FK Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk - last updated on 8 October 2008
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Club name: FK Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
(ФК Днiпро Днiпропетровськ
)
Foundation: 1918
City: Dnipropetrovsk
(Днiпропетровськ
)
Colours: White and blue
Website: www.fcdnipro.dp.ua
Honours:
Soviet League - 2 (1983, 1988)
Soviet Cup - 1 (1989)
Soviet Super Cup - 1 (1988)
USSR Federation Cup - 2 (1986, 1989)
A bit of history:
The first team that was formed in 1918 by the Petrovsky factory was named 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 on the corner of the Pushkin street and Yuriy Savchenko street.
Due to the World War I the team was disbanded and reestablished only on May 9th, 1925 (coincidently later it became to be known as the Victory Day). The team participated as the generic FC 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 (Russian for steel) in 1936 in one of the lower divisions. The team participated in the three championship before the 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 Metalurg (from English metal worker). During this time the team participated for three seasons, 1950-1952, among the amateurs due to poor results. In 1954, Metalurg Dnipropetrovsk reached the semi-finals of the USSR Cup, where it lost to Spartak Yerevan.
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. The new sponsor changed the team's name to Dnepr, but 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.
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 - Vladimir Yemets and Gennadiy 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 Evgeny Kucherevsky in 1988. During those years, the team featured many notable players such as Oleg Protasov, Gennadiy Litovchenko, Oleksiy Cherednyk, and Oleh Taran.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dnepr (the Russian version) took on the Ukrainian translation, Dnipro, the name of the biggest river in Ukraine, which is one of the major symbols of Ukraine, and joined the football federation of the native country. It 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.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
FK Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk
