FC Luch-Energiya Vladivostok

Luch-Energiya
Full name Football Club
Luch-Energiya Vladivostok
Founded 1958
Ground Dynamo Stadium,
Vladivostok
(Capacity: 10,500)
Chairman Anatoli Beznyak
Manager Sergei Pavlov
League Russian First Division
2010 Russian First Division, 12th
Home colours
Away colours

FC Luch-Energiya (Russian: Футбольный клуб "Луч-Энергия" Владивосток) is a Russian football club based in Vladivostok. In 2005, Luch-Energia won the Russian First Division and played in the Premier League from 2006 to 2008.

The club was called Luch before 2003, when it was renamed Luch-Energia due to sponsorship from Dalenergo, an energy distribution company.

Contents

History

Luch has been playing in the USSR championship since 1958. The club played in the Far East regional tournament of "B-class" teams and eventually won it in 1965, earning promotion to "A-class". Luch played in this regional tournament until league reorganization in 1972.

From 1972 to 1991, Luch played in the Eastern zone of Soviet Second League. The club's best result was a runner-up position in 1984.

In 1992, after the dissolution of Soviet Union, Luch was entitled to play in the Eastern zone of Russian First League and won that tournament. Luch played in Russian Top League in 1993 and was relegated, having finished 15th.

Luch played in Russian First Division from 1994 until relegation in 1997, and in Russian Second Division from 1998 to 2003. In 2003, Luch-Energia finished 1st in the Eastern zone and earned promotion. The club spent another 2 years in First Division, earning promotion to Premier League in 2005.In 2008 Luch finished in the last position and was relegated to the Russian First Division.The club had some financial problems and were forced to sell some of their key players making the club vulnerable at home, formerly considered a fortress on the remote Pacific coast.

Complications

Situated in the far east of the country, their location poses a significant problem for away teams:9 hours by flight from Moscow. When playing FC Zenit Saint Petersburg at home, a trio of Zenit fans (Evgeny Stepanov, Aleksandr Zaraysky and Veronika Davidova) drove 15,000km across the country only for their car to break down when in Vladivostok, leaving them unable to drive home. These fans thus took the Trans-Siberian Railway back to Saint Petersburg, upon which the club rewarded them with a new car on October 1, 2006. There has been much controversy about whether the Russian league should be split into two leagues, East region and Western region, however this is yet to happen. Igor Akinfeev, the CSKA Moscow goalkeeper, said that "they should play in the Japanese League", after his team lost 4-0 after a seven hour flight.[1] In addition to this, even their own players admitted it was awkward as they had to travel long distances for away games. Matija Kristić said "It's not as bad for other teams because they only need to travel this distance once a year whereas we have to do it for all away matches". Srđan Radonjić said "It is just crazy, they should have two Russian premier leagues, one for the European teams and another for Asian teams. Vladivostok is 4,000 miles from Moscow."

League and Cup history

Russia

Season Div. Pos. Pl. W D L GS GA P Cup Europe Top Scorer (League) Head Coach
1992 2nd, "East" 1 30 20 4 6 44 14 23 Kasyanenko - 9
Dubovik - 9
Burchalkin
Ivchenko
1993 1st 15 34 11 7 16 29 56 29 R256 Ruslyakov - 7 Ivchenko
Releg.
tourn.
4 5 2 2 1 11 9 6 Galimov - 4
1994 2nd 12 42 15 11 16 44 53 41 I. Protasov - 9 Ig. Saenko
1995 6 42 20 6 16 51 48 66 R256 Selenkov - 16 Burchalkin
1996 15 42 14 12 16 39 49 54 R128 Shpilov - 9 Szekecs
1997 22 42 3 12 27 23 76 21 Selenkov - 5 Kobersky
1998 3rd, "East" 7 30 14 6 10 42 24 48 R64 Melnik - 8 Fedyakin
1999 7 30 14 7 9 43 32 49 R128 Melnik - 11 Fedyakin
2000 4 24 12 3 9 41 26 39 R512 Tikhonovetsky - 9 Karamyan
Zhuravlyov
2001 8 28 9 10 9 31 29 37 R128 Tikhonovetsky - 8 Lukyanov
2002 6 30 15 6 9 51 34 51 R512 Kisurin - 10 Tolkin
Zhuravlyov
2003 1 24 16 4 4 53 23 52 R512 A. Smirnov - 11 Zhuravlyov
Antikhovich
2004 2nd 14 42 15 11 16 50 50 56 R128 Sokolov - 11
Atangana - 11
Antikhovich
Pavlov
2005 1 42 27 11 4 81 32 92 R64 D.A. Smirnov - 19 Pavlov
2006 1st 7 30 12 5 13 37 39 41 R16 A. Ivanov - 5 Pavlov
2007 14 30 8 8 14 26 38 32 R32 Strelkov - 5 Pavlov
2008 16 30 3 12 15 24 53 21 R32 Bulyga - 5
I. Shevchenko - 5
Vulić
Altman
2009 2nd 14 38 13 11 14 42 43 50 R32 Dedechko - 9 Yemelyanov
Pobegalov
2010 12 38 13 13 12 42 42 52 QF Satalkin - 9 Nazarenko
Arcos

Current squad

As of August 15, 2011, according to the official FNL website.

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 Aleksandr Kotlyarov
3 DF Igor Udaly
4 MF Roman Slavnov
5 DF Matija Kristić
6 MF Vyacheslav Krendelyov
8 MF Yuri Gazinskiy
11 FW Aleksandr Tikhonovetsky
12 FW Igor Strelkov
14 DF Javier Almirón
15 MF Alan Kusov
16 GK Denis Kniga
17 DF Pavel Mogilevskiy
18 MF Georgi Bazayev
No. Position Player
20 MF Maksim Fyodorov
22 MF Beslan Adzhindzhal
25 FW Aleksandr Alkhazov
27 DF Dmitri Tikhiy
28 FW Ilya Pakhmutov
29 FW Karen Oganyan
30 MF Denys Dedechko
32 DF Aslan Zaseev
33 GK Aleksei Stepanov
35 DF Dmytro Semochko
88 MF Stanislav Reznikov
91 MF Viktor Svezhov

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Luch-Energiya.

External links