FC Arsenal Kyiv

Arsenal Kyiv

Full name	Football Club Arsenal Kyiv
Nickname(s)	Cannoneers
Founded	18 December 2001
Ground	Valeriy Lobanovskyi (Capacity: 16,873)
Chairman	Vadim Rabinovich
Head Coach	Leonid Kuchuk
League	Ukrainian Premier League
2010–11	9th
Home colours Away colours

FC Arsenal Kyiv is a professional football club from the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

History

In the 1950s, a different club under the same name Arsenal Kyiv won the 1958 Ukrainian SSR Championship. However in 1963 the club was renamed to "Temp Kyiv". In 1964 the club was replaced by FC Dynamo-2 Kyiv in the Soviet Second League. The origin of the current Arsenal club is disputed; some consider it to be part of the CSKA Kyiv heritage (for its full history see CSKA Kyiv) another of FC Boryspil. In 1994 CSKA merged with FC Boryspil under the name CSKA-Borysfen Boryspil. After a series of successful seasons the club made its way from the Ukrainian Third League to the Ukrainian Premier League. The club has continuously competed in the top flight since the 1995–96 season.

In 1996 CSKA-Borysfen split into two different clubs CSKA Kyiv and FC Borysfen Boryspil. The management of CSKA-Borysfen decided to recreate a club in Boryspil (near Kiev), while CSKA was reorganized under the Ministry of Defense as the first team of CSKA. Simultaneously the actual CSKA that was competing at the lower division has won a promotion and later was reorganized as the second team, CSKA-2. Borysfen after competing at the amateur level of the Kiev Oblast has applied to the professional competition and entered the lower divisions of the championship (for further story of the club see FC Borysfen Boryspil).

The army-men has also managed to appear in the domestic cup's finals twice (1998 and 2001), where it lost both times: first against city-rivals FC Dynamo Kyiv and then against FC Shakhtar Donetsk. The club's greatest achievements include a successful UEFA Cup run in the season of 2001–02, defeating the now defunct Finnish side FC Jokerit and Serbian giants Red Star Belgrade.

Arsenal Kyiv

After the 2000 financial crisis at CSKA the club lost its funding from the Ministry and was on the brink to be dissolved. The Kiev city government on the initiative of Oleksandr Omelchenko bought the club in 2001 reorganizing it under the name of Arsenal. The CSKA-2 once again became the primary team of the Army football club.

While under the city government's ownership, Arsenal has struggled financially, resorting to loaning many of its first squad players. The city had decreased funding to the club significantly as it sought to reduce its numerous sports holdings. In May 2007, it was announced that the club would be demoted due to financial issues, however soon afterward it was revealed that Arsenal would be purchased by Ukrainian oligarch, Vadim Rabinovich. The new owner started actively financing the club and its transfers. In January 2009 the Mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernovetskyi bought Arsenal Kyiv for 1 hryvnia from Rabynovich; Chernovetskiy’s 30-year-old son Stepan became the club’s president. Next year Rabynovich bought the club back due to the poor management.

Current squad

As of 31 October 2011

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 2 DF Veli Lampi 3 MF George Florescu 4 DF Serhiy Symonenko 5 DF Bohdan Shershun 6 DF Florin Şoavă 7 FW Ionuţ Mazilu (on loan from Dnipro) 8 MF Oleksandr Maksymov (on loan from Dnipro) 9 FW Oleksandr Kovpak 10 MF Yehor Luhachov 11 MF Artem Stargorodsky 12 GK Yevhen Borovyk (on loan from Dnipro) 13 MF Saulius Mikoliūnas 14 DF Éric Matoukou (on loan from Dnipro) 16 FW Maksym Shatskykh (captain)

No. Position Player 17 MF Andriy Bohdanov 18 MF Abeiku Quansah 19 MF Aleqsandr Kobakhidze (on loan from Dnipro) 20 DF Michael Odibe (on loan from Siena) 21 MF Andriy Mostovyi 22 FW Volodymyr Homenyuk (on loan from Dnipro) 23 GK Serhiy Pohorilyy 27 MF Volodymyr Arzhanov 28 DF Volodymyr Polovyi 33 DF Andriy Khomyn 37 GK Vladyslav Chanhelyya MF Leandro

Coaches

Oleh Kuznetsov (2001–02) Vyacheslav Hrozny (2002–04) Serhiy Krakovskyi (2004) Oleksandr Baranov (2004–05) Ihor Babynchuk (2005) Oleksandr Zavarov (2005–07) Vasyl Yevseyev (2007)

Oleksandr Zavarov (2007–09) Vyacheslav Hrozny (2010) Yuriy Bakalov (2010) Vasyl Yevseyev (2010) Yuriy Bakalov (2010–11) Leonid Kuchuk (2011–)

League and cup history

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Domestic Cup	Europe		Notes
Previous	Refer to CSKA Kyiv
2001–02	1st	12	26	6	5	15	18	28	23	1/4 finals	UC	2nd round	Name changed to Arsenal
2002–03	1st	5	30	16	8	6	24	25	56	1/4 finals
2003–04	1st	9	30	10	7	13	38	44	37	1/8 finals
2004–05	1st	9	30	9	10	11	30	33	37	1/16 finals
2005–06	1st	12	30	9	8	13	31	39	35	1/4 finals
2006–07	1st	14	30	7	9	14	28	44	30	1/32 finals
2007–08	1st	6	30	11	9	10	42	36	42	1/8 finals
2008–09	1st	11	30	8	8	14	26	33	32	1/8 finals
2009–10	1st	7	30	11	9	10	44	41	42	1/16 finals
2010–11	1st	9	30	10	7	13	36	38	37	1/2 finals
2011–12	1st									1/4 finals

European competitions

UEFA Cup

Season	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggr.
2001–02	Qualifying round	FC Jokerit	2–0	2–0	4–0
	First round	Red Star Belgrade	3–2	0–0	3–2
	Second round	Club Brugge K.V.	0–2	0–5	0–7

External links

• Official website