FC Shakhtar Donetsk

Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukrainian: Футбольний клуб «Шахта́р» Доне́цьк [fudˈbɔlʲnɪj klub ʃɐxˈtɑr doˈnɛt͡sʲk]) is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk.

Shakhtar has appeared in several European competitions and is often a participant of the UEFA Champions League. The club became the first club in independent Ukraine to win the UEFA Cup in 2009, the last year before the competition was revamped as the Europa League. FC Shakhtar Donetsk is one of two Ukrainian clubs, the other one is Dynamo Kyiv, who have won a major UEFA competition. The club normally plays its home matches at the Donbass Arena. However, because of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, this season home games are being played more than 600 miles to the west in Arena Lviv.^[2] Shakhtar Donetsk is Ukraine's second most popular football club.^[3] The club is the sole favorite of football fans in the Donbas.^[3]

The club draws its history from the very start of the Soviet football league competitions and is one of the oldest clubs in Ukraine. The club was a member of the Soviet Voluntary Sports Society of Shakhtyor, having connections with other Soviet teams from Karaganda(Kazakhstan), Soligorsk (Belarus), among others. In the late Soviet period, Shakhtar was considered a tough mid-table club of theSoviet Top League and a cup competition specialist after winning the Soviet Cup two years in a row in 1961 and 1962.

The team has played under the following names: Stakhanovets (1936–46), Shakhtyor (Shakhtar) (1946–92), and FC Shakhtar (1992–).

History

Before Shakhtar

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 Donetsk Steel Works Factory – DMZ) owned by John Hughes has created the Yuzovka Sports Association which contained a football club as well. The football team existed until 1919. In the 1920s, the club was reorganized into the one ofVladimir Lenin's club. One of the most prominent players of that period was Viktor Shylovsky^[4] who became famous, however, playing for Dynamo Kyiv.

Early Years - First Two Decades

The team in 1937.

The club Shakhtar was originally formed in May 1936 and was initially named Stakhanovets, meaning "the participant of Stakhanovite movement," which derived from Aleksei Stakhanov, a coal-miner in the Donets basin and propaganda celebrity in 1935. The first team was based upon two other local teams, the participants of the All-Ukrainian Spartakiads: Dynamo Horlivka and Stalino. The first game was unofficial against Dynamo Odessa and took place on 12 May 1936 at Balitsky Stadium. The team lost it 3–2 after scoring the first goal. Its first official game with Dynamo Kazan was even more disappointing, which they lost 4–1. Nonetheless, the selective job conducted constructively by the clubs administration allowed the club to compete successfully at the top level by the end 1930s. During the war championship of 1941, which was interrupted unexpectedly, the club defeated Soviet champions Dynamo Moscow and after about ten games were placed in fifth position. In the last game of that championship, they played on 24 June, two days after the start of the Great Patriotic War,^[5] which they lost at home to Traktor Stalingrad.^[6]

The All-Union coal mining society of Stakhanovite had changed its name in July 1946 to Shakhtyor. In 1950 Viktor Fomin was named Ukrainian Footballer of the Year, even though the club finished only 11th in the league. The first success for the team was in 1951, when it achieved third place in the USSR Championship. The most notable player of that achievement was the striker Aleksandr Ponomarev, who came to finish his football career in Donbass, the region he was born at, and was named Ukrainian Footballer of the Year for 1951. Despite the latest achievement, Shakhtar was relegated at the end of the 1952 season, and as part of the re-organization of the team, the former player Aleksandr Ponomarev became the head coach of the club. In 1954, Shakhtar under Ponomarev won the Class B League, and returned to the top league.

Shakhtar Donetsk