Football Club Metalurh Donetsk (Ukrainian: Футбо́льний клуб «Металу́рг» Доне́цьк, pronounced[metɐˈlurɦdoˈnɛtsʲk]) was a Ukrainian professional football club based in Donetsk that went bankrupt in July 2015.[2]
Football came to the Donetsk region in the time of the Russian Empire when the industrialization of the country began. Numerous foreigners, particularly British workers, were forming their own football teams. In September 1911, at the factory of Novorossiysk Association (currently the Donetsk Steel Works Factory – DMZ) owned by John Hughes has created the Yuzovka Sports Society (YuSO) which contained a football club as well. The football club became one of the founders of the Donbas football league based out of Kramatorsk in 1913. The football team existed until 1919 and was liquidated due to the Russian Civil War. In the 1920s, the factory (known at time as Lenin Steel Works) revived the club as part of its own Lenin Sports Club which later carried the name of FC Metalists Stalino. One of the most prominent players of that period was Viktor Shylovsky[3] who later became famous, however, playing for Dynamo Kyiv.
In 1929 based on the team in Stalino (today Donetsk) was created FC Dynamo Stalino. In 1936 based on FC Dynamo Stalino and FC Dynamo Horlivka there was created a united team of Donbas Vuhilnyky Stalino that participated in a spring football championship of 1936 in Group V (precursor of the Soviet Second League). During the season the club moved to Stalino (Donetsk) and changed its name to FC Stakhanovets Stalino.
Metalurh takes its roots from the Football Club Prometei Shakhtarsk that was allowed to participate on the non-amateur level once Ukraine attained its independence. After a disappointing first season in the Second League, in the 1993 season Promotei placed fifth in the Third League and was promoted back to the Second League when the third place Antratsyt withdrew from competitions. Due to being sponsored by a Medita health clinic of Oleksandr Opryshchenko, in 1993 the club was renamed as Medita Shakhtarsk. However, in 1995 the club's owner was killed and Promotei returned under ownership of the state coal-mining company "Shakhtarantratsyt" under the name of Shakhtar Shakhtarsk.
Metalurh Donetsk
In 1996 a team of the Donetsk Metallurgical Factory replaced the insolvent FC Shakhtar Shakhtarsk during the 1995–96 season under the name of Shakhtar. In summer 1996 the Donetsk Regional Football Federation agreed to hand over the Shakhtar's past season achievements to the newly formed and already widely accepted Football Club Metalurh Donetsk. After placing second in the Druha Liha Group C, the club gained the promotion to the Persha Liha. In the next season, 1996–97, Metalurh won the Persha Liha championship and were promoted to the Vyscha Liha.
The club successfully started in the Top League and also improved significantly at the domestic Cup competition. Metalurh has obtained a few bronze medals in the league and since 1998 made through to at least the quarter-finals of the Ukrainian Cup. The club financially struggled between 1999 and 2001 being kept afloat by individual efforts of Mykhailo Lyashko and Vladyslav Helzin, who both in 2001 decided to create their own club (see FC Olimpik Donetsk).
In 2001 Metalurh was purchased by ISD, Ukrainian industrial corporation owned by Serhiy Taruta, one of the most wealthy businessmen in Ukraine and Europe. Throughout majority of the first decade of the new millennium, Metalurh's owners developed a close working relationship with well-known Ukrainian agent Dmytro Sylyuk, who soon became club's acting chairman and who gained much bad publicity for bringing so many foreign players into the club that they outnumbered domestic players. Many were brought in without the manager's consent, and were given overly generous pay,[according to whom?] among them Yaya Touré, Andrés Mendoza, and Jordi Cruyff. Furthermore, while working with Metalurh, Selyuk lived in Barcelona and was a rare visitor to Ukraine. After Sylyuk's questionable signings, he was dismissed from his position and the majority of the players brought in by him also left. It later appeared that many of them had contracts with Sylyuk and not directly with the club.
After the era of Sylyuk ended, Metalurh's performance declined and a hunt for medals turned into a struggle for survival. However, in 2008, Bulgarian specialist Nikolay Kostov was brought in to rebuild the team. In his first season with the club, Kostov turned Metalurh's performance around and the club finished fourth in the league, which won them a spot in newly formed UEFA Europa League.
Metalurh has its own small stadium named after the club, Metalurh Stadium. For most domestic matches the club played at this stadium, which has a capacity barely in excess of 5,000. For games expected to draw a significantly larger crowd, Metalurh played at Shakhtar Stadium, owned by Shakhtar Donetsk, and mostly used for European competitions. A new stadium for Metalurh with a capacity of 17,500 was planned to be built in Makiivka, near Donetsk.
In the 2014–15 season, the club played their home games at Obolon Arena in Kiev due to the war in Donbas.
Metalurh's top rival is the neighboring club, and one of Ukraine's most successful teams, Shakhtar Donetsk. The two clubs have not only had a close history since the formation of Metalurh, but Metalurh has also played home games at Shakhtar's former venue, Shakhtar Stadium. The games between the two clubs have been dubbed by the fans and the media as the Donbass Derby. Shakhtar has been dominant in the rivalry from 1996 to 2006, winning all 18 matches between them.
