zenit Leningrad), assistant: Vadim Kharovitskiy (Zenit Leningrad)