CSKA FOOTBALL CLUB HAS NO RELATION TO ARMY, MILITARY PROSECUTOR SAYS

MOSCOW, May 25 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow football club CSKA (the abbreviation for the Central Army Sports Club) does not form part of Russia's armed forces and uses the trademark on the basis of the contracts concluded earlier with the Ministry of Defence, the Russian Federation's chief military prosecutor, Colonel General of Justice Alexander Savenkov, said at the press conference in RIA Novosti.

"CSKA certainly does not form part of Russia's armed forces and uses the trademark on the basis of the contracts concluded earlier with the Ministry of Defence. Until recently there was even a dispute on this theme - on the use of this trade name by the footballers. By today this dispute has been settled," General Savenkov said.

As a source in the Defence Ministry told RIA Novosti, the dispute was settled prejudicially, "at the level of correspondence and talks." "CSKA is not a military unit, it is a commercial club," the agency's interlocutor noted.

At the same time, as he said, the Defence Ministry owns nearly 25% of the shares of the CSKA football club. CSKA uses the sports base of the Defence Ministry at Vatutinki near Moscow on the right of lease, the interlocutor went on to say.

Last Wednesday CSKA Moscow beat Portuguese Sporting 3-1 in the final match of the UEFA Cup, held at the Jose Alvalado stadium in Lisbon, and became the first Russian team to have won this trophy.

The Central Army Sports Club, to which the football club belonged earlier, was founded in 1923.