FC Lviv

FC Lviv is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Lviv, that competes in the Ukrainian Premier League.

While the first president of FC Lviv Oleksandr Didenko insisted that FC Lviv of 1992 has nothing to do with the later clubs, another football functionary Rostyslav Zaremba argued that it is not that simple.

History

See also: FC Hazovyk-Skala Stryi and FC Lviv (1992)

1992 – 2001 FC Lviv (Oleksandr Didenko)

2006 – 2012 FC Lviv (Kindzerskyi – Hrysio), based on Hazovyk-Skala

2016 – FC Lviv (Mykhailiv – Kopytko), based on Veres

FC Lviv (2006–2012)

The club was founded in May 2006. It entered the Persha Liha as a replacement for the bankrupt club FC Hazovyk-Skala Stryi, which also represented Lviv Oblast. The new entity was registered on 22 May 2006 as a company with limited liability "Football Club "Lviv". Later in May 2006 the PFL Bureau session adopted a decision to recognize the club as a lawful successor of FC Hazovyk-Skala Stryi that played in Persha Liha. This fact was also confirmed at a press-conference given at the Football Federation of Lviv Oblast on 26 May 2006. The new president of the new club Yuriy Kindzerskyi informed that his club was not created as a municipal club.

In its debut season FC Lviv reached 11th place and scored 45 goals. At the start of the next season, in the beginning of September 2007, the club moved to the newly built stadium Kniazha Arena in Dobromyl, west of Sambir. This arena was constructed by and named after Ukrainian insurance company Knyazha, who is the club's main sponsor. The previous home ground of the club was SKA Stadium in Lviv which fell out of favor with the FFU, PFL.

In 2007–08 season FC Lviv finished 2nd in the Persha Liha and were promoted to the Premier Liha for the first time in their history, making the club one of the founders of the newly formed Premier League. In 2008–09 FC Lviv, despite a sensational opening 2–0 win against Shakhtar, were relegated to the Persha Liha. The decisive match for them happened in the last round against another Lviv team Karpaty in the Lviv derby when they lost 2–1. The club's first, and only, season in the Premier League was spent at The Ukraina Stadium together with Karpaty under a lease contract.

In 2009, the city of Lviv lent the former land property of LORTA Plant for rent to FC Lviv. Out of 3.0542 ha FC Lviv receives 2.9 ha in rent until the spring of 2019 and the rest for only five years.

FC Lviv (since 2016)

In 2016 the professional team of FC Lviv was renewed and its future participation in Druha Liha was announced.

In May 2018, the club was promoted to the Ukrainian Premier League on pretence of merging with NK Veres Rivne and play in the 2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League.

At its official website, the club tells that all efforts of NK Veres Rivne are actually efforts of FC Lviv instead. The club states that it was FC Lviv that placed 6th in the 2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League, while the same claim for this achievement is laid by Veres Rivne. Records however clearly show that at that time FC Lviv played in the 2017–18 Ukrainian Second League and recovered their professional status only in 2017. This claim is particularly bold as in 2017 NK Veres Rivne as a "people's club" had a big scandal with its promotion ahead of FC Desna Chernihiv.

List of presidents

2006–2009: Yuriy Kindzerskyi

2009–2012: Football Federation of Lviv Oblast (led by Yaroslav Hrysyo)

2016–2018: Roman Mykhayliv

Since 2018: Bohdan Kopytko