FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv

Football Club Metalist 1925 Kharkiv is a professional football club from Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was founded in 2016, the club plays in Ukrainian Premier League. Their home stadium is Metalist Oblast Sports Complex with 40,003 capacity.

Metalist 1925 is the Bronze medalist of the 2020–21 Ukrainian First League and 2017–18 Ukrainian Second League, and Silver medalist of the 2016–17 Ukrainian Amateur Football Championship. In the 2021 it was promoted to Ukrainian Premier League.

Metalist 1925 is the second club in Ukraine to attend home matches in the championship.

The club ethos is to rely on local players. Thus in the first team of Metalist 1925 22 players are from Kharkiv. In the team list in the first part of the 2017–18 season, 24 players from 27 were from Kharkiv football schools, in the second part of the season - 21 players from 25, in the 2018–19 season - 23 players from 30.

Legally, Metallist 1925 is not the legal successor of FC Metalist Kharkiv, which was disbanded in 2016 because its last owner, Serhiy Kurchenko, ceased to fund the club and refused to sell it to other potential investors.

History

It was established in the summer of 2016. As several football clubs in the league due to debts, the original club FC Metalist Kharkiv owned by Serhiy Kurchenko was refused a license in 2014 by the Football Federation of Ukraine and expelled from national competitions. The Kurchenko's Metalist continued to play in regional competitions as SC Metalist Kharkiv.

On the initiative of former FFU vice-president and head of Kharkiv Oblast Football Federation Storozhenko along with former Metalist player Volodymyr Linke, a new club was created that received the name FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. Metalist 1925 entered the 2016–17 Ukrainian Football Amateur League and won its group, but lost in the final match. In July 2017, the club was admitted to the Ukrainian Second League.

On 7 July 2017, Metalist 1925 presented a new logo.

Infrastructure

Metalist 1925 plays its games at Metalist Stadium. It has its own training site in a town of Vysokyi, yet some training it also conducts at H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.

Administration

Owner – TOV Avanhard Kharkiv

Co-owner – Serhiy Storozhenko

President – Volodymyr Linke

Managers

Oleksandr Pryzetko (16 Aug 2016 – 26 Sep 2017)

Vyacheslav Khruslov (caretaker) (26 Sep 2017 – 28 Sep 2017)

Oleksandr Ivanov (28 Sep 2017 – 3 May 2018)

Serhiy Ralyuchenko (caretaker) (3 May 2018 – 8 May 2018)

Serhiy Valyayev (8 May 2018 – 11 September 2018)

Oleksandr Horyainov (caretaker) (11 September 2018 – 10 December 2018)

Oleksandr Horyainov (10 December 2018 – 4 June 2019)

Andriy Demchenko (4 June 2019 – 21 July 2020)

Vyacheslav Khruslov (caretaker) (21 July 2020 – 21 Aug 2020)

Valeriy Kriventsov (21 Aug 2020 – present)

Honours

Ukrainian First League

3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Third place (1): 2020–21

Ukrainian Second League

3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Third place (1): 2017–18

Ukrainian Amateur Football Championship

2nd place, silver medalist(s) Runners-up (1): 2016–17