FC Dnipro

This article is about the Ukrainian football club. For the European river, see Dnieper River.

FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

Full name	Football Club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
Nickname(s)	Warriors of light
Founded	1918 (1918)
Ground	Dnipro-Arena, Dnipropetrovsk
Capacity	31,003
President	Ihor Kolomoyskyi
Head coach	Myron Markevych
League	Ukrainian Premier League
2013–14	2nd
Website	Club website
Home colours

Football Club Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (Ukrainian: Футбо́льний Клуб Дніпро́ Дніпропетро́вськ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Dnipropetrovsk.

Dnipro which is the name of Dnieper river in Ukraine is a popular sports name in Dnipropetrovsk. Beside the association football club there also is a bandy team under the same name, basketball team and others. However, FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk is not a multi-sport club. The club is owned by the Privat Group that also owns BC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and Budivelnyk Kyiv.

During the Soviet Union the club was a member of the Soviet Volunteer Sports Society "Metallurg" (therefore it carried names Metallurg and Stal) and until 1961 was under sponsorship of the Petrovsky Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Plant. After that the club was sponsored by the Southern Machine-building Plant Yuzhmash. Sometime after the fall of the Soviet Union, the club was privatized.

History

BRIT

The club's franchise traces its history all the way back when the first team that was formed in 1918 by the Petrovsky factory and was called as BRIT (Brianskyi Robitnychyi Industrialnyi Tekhnikum). The team participated in the regional competition (Katerynoslav championship). With the four other teams BRIT played its games on small stadium "Sokil" which was located at the corner of Pushkin street and Yuriy Savchenko street.

Petrovets – Stal – Metalurh

Due to World War I, BRIT was disbanded, but on 9 May 1925 a new team was formed in Dnipropetrovsk (coincidentally, later the day became to be known as the Victory Day). The team participated under a generic name as football team of Petrovsky factory. The official name it received in 1926 when it became to be known as "Petrovets". The team entered the first Soviet competition under the name of Stal (steel, En) in 1936 in one of the lower divisions. The team participated in the three championship before World War II. After the war, in 1947, the team reentered the Soviet competition and was merged with another club from Dnipropetrovsk, Dynamo Dnipropetrovsk. From 1949 until 1961, the team was called Metalurh (from English metal worker). During this time the team participated for three seasons, 1950–1952, among the amateurs due to poor results. In 1954, Metalurh Dnipropetrovsk reached the semi-finals of the USSR Cup, where it lost to Spartak Yerevan.

Dnepr

In 1961, the team was handed over to its new sponsor, the Yugmash (the Southern machine-producing factory), which at that time was one of the most powerful factories in the entire Soviet Union and was funded by the Ministry of Defense. It was part of the Zenit volunteer sports society. The new sponsor changed the team's name to the Russian name of Dnepr, Dnieper, as the Russian was the accepted language of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government. The team's performance did not change much until after 1968, when Dnepr obtained Andriy Biba and the new coach – Valery Lobanovsky. After that it took the team three years to get promoted to the Soviet Top League and eventually took sixth place in 1972.

Golden generation

In 1973 and 1976 Dnepr reached the semi-finals of the USSR Cup competition. In 1978 the team was relegated to the lower league for two years. Their next return to the top flight was not as inviting as their first one and the team languished at the bottom of the table for several years. In the following years, the governing body of the team hired new promising coaches – Volodymyr Yemets and Hennadiy Zhizdik. After those changes, Dnepr became a strong contender for the Soviet championship winning it twice: once with Yemets and Zhizdik in 1983, and another one with Yevhen Kucherevsky in 1988. Also, in 1989 Dnepr became the first professional football club in the Soviet Union. During those years, the team featured many notable players such as Oleg Protasov, Hennadiy Litovchenko, Oleksiy Cherednyk, and Oleh Taran.

Dnipro

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the club took on the Ukrainian version name of Dnipro, the name of the biggest river and one of the major symbols of Ukraine. The club joined the football federation of the native country and remained one of the top contenders in the newly formed Ukrainian Premier League. The team received silver medals in 1993 as well as the bronze in 1992, 1995, 1996, 2001, 2004. The team also reached the Ukrainian Cup finals in 1995, 1997 and 2004, but lost all three to Shakhtar Donetsk.

FC Dnipro is currently controlled by the Privat Group.

There is a friendship between supporters of Dnipro and Dynamo Kyiv.

The biggest rival is Metalist Kharkiv.

Stadia

Main articles: Stadium Meteor and Dnipro Arena

Old Stadium Meteor

Current Dnipro Arena

Since 1966 Dnipro's home was Stadium Meteor in Dnipropetrovsk. Prior to that the club played at the Matalurh Stadium (formerly Stal Stadium). Meteor Stadium was built by the Soviet rocket company Yuzhmash on the original site and has undergone several renovations since, the last one being in 2001. However in 2002 after several spells in European competitions, it became clear that the club needed a new modern venue. Thus, in 2005 Pryvat Group started construction of Dnipro Arena in the centre of Dnipropetrovsk. The club played its last game at Meteor on 2 September 2008, against Metalist Kharkiv.

In April 2005 the club's new arena broke ground. It was constructed by Germany's largest construction company Hochtief. The construction itself took 3 years and 4 months, but a nine-month delay occurred due to a land dispute over a site where the stadium's car park was planned. The stadium's final capacity is 31,003 people and the initial estimated cost of the construction was set at €40,000,000.

The stadium was opened on 15 September 2008. The opening ceremony featured a speech by Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko, a concert performance by a number of famous Ukrainian musicians and two football matches: Veterans of Dynamo Kyiv vs Spartak Moscow veterans, and Dnipro against Dynamo Kyiv. As a present to the club from the city the street that the stadium is situated on was renamed into Kucherevskyi Boulevard, in honour of Dnipro's late coach Yevhen Kucherevskyi. Dnipro played their first official game on 29 September 2008 against their local rivals FC Metalurh Zaporizhya, but Dnipro lost 1–2. They set a new attendance record for the Ukrainian Premier League 2008–09 season, at 31,000 spectators.

Sponsors

Football kits and sponsors

Years	Football kit	Shirt sponsor
1998–2001	Adidas	TM Biola
2001–2005		TM Biola
2005–2008	Umbro
2008–2014	Nike
2014–present	Legea	TM Biola

• No information is known for the 2000-01 season.

Rivalry

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk supporters biggest rival today is Metalist Kharkiv. Despite this fans of both clubs marched in support of a "united Ukraine" in Kharkiv during the April 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine.

European Cups History

UEFA Cup/Europa League:

Season	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
UEFA Cup
1985–86	1		Wismut Aue	2–1	3–1	5–2
	2		PSV	1–0	2–2	3–2
	3		Hajduk Split	0–1	0–2	0–3
1986–87	1		Legia Warsaw	0–0	0–1	0–1
1988–89	1		Bordeaux	1–1	1–2	2–3
1990–91	1		Hearts	1–1	1–3	2–4
1993–94	1		Admira Wacker	1–0	3–2	4–2
	2		Eintracht Frankfurt	1–0	0–2	1–2
1997–98	Q1		Yerevan	6–1	2–0	8–2
	Q2		Alania Vladikavkaz	1–2	1–4	2–6
2001–02	1		Fiorentina	0–0	1–2	1–2
2003–04	Q1		Vaduz	1–0	1–0	2–0
	1		HSV	3–0	1–2	4–2
	2		Dinamo Zagreb	1–1	2–0	3–1
	3		Marseille	0–0	0–1	0–1
2004–05	Q2		MFK Petržalka	3–0	1–1	4–1
	1		Maccabi Haifa	2–0	0–1	2–1
	Group		Club Brugge	3–2		1st
			Utrecht		2–1
			Austria Wien	1–0
			Real Zaragoza		1–2
	1/16		Partizan	0-1	2-2	2-3
2005–06	Q2		Banants	4–0	4–2	8–2
	1		Hibernian	5–1	0–0	5–1
	Group		AZ Alkmaar	1–2		4th
			Middlesbrough		0–3
			Litex Lovech	0–2
			Grasshoppers		3–2
2007–08	Q2		GKS Bełchatów	1–1	4–2	5–3
	1		Aberdeen	1–1	0–0	1–1
2008–09	Q2		AC Bellinzona	3–2	1–2	4–4
UEFA Europa League
2010–11	Q3		Spartak Subotica	2–0	1–2	3–2
	Play-off		Lech Poznań	0–1	0–0	0–1
2011–12	Play-off		Fulham	1–0	0–3	1–3
2012–13	Play-off		Slovan Liberec	4–2	2–2	6–4
	Group		PSV	2–0	2–1	1st
			Napoli	3–1	2–4
			AIK	4–0	3–2
	1/16		Basel	1–1	0–2	1–3
2013–14	Play-off		Nomme Kalju	2–0	3–1	5–1
	Group		Fiorentina	1–2	1–2	2nd
			Paços Ferreira	2–0	2–0
			Pandurii	4–1	1–0
	1/16		Tottenham	1–0	1–3	2–3
2014–15	Play-off		Hajduk	2–1	0–0	2–1

European Cup/UEFA Champions League:

Season	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
European Cup
1984–85	1		Trabzonspor	3–0	0–1	3–1
	2		Levski Sofia	2–0	1–3	3–3
	Q		Bordeaux	1–1	1–1	3–5 (p)
1989–90	1		Linfield	2–1	1–0	3–1
	2		Tirol Innbruck	2–0	2–2	4–2
	Q		Benfica	0–1	0–3	0–4
UEFA Champions League
2014–15	Q3		Copenhagen	0–0	0–2	0–2

Honours

Domestic

• Soviet / Ukrainian Premier League
  • Winners: 1983, 1988
  • Runners-up: 1987, 1989, 1993, 2014
• Soviet / Ukrainian Cup
  • Winners: 1989
  • Runners-up: 1995, 1997, 2004
• Soviet League Cup
  • Winners: 1986, 1989
  • Runners-up: 1990
• USSR Super Cup
  • Winners: 1989
  • Runners-up: 1984

Continental

• UEFA Intertoto Cup:
  • Runners-up: 2006

Invitational

• Marbella Cup
  • 2011
• Costa del Sol Trophy
  • 2013
• Casino Marbella Cup
  • 2014
• AdF Diamonds Cup
  • 2014

Other

• UEFA Champions Cup Quarterfinalist in 1985 (lost on penalties) and 1990
• USSR Championship 3rd place in 1984, 1985
• Ukrainian Championship 3rd place in 1992, 1995, 1996, 2001, 2004
• Best Ukrainian club in the USSR Championship in 1983, 1984, 1987, 1988, 1989
• Progress Cup in 1983, 1987

Players

Current squad

As of 25 July 2014

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

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
2	DF	ROU	Alexandru Vlad
3	DF	CZE	Ondřej Mazuch
4	MF	UKR	Serhiy Kravchenko
5	DF	UKR	Vitaliy Mandzyuk
7	MF	GEO	Jaba Kankava
8	DF	UKR	Volodymyr Polyovyi
9	FW	CRO	Nikola Kalinić
10	MF	UKR	Yevhen Konoplyanka
11	FW	UKR	Yevhen Seleznyov
12	MF	BRA	Leo Matos
14	DF	UKR	Yevhen Cheberyachko
16	GK	CZE	Jan Laštůvka
17	DF	CRO	Ivan Strinić
18	FW	UKR	Roman Zozulya

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
20	MF	POR	Bruno Gama
21	MF	CRO	Mladen Bartulović
23	DF	BRA	Douglas
24	DF	UKR	Valeriy Luchkevych
28	MF	UKR	Yevhen Shakhov
29	MF	UKR	Ruslan Rotan (captain)
44	DF	UKR	Artem Fedetskyi
71	GK	UKR	Denys Boyko
77	GK	UKR	Denys Shelikhov
89	MF	UKR	Serhiy Politylo
91	GK	UKR	Ihor Vartsaba
97	MF	UKR	Andriy Blyznychenko
99	FW	BRA	Matheus

Out on loan

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

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	DF	UKR	Oleksandr Svatok (at Volyn Lutsk)
—	MF	UKR	Hennadiy Pasich (at Naftovyk-Ukrnafta)
—	MF	UKR	Yevhen Pasich (at Naftovyk-Ukrnafta)
—	MF	GEO	Aleksandre Kobakhidze (at Volyn Lutsk)

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	UKR	Valeriy Fedorchuk (at Volyn Lutsk)
—	MF	UKR	Ruslan Babenko (at Volyn Lutsk)
—	FW	UKR	Yevhen Bokhashvili (at Volyn Lutsk)

Current coaching staff

Position	Name
Head Coach	Myron Markevych
Assistant Coach	Olexandr Ivanov
Assistant Coach	Vyacheslav Khruslov
Goalkeeping Coach	Valeriy Horodov
Fitness Coach	Pavel Sirenko
Coach	Volodymyr Yezerskyi
Coach	Serhiy Nahornyak
U21 Team Head Coach	Dmytro Mykhaylenko
U21 Team Assistant Coach	Volodymyr Bahmut
U21 Team Goalkeeping Coach	Mykola Medin
U21 Team Coach	Artem Kuslyi
U19 Team Head Coach	Oleksandr Poklonskyi

League and Cup history

Soviet Union

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Domestic Cup	Europe		Notes
1977	1st	12	30	9	9	12	24	31	27	1/8
1978	1st	16	30	9	3	18	25	39	21	1/16			Relegated
1979	2nd	17	46	16	14	16	57	60	44	Group stage
1980	2nd	2	46	27	8	11	60	47	62	Group stage			Promoted
1981	1st	8	34	12	8	14	42	53	32	Group stage
1982	1st	9	34	11	12	11	34	38	32	1/2
1983	1st	1	34	22	5	7	63	36	49	1/4
1984	1st	3	34	17	8	9	54	40	42	1/8	ECL	1/4
1985	1st	3	34	16	11	7	71	41	42	1/4	UC	1/8
1986	1st	11	30	8	12	10	41	41	28	1/16	UC	1st round
1987	1st	2	30	15	9	6	42	22	39	1/16
1988	1st	1	30	18	10	2	49	23	46	1/2	UC	1st round
1989	1st	2	30	18	6	6	47	27	42	Winner	ECL	1/4
1990	1st	6	24	11	6	7	39	26	28	1/16 finals	UC	1st round
1991	1st	9	30	9	10	11	31	36	28	1/8 finals

Ukraine

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Domestic Cup	Europe		Notes
1992	1st	3	18	10	3	5	26	15	23	1/4 finals			yielded to FC Metalist Kharkiv 1/8 final of Soviet Cup
1992–93	1st	2	30	18	8	4	51	20	44	1/8 finals
1993–94	1st	4	34	16	9	9	53	35	41	1/4 finals	UC	2nd round
1994–95	1st	3	34	19	8	7	60	33	65	Runner-up
1995–96	1st	3	34	19	6	9	65	34	63	1/4 finals
1996–97	1st	4	30	14	13	3	48	19	55	Runner-up
1997–98	1st	4	30	17	4	9	47	27	55	1/4 finals	UC	2nd qual round
1998–99	1st	12	30	9	5	16	28	46	32	1/8 finals
1999–00	1st	11	30	8	9	13	26	52	33	1/8 finals
2000–01	1st	3	26	17	4	5	37	18	55	1/2 finals
2001–02	1st	6	26	11	7	8	30	20	40	1/2 finals	UC	1st round
2002–03	1st	4	30	18	5	7	48	27	59	1/2 finals
2003–04	1st	3	30	16	9	5	44	23	57	Runner-up	UC	3rd round
2004–05	1st	4	30	13	9	8	38	34	48	1/2 finals	UC	Round of 32
2005–06	1st	6	30	11	10	9	33	23	43	1/8 finals	UC	Group stage
2006–07	1st	4	30	11	14	5	32	24	47	1/4 finals
2007–08	1st	4	30	18	5	7	40	27	59	1/16 finals	UC	1st round
2008–09	1st	6	30	13	9	8	34	25	48	1/8 finals	UC	2nd qual round
2009–10	1st	4	30	15	9	6	48	25	54	1/4 finals
2010–11	1st	4	30	16	9	5	46	20	57	1/2 finals	EL	Play-off Round
2011–12	1st	4	30	15	7	8	52	35	52	1/8 finals	EL	Play-off Round
2012–13	1st	4	30	16	8	6	54	27	56	1/2 finals	EL	Round of 32
2013–14	1st	2	28	18	5	5	56	28	59	1/8 finals	EL	1/16 finals
2014–15	1st									1/8 finals	EL	4th qual round

European history

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk participates in European competitions since 1984 after playing its first against Trabzonspor. Since 2001, however, the club participates almost on annual basis with variable successes.

Season	Achievement	Notes
European Cup / UEFA Champions League
1984–85	Quarter-Finalist	eliminated by Bordeaux 1–1 in Bordeaux, 1–1 in Dnipropetrovsk
1989–90	Quarter-Finalist	eliminated by Benfica 0–1 in Lisbon, 0–3 in Dnipropetrovsk

Managers

• Volodymyr Yemets (1 July 1981 – 31 Dec 1986)
• Yevhen Kucherevskyi (1 Jan 1987 – 22 March 1992)
• Mykola Pavlov (19 March 1992 – 31 Dec 1994)
• Bernd Stange (20 April 1995 – 30 June 1996)
• Vyacheslav Hroznyi (1 July 1996 – 31 Dec 1997)
• Vadym Tyshchenko (1 Jan 1998 – 5 Oct 1998)
• Mykola Fedorenko (13 July 1999 – 11 Oct 2001)
• Yevhen Kucherevskyi (1 Jan 2002 – 18 Oct 2005)
• Vadym Tyshchenko (interim) (18 Oct 2005 – 19 Dec 2005)
• Oleh Protasov (19 Dec 2005 – 29 Aug 2008)
• Volodymyr Bezsonov (29 Aug 2008–Sept 18, 2010)
• Vadym Tyshchenko (interim) (Sept 18, 2010–1 Oct 2010)
• Juande Ramos (3 Oct 2010–22 May 2014)
• Myron Markevych (since 26 May 2014)

External links

• Official website