FC Flora Tallinn

FC Flora

Full name	Mittetulundusühing Jalgpalliklubi Football Club Flora
Nickname(s)	Triibulised (Streakeds), Kaktused (Cactus)
Founded	March 10, 1990
Ground	A. Le Coq Arena Tallinn (Capacity: 10,000)
Chairman	Aivar Pohlak
Manager	Martin Reim
League	Meistriliiga
2011	Meistriliiga, 1st
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

MTÜ JK FC Flora is an Estonian football club that was founded in 1990. FC Flora are a multiple winner of the Meistriliiga title and the Estonian Cup. They have for years been raising the most number of players for the national team, and have also grown players from their successful youth system that have had a good career abroad. These players include for example Mart Poom, Andres Oper, Raio Piiroja, Ragnar Klavan. FC Flora have also developed many players that have gone on and brought success to other Estonian clubs.

History

The club was founded in 1990. Flora played their first season in the second division of Estonian SSR championship. The club was mostly packed with former Tallinna Lõvid players.

In 1994, Flora won their first Meistriliiga title under rather controversial circumstances, when the Estonian FA decided to disqualify the leaders Tevalte Tallinn on match-fixing allegations that were never proven. The title was then decided in a championship playoff, since Norma and Flora finished level on points. But, as a protest against the disqualification of Tevalte, Norma Tallinn decided to field their youth squad and lost the game 2–5. Flora went on to secure the title the following season.Flora won their 8-th Meistriliiga title in 2010 after 7 years without winning.

In the summer of 1998, Flora, the newly-crowned Meistriliiga champions, played AC Milan in a friendly in Sicilia. Flora shocked Milan, who fielded most of their star players, on the 16th minute when they took an unlikely lead through Urmas Kirs' header after Marko Kristal's corner. Milan equalized on 36 minutes, through George Weah's close-range header. The Italian giants scored their second of the night six minutes later to take a 2–1 lead, when Zvonimir Boban sent the ball past Toomas Tohver. Oliver Bierhoff came close to adding a third for Milan in the second half, but saw his one-on-one effort denied by the Estonian goalkeeper. The score remained unchanged for the rest of the game.

Farm clubs

As the only government-supported team in Estonia, Flora own and operate several reserve teams and farm clubs in different divisions. Tulevik Viljandi, one of the founding members of the Estonian Meistriliiga, the top tier of Estonian league system, are owned by FC Flora. Players who haven't made a sufficient impact at the club, are often sent over to play out the rest of their contracts at Tulevik. Tervis Pärnu, Flora's reserve team until 2005, was disbanded and replaced with FC Flora II ahead of the 2006 season. Upon their relegation from the Meistriliiga, Valga Warrior have been used as the club's second reserve team, one step behind the Flora's second team. In addition to Flora II and Valga Warrior, Flora own three more clubs in the Esiliiga, second overall tier (FC Kuressaare, Flora's second biggest farm club, Flora Paide and Flora Rakvere), three in the Second League (FC Elva, JK Viljandi Tulevik II, and FC Valga Warrior II), two in the Third League (FC Elva II and FC Flora Järva-Jaani SK) and one in the Fourth League (FC Flora Rapla).

Stadium

Main article: A. Le Coq Arena

FC Flora's main rivals are FC Levadia, JK Sillamäe Kalev and FC Narva Trans, last two mentioned come from the Ida-Viru County, Flora and Levadia are based in Tallinn. Flora's home stadium is a recently built A. Le Coq Arena which holds a capacity of 9,300 and has an under-soil heating system. The stadium complex also holds many training pitches with natural but also with artificial turf. There are short-term plans to add a full-sized indoor training pitch.

Achievements

• Meistriliiga: (9)

1993–94, 1994–95, 1997–98, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2011

• Estonian Cup: (5)

1994–95, 1997–98, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11

• Estonian SuperCup: (6)

1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2011

FC Flora in Estonian Football

Season	League	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes	Top Goalscorer	Avg. Att.	Cup	Supercup
1992	1E	4	13	8	3	2	53	13	40	19	Advanced to Championship Group
	1C	4	7	3	2	2	17	9	8	8
1992–93	1	2	22	15	4	3	63	13	50	34
1993–94	1	1	22	15	6	1	61	9	52	36
1994–95	1	1	14	10	4	0	32	4	28	34	Half of the points from the first phase were taken to the Championship Group. .5 were rounded to the next biggest integer. e.g. 29 / 2 = 14.5 → 15			W
	1C	1	10	7	3	0	27	6	21	41
1995–96	1	3	14	6	4	4	37	19	18	22		Lembit Rajala (16)
	1C	2	10	6	2	2	14	3	9	31
1996–97	1	2	14	9	2	3	27	9	18	29
	1C	2	10	7	2	1	27	7	18	38
1997–98	1	1	14	12	1	1	39	6	33	37		Andres Oper (8)		W
	1C	1	10	7	2	1	34	10	24	42
1998	1	1	14	11	2	1	46	14	32	35		Andres Oper (10) Indrek Zelinski (10)			W
1999	1	3	28	13	8	7	60	33	27	47		Indrek Zelinski (14)		SF	RU
2000	1	2	28	16	7	5	51	25	26	55		Meelis Rooba (10)
2001	1	1	28	21	5	2	62	18	44	68		Aleksandr Kulik (14)		F
2002	1	1	28	20	4	4	79	25	54	64		Tor Henning Hamre (23)		QF	W
2003	1	1	28	24	4	0	105	21	74	76		Tor Henning Hamre (39)		F	W
2004	1	3	28	18	4	6	83	25	58	58		Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko (28)	204	SF	W
2005	1	4	36	21	6	9	81	36	45	69		Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko (19)	252	SF
2006	1	3	36	26	4	6	93	34	59	82		Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko (25)		F	F
2007	1	2	36	26	5	5	108	30	78	83		Jarmo Ahjupera (17)	190	1/16
2008	1	2	36	28	7	1	113	28	85	91		Sander Post (19)	214	W
2009	1	4	36	22	6	8	79	31	48	72		Alo Dupikov (13) Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko (13)	161	W	W
2010	1	1	36	29	4	3	104	32	72	91		Sander Post (24)	203	F	RU
2011	1	1	36	26	8	2	100	24	76	86		Henri Anier (21)	274	W	W

C = Championship Group; E = Eastern Zone

UEFA club competition results

Season	Cup	Rnd	Opponent	Score
1994–95	UEFA Cup	1Q	OB	0–3	0–3
1995–96	UEFA Cup	1Q	Lillestrøm	0–4	1–0
1996–97	UEFA Cup	1Q	FC Haka	2–2	0–1
1997–98	UEFA Cup	1Q	Hapoel Petah Tikva	0–1	1–2
1998–99	Champions League	1Q	Steaua Bucureşti	1–4	3–1
1999–00	Champions League	1Q	Partizan Belgrade	0–6	1–4
2000–01	UEFA Cup	1Q	Club Brugge	1–4	0–2
2001–02	UEFA Cup	1Q	Dinamo Zagreb	0–1	0–1
2002–03	Champions League	1Q	APOEL	0–0	0–1
2003–04	Champions League	1Q	Sheriff Tiraspol	0–1	1–1
2004–05	Champions League	1Q	ND Gorica	2–4	1–3
2005–06	UEFA Cup	1Q	Esbjerg	2–1	0–6
2006–07	UEFA Cup	1Q	Lyn Oslo	1–1	0–0
		2Q	Brøndby	0–0	0–4
2007–08	UEFA Cup	1Q	Vålerenga	0–1	0–1
2008–09	UEFA Cup	1Q	Djurgårdens	0–0	2–2
2009–10	Europa League	2Q	Brøndby	1–0	1–4
2010–11	Europa League	1Q	Dinamo Tbilisi	1–2	0–0
2011–12	Champions League	2Q	Shamrock Rovers	0–1	0–0

1Q – 1st Qualifying Round; 2Q – 2nd Qualifying Round

Players

Current squad

As of 23 January 2012.

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 1 GK Stanislav Pedõk 2 DF Johannes Kukebal 4 DF Aleksei Jahhimovitš 5 DF Meelis Peitre 6 DF Karol Mets 8 FW Hannes Anier 9 FW Rauno Alliku 11 MF Siim Luts 13 MF Eron Krillo 15 MF Karl-Eerik Luigend 16 DF Markus Jürgenson 18 MF Nikolay Mashichev 19 DF Gert Kams

No. Position Player 22 DF Nikita Baranov 23 MF Jürgen Henn 24 DF Karl Palatu (captain) 25 MF Andre Frolov 41 MF Valeri Minkenen 49 MF Zakaria Beglarishvili GK Mait Toom MF Reio Laabus MF Karl Mööl FW Aleksei Belov FW Albert Prosa FW Martti Pukk FW Kaarel Torop

Reserves

See more FC Flora II Tallinn.

As of 15 December 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 GK Vadim Gurnik GK Magnus Karofeld DF Kevin Aloe DF Silver Annsoo DF Anton Hmelnitski DF Ragnar Piir DF Sten Somelar DF Dan Tõnus DF Erik Vent DF Gregor Wahl MF Andre Arus MF Juri Gavrilov MF Erkki Kubber MF Brent Lepistu

No. Position Player MF Kert Lillemets MF Sander Lootus MF Kewin Mataloja MF Juhan Noode MF Joseph Saliste MF Roman Sobtšenko MF Kevin Tülp FW Raiko Karpov FW Dmitri Knjazev FW Raido Leokin FW Rando Leokin FW Karl Ivar Maar FW Ivo-Henri Pikkor FW Karl Henri Rebane

Notable former players

Estonia Mihkel Aksalu Henri Anier Alo Bärengrub Alo Dupikov Enar Jääger Ragnar Klavan Marko Kristal Marek Lemsalu Joel Lindpere Pavel Londak Sergei Mošnikov Andres Oper Sander Post Raio Piiroja Mart Poom Taavi Rähn Martin Reim Urmas Rooba Andrei Stepanov Sergei Terehhov Kristen Viikmäe Martin Vunk Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko Indrek Zelinski

Azerbaijan Zaur Tagizade Finland Juha Hakola Jasse Jalonen Jonatan Johansson Georgia Otar Korghalidze Lithuania Viktoras Olšanskis Tomas Ražanauskas Netherlands Ray Fränkel Norway Tor Henning Hamre

See also: Category:FC Flora Tallinn players

• A complete list of all the Club's former players can be found here

Player records

Main article: FC Flora Tallinn statistics and records

As of the end of 2011 season. Players in bold are playing for the team in 2012.

Most league appearances

#	Name	Period	Games
1	Martin Reim	1992–1999, 2001–2008	385
2	Marko Kristal	1989–1999, 2001–2004	263
3	Teet Allas	2000–2010	233
4	Gert Kams	2006–	180
5	Viktor Alonen	1992–2001	163
6	Sergei Mošnikov	2006–2011	157
7	Kristen Viikmäe	1996–2000, 2004–2008	141
8	Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko	1999, 2003–2009	140
9	Aleksander Saharov	1999–2005	138
10	Martin Kaalma	1996, 1998, 2001–2006	134

Most league goals

#	Name	Period	Goals
1	Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko	1999, 2003–2009	121
2	Martin Reim	1992–1999, 2001–2008	69
3	Kristen Viikmäe	1996–2000, 2004–2008	64
4	Tor Henning Hamre	2002–2003	62
	Indrek Zelinski	1993–1999, 2001
6	Henri Anier	2008-2011	52
7	Marko Kristal	1989–1999, 2001–2004	51
8	Sander Post	2004–2008, 2010–2011	49
9	Jarmo Ahjupera	2001, 2003–2004, 2006–2009	48
10	Andres Oper	1994–1999	44

Coaches

Season	Country	Name
1990–91		Aivar Pohlak
1992		Raimondas Kotovas
1993–95		Roman Ubakivi
1996–99		Teitur Thordarson
2000		Tarmo Rüütli
2001–04		Arno Pijpers
2004–05		Janno Kivisild
2006–08		Pasi Rautiainen
2009		Tarmo Rüütli
2010–		Martin Reim

See also: Category:FC Flora Tallinn managers

External links

• Official website (Estonian)
• UEFA.com entry