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| Full name | Football Club Lviv | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2006; 19 years ago (2006) | |||
| Dissolved | 2023; 2 years ago (2023) | |||
| Ground | Arena Lviv,Lviv | |||
| Capacity | 28,051 | |||
| President | Bohdan Kopytko | |||
| 2022–23 | Ukrainian Premier League, 16th of 16 (relegated) | |||
 Current season | ||||
FC Lviv (Ukrainian:ФК «Львів») was aUkrainian professionalfootball club from the city ofLviv.
The history of the club is very controversial and was interrupted on numerous occasions. The first club under such name entered professional competitions back in 1992. In 2001 that club was merged withKarpaty Lviv. The second club appeared in 2006 replacing insolvent Hazovyk-Skala out of Stryi (not far from Lviv) in the second tier. In such manner the new club skipped few tiers of the national football pyramid. That club became bankrupt in 2012. Few years later in 2016 the club was revived based on its football academy. In 2017 the administration ofNK Veres Rivne and FC Lviv reached an agreement which led to "castling" swap of their teams in the national football pyramid. In 2023 FC Lviv was relegated, but it suspended its operations due to hardship with an option to renew its professional next season.
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.[1]
The club was founded in May 2006. It entered thePersha Liha as a replacement for the bankrupt clubFC Hazovyk-Skala Stryi, which also representedLviv Oblast. The new entity was registered on 22 May 2006[2] as a company with limited liability (Ukrainian:Товариство з обмеженою відповідальністю) "Football Club "Lviv". Later in May 2006 the PFL Bureau session adopted a decision to recognize the club as a lawful successor (Ukrainian:правонаступник) ofFC 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.[3] The new president of the new clubYuriy Kindzerskyi informed that his club was not created as a municipal club.[3]
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 stadiumKniazha Arena inDobromyl, west ofSambir. This arena was constructed by and named afterUkrainian insurance companyKnyazha, who is the club's main sponsor. The previous home ground of the club wasSKA Stadium inLviv, which fell out of favor with theFFU, PFL.
In2007–08 season FC Lviv finished 2nd in thePersha Liha and were promoted to thePremier Liha for the first time in their history, making the club one of the founders of the newly formedPremier League. In2008–09 FC Lviv, despite a sensational opening 2–0 win againstShakhtar, were relegated to thePersha Liha. The decisive match for them happened in the last round against another Lviv teamKarpaty in theLviv derby when they lost 2–1. The club's first, and only, season in thePremier League was spent at The Ukraina Stadium together with Karpaty under a lease contract.
In 2009, the city ofLviv lent the former land property ofLORTA 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.[4]
On 12 July 2012 the sports director of FC Lviv Rostyslav Zaremba confirmed that the club has been withdrawn from competitions due to financial issues.[5]
In 2016 the professional team of FC Lviv was renewed and its future participation inDruha Liha was announced.[6]
In May 2018, the club was promoted to theUkrainian Premier League on pretence of merging withNK Veres Rivne and play in the2018–19 Ukrainian Premier League.
At its official website, the club tells that all efforts ofNK Veres Rivne are actually efforts of FC Lviv instead.[7] The club states that it was FC Lviv that placed 6th in the2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League,[7] while the same claim for this achievement is laid by Veres Rivne.[8] Records however clearly show that at that time FC Lviv played in the2017–18 Ukrainian Second League and recovered their professional status only in 2017. This claim is particularly bold as in 2017NK Veres Rivne, as a "people's club", had a big scandal with its promotion ahead ofFC Desna Chernihiv. The archive ofUkrainian Association of Football "Footpass" shows the Premier League club NK Veres Rivne playing at the first preliminary round instead of FC Lviv (please, seeVeres – Lviv swap). In 2018 following the swap there was an attempt to replace names in archived teams' performances.
At the end of March 2024, the internet website "Ukrainskyi Futbol" interviewed a director of FC Lviv sports school (DYuSSh) due to recent rumors of his intentions to revive a professional team.[9] The website also inquired about details of the professional PFC Lviv that suspended its participation in competitions. Earlier in July 2023, the head of the Association of footballers of Ukraine stated that actions of the PFC Lviv leadership fall under an article about swindle.[10]
| Administration | Coaching[12](senior team) | Coaching[13][14](U-21/U-19 team) |
|---|---|---|
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Since 2006 till 2012, the main sponsor wasKnyazha (insurance company), other sponsors wereDobromyl,Persha Pryvatna Brovarnia (brewery), and the technical sponsor wasLotto.
| Years[16] | Football kit | Shirt sponsor |
|---|---|---|
| 2008–2009 | Lotto | Knyazha Vienna Insurance Group |
| Season | Div. | Pos. | Pl. | W | D | L | GS | GA | P | Domestic Cup | Other | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Previous | Refer toFC Hazovyk-Skala Stryi | ||||||||||||
| 2005–06 | 2nd (Persha Liha) | 6/18 | 34 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 35 | 33 | 52 | 1⁄8 finals | as Hazovyk Skala-Stryi | ||
| 2006–07 | 11/19 | 36 | 13 | 8 | 15 | 45 | 45 | 47 | 1⁄8 finals | [17] | |||
| 2007–08 | 2/20 | 38 | 23 | 5 | 10 | 58 | 29 | 74 | 1⁄8 finals | Promoted | |||
| 2008–09 | 1st (Premier Liha) | 15/16 | 30 | 6 | 8 | 16 | 24 | 39 | 26 | 1⁄8 finals | Relegated | ||
| 2009–10 | 2nd (Persha Liha) | 4/18 | 34 | 19 | 6 | 9 | 49 | 22 | 63 | 1⁄32 finals | |||
| 2010–11 | 5/18 | 34 | 17 | 8 | 9 | 52 | 28 | 59 | 1⁄32 finals | ||||
| 2011–12 | 18/18 | 34 | 6 | 3 | 25 | 21 | 79 | 18 | 1⁄32 finals | Folded | |||
| The club was idle between 2012 and 2016 | |||||||||||||
| 2016–17 | Amateurs | 10/12 | 20 | 3 | 4 | 13 | 19 | 31 | 13 | UAC | 1⁄4 finals | Admitted to professionals | |
| 2017–18 | 3rd (Druha Liha) | 5/10 | 27 | 10 | 6 | 11 | 28 | 29 | 36 | 1⁄4 finals | Swapped with Veres | ||
| Merged withNK Veres Rivne (team swap) | |||||||||||||
| 2018–19 | 1st (Premier Liha) | 6/12 | 32 | 8 | 10 | 14 | 25 | 40 | 34 | 1⁄4 finals | |||
| 2019–20 | 11/12 | 32 | 5 | 9 | 18 | 25 | 57 | 24 | 1⁄8 finals | ||||
| 2020–21 | 8/14 | 26 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 25 | 51 | 29 | 1⁄16 finals | ||||
| 2021–22 | 12/16 | 18 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 30 | 17 | 1⁄8 finals (Canceled) | All football competitions were suspended or abandoned on April 26 due to the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. | |||
| 2022–23 | 16/16 | 30 | 3 | 4 | 23 | 18 | 52 | 13 | None | Relegated | |||
Football Club Lviv-2 (Ukrainian:Футбольний Клуб Львів-2) was a reserve team of FC Lviv that played in theUkrainian Second League competition.[18]
The team was created based on a reserve (dublery) team that played in reserve competitions of the Vyshcha Liha in 2008–09 season. FC Lviv-2 played in the 2009-10 PFL League Cup.
| Season | Div. | Pos. | Pl. | W | D | L | GS | GA | P | Domestic Cup | Other | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009–10 | 3rd "A" | 8 | 20 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 13 | 25 | 19 | PFL LG | QF | ||
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