FC Karpaty Lviv

FC Karpaty Lviv
Full name FC Karpaty Lviv
Nickname(s) "Zeleno-Bili" ("Green-Whites"),
"Zeleni Levy" ("Green Lions")
Founded 1963
Ground Ukraina Stadium
(Capacity: 29,004)
Chairman Ukraine Petro Dyminsky
Head Coach Belarus Oleh Kononov
League Ukrainian Premier League
2007–08 10th
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
Home colours
Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
Away colours

FC Karpaty Lviv (Ukrainian: ФК «Карпати» Львів) is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Lviv. Named after the Carpathian Mountains, they are one of perennial mid-table clubs in Ukraine.

Contents

History

Early years (1963-1968)

FC Karpaty was founded in 1963, the main initiators of the club's foundation were Lviv football veterans from a team named Silmash. Karpaty debuted in Soviet Second League B that year and had remained there for four seasons, until in 1968 they were promoted to Soviet First League.

Winning the USSR Cup

On August 17, 1969, Karpaty became the first (and the only) club in the USSR football history which won the USSR Cup while playing in the Soviet First League. In the cup match, Karpaty played FC SKA Rostov-on-Don, one of the best Soviet clubs in the mid-1960s. Karpaty were trailing 0:1 after the first half, but were able to run away with the Cup with the final score of 2:1.

In the following season, Karpaty's first opponent in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was Romanian Steaua Bucharest, but Steaua advanced on 4:3 aggregate.

Soviet Top League (1970-1977)

In 1970-1977 and 1980, Karpaty played in the Soviet Top League. Karpaty's best achievement was 4th place in 1976. Karpaty placed 4th twice that year since the season was split into 2 separate championships (spring and fall). Karpaty were primed to take silver that season, but an unexpected loss in the last home game to Zenit Leningrad pushed Karpaty back into 4th place.

While playing in the Soviet First League in 1979, Karpaty were close to repeating their 1969 achievement, when they met Dinamo Moscow in the USSR Cup semi-final. The match which was played in Moscow, went into overtime with a 1:1 score. Dinamo however prevailed, scoring on a penalty kick in extra time.

SKA Karpaty (1981-1989)

In 1981, Karpaty were merged with another Lviv team, SKA Lviv. The new team, SKA Karpaty, continued playing in the Soviet First League, almost achieving promotion in 1986 when CSKA Moscow was promoted ahead of Karpaty on goal differences. In 1989 the original name of the club was restored.

Ukrainian League (1991-present)

Since Ukraine gained its independence, Karpaty have primarily participated in Ukrainian Premier League competitions. They have taken 3rd place once and were Ukrainian Cup runners-up twice, losing both times to Dynamo Kyiv in the final.

The thirteen’s season in Ukrainian Premier League became an unfortunate one for Karpaty and in 2003-04 season the team was relegated to Persha Liha. However Karpaty remained there only for two seasons and in the 2005-06 season, the club was successful in taking second place in the Persha Liha, which allowed them to participate in the Vyscha Liha the following year.

Stadium

Ukraina Stadium

Main articles: Ukraina Stadium

FC Karpaty play their home games at the Ukraina Stadium. The stadium was originally opened in 1992 and renovated on several occasions since, the latest taking place in 2001. Currently the arena has a capacity of 29,004 spectators.

The stadium was also the venue hosting the final match of the first Ukrainian Premier League season in 1992, in which Tavriya Simferopol defeated Dynamo Kyiv.

It has also been one of the venues for Ukraine national football team matches, the most recent being a 2-0 Ukraine win over Georgia on October 13, 2004 for 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying.

Ukraina Stadium may be one of the venues for Euro 2012 co-hosted by Ukraine and Poland. If so, the stadium will host group stage matches and will be expanded to 36,000.

Sponsors and Partners

Partners: Karpaty MEGAzon, Karpaty-mania, Karpaty (weekly), MEGAklas

Official Sponsors: Lvivskyi Standart, Halytska Korona, Perlova, other - Halytska Zdoba, MAC-Media, Radio Luks 104.7, 24 news, and others.

Logo history

Since the club has been named after the Carpathian Mountains, the image of the forest and mountains has been present on team's logo for many years. However the logo has since been updated, inspired by Lviv's Coat of Arms with a segment of a fortress and lion shown on the new crest. The club's nickname 'The Green Lions' was also derived from their new logo.

The club also has a ceremonial logo, however, it is very rarely used, mostly during TV broadcasts or video packages.

Colours

Team colours Team colours Team colours
Team colours
Team colours
Karpaty's current third kit

Traditionally the club colours are white and green. Throughout the club's history kit has always been designed of green and white tones; other colours are almost never used and are highly criticized by fans.

Green is considered to be the dominant of the two as clubs nicknames are "Green-Lions" and "Green-Whites". For some time black was also used and was even displayed on one of the club's former logos.

Rivalries

Club's main rivals are considered to be the neighbouring clubs, Dynamo Kyiv, FC Lviv, Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk, Nyva Ternopil and Zakarpattia Uzhhorod. Not so long ago the rivalries with the Prykarpattya Ivano-Frankivsk and Nyva Ternopil were the most heated when the clubs were playing each other in the same division. Since then those rivalries cooled off. It seems that the new rivalry is emerging as the new Lvivian club has entered the Premier League.

Honours

1969

Runner-Up

1993, 1999
2004/05

Current squad

Squad is given according to the club's official website [1], as of July 17, 2008.

No. Position Player
1 Flag of Ukraine GK Vsevolod Romanenko
2 Flag of Ukraine DF Volodymyr Fedoriv
3 Flag of Ukraine DF Yaroslav Kutsyaba
4 Flag of Ukraine DF Roman Kuzyk
5 Flag of Serbia DF Ivan Milošević
6 Flag of Ukraine DF Andriy Smalyukh
7 Flag of Nigeria MF Samson Godwin
8 Flag of Ukraine DF Ihor Oshchypko
9 Flag of Ukraine MF Denys Kozhanov
10 Flag of Ukraine FW Maxym Feschuk
11 Flag of Estonia FW Sergei Zenjov
13 Flag of Ukraine FW Oleksiy Omel'chenko
14 Flag of Ukraine DF Serhiy Pshenychnykh (captain)
15 Flag of Ukraine DF Taras Petrivskiy
16 Flag of Ukraine MF Ihor Khudobyak (vice-captain)
17 Flag of Ukraine MF Mykhaylo Dyachuk-Stavytskyi
18 Flag of Ukraine MF Mykhaylo Kopolovets
19 Flag of Ukraine MF Vasyl Kobin (vice-captain)
20 Flag of Ukraine MF Oleh Zhenyukh
21 Flag of Ukraine GK Andriy Novak
22 Flag of Ukraine DF Ihor Tistyk
23 Flag of Ukraine DF Oleksiy Rodevych
No. Position Player
24 Flag of Ukraine FW Yuriy Habovda
25 Flag of Ukraine MF Andriy Tkachuk
26 Flag of Ukraine DF Taras Karabin
27 Flag of Ukraine DF Andriy Hurskyi
28 Flag of Ukraine MF Volodymyr Bidlovskyi
29 Flag of Ukraine MF Anton Lutsyk
30 Flag of Ukraine MF Yaroslav Martynyuk
31 Flag of Ukraine FW Yaroslav Svorak
32 Flag of Ukraine MF Oleh Holodyuk
33 Flag of Ukraine DF Yevhen Tarasenko
34 Flag of Ukraine DF Andriy Sahaydak
35 Flag of Ukraine FW Yuriy Furta
38 Flag of Ukraine DF Oleh Tarasenko
47 Flag of Ukraine GK Bohdan Kohut
79 Flag of Ukraine FW Serhiy Kuznetsov
89 Flag of Ukraine GK Bohdan Mel'nychenko
99 Flag of Ukraine FW Ihor Nahirnyi
99 Flag of Georgia (country) FW Oleksandr Guruli
TBA Flag of Serbia DF Nemanja Tubić
TBA Flag of Gabon MF Thierry Issiemou
TBA Flag of Brazil FW Rodrigo Silva

For recent transfers, see List of Ukrainian football transfers summer 2008 and List of Ukrainian football transfers Winter 2008-09.

Famous players

Former coaches

  • Flag of Hungary Ernő Juszt (1967-1977)
  • Flag of the Georgian SSR Ishtvan Sekech (1978-1980)
  • Flag of Ukraine Myron Markevych (1992-2001)
  • Flag of Serbia Ivan Golac (2001-2002)
  • Flag of Ukraine Yuriy Dyachuk-Stavytskyi (-2006)
  • Flag of Ukraine Oleksandr Ischenko (2006-2007)
  • Flag of Ukraine Yuriy Dyachuk-Stavytskyi (2007)
  • Flag of Ukraine Oleksandr Ischenko (2007)
  • Flag of Ukraine Valery Yaremchenko (2007-2008)(resigned)
  • Flag of Belarus Oleh Kononov (2008-present)

League and Cup history

Season Div. Pos. Pl. W D L GS GA P Domestic Cup Europe Notes
1992 1st 13 18 5 6 7 15 18 16 1/8 finals
1992-93 1st 6 30 10 10 10 37 38 30 Runner-up
1993-94 1st 5 34 16 8 10 37 30 40 1/2 finals CWC Qual round
1994-95 1st 8 34 12 9 13 32 36 45 1/8 finals
1995-96 1st 8 34 12 10 12 39 39 46 1/8 finals
1996-97 1st 5 30 15 7 8 36 23 52 1/4 finals
1997-98 1st 3 30 16 9 5 36 20 57 1/8 finals
1998-99 1st 4 30 15 10 5 54 34 55 Runner-up
1999-00 1st 9 30 12 4 14 39 38 40 1/4 finals UC 1st round
2000-01 1st 10 26 9 3 14 33 42 30 1/16 finals
2001-02 1st 8 26 7 8 11 19 31 29 1/4 finals
2002-03 1st 7 30 9 9 12 29 37 36 1/16 finals
2003-04 1st 15 30 6 8 16 22 39 26 1/32 finals Relegated
2004-05 2nd 6 34 15 7 12 39 35 52 1/8 finals
2005-06 2nd 2 34 25 5 3 53 14 80 1/2 finals Promoted
2006-07 1st 8 30 9 10 11 26 32 37 1/16 finals
2007-08 1st 10 30 9 6 15 29 41 33 1/32 finals
2008-09 1st 1/16 finals

See also

External links