FC Arsenal Kyiv


Football Club Arsenal Kyiv is a Ukrainian football club based in Kyiv. In 2019, the club's professional team was dissolved, but its junior teams continue to compete in city competitions. The club claims to be a successor of Kyiv Arsenal factory team which traces its history back to 1925. The original factory team used to compete in the Soviet Class B, but was relegated in 1964 and officially dissolved.
The football club of the Ukrainian post-Soviet period was created in 1993 and brought to Kyiv from Boryspil by a geological company Geoton which was one of main sponsors of the Football Federation of Ukraine and Ukraine national football team in the beginning. In 1995–2001 through a merger, the club was reconstituted by the Ministry of Defense as a separate government enterprise not part of the Central Sports Club of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During that period it competed in the Ukrainian Top League under CSKA Kyiv brand as its senior squad, while the original army squad continued to compete in lower leagues. In 1995 it was relocated to Kyiv playing at CSK ZSU Stadium and carried such names as CSKA-Borysfen and CSKA, while the original FC CSKA Kyiv competing in lower leagues changed its name to CSKA-2 as its reserve squad. Due to difficulty of financing, the ownership of senior squad was transferred to the Kyiv city authorities during the winter break of 2001–02 as part of Oleksandr Omelchenko political project and the newly acquired squad was renamed as Arsenal in memory of the factory team.
Between 2002 and 2008, Arsenal was a municipal club of Kyiv city and played its games at the Olympiyskiy National Sports Complex. Later when the club was sold to the Ukrainian politician Vadym Rabinovych who promised to build the club's own stadium within the Kyiv city limits, but instead came up with a campaign to revive the history of another Arsenal Kyiv, a factory team of Kyiv Arsenal, which was dissolved in the 1960s and consider the current Arsenal Kyiv a phoenix club of its predecessor. In 2013 soon after Rabinovych sold the club to another Ukrainian politician it was abandoned and dissolved.
Due to the efforts of Ukrainian racer Oleksiy Kikireshko, the club was revived in 2014 as Arsenal-Kyiv and based in Shchaslyve located right on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv.

History

Timeline and names

  • 1925–1963: During this period the first installment of the club was originally formed as Mashynobudivnyk and then later, Arsenal.
  • *In 1963 Arsenal was dissolved and replaced by Temp Kyiv, its sports school continued to compete at city competitions.
  • 1993–2013: The second installment of the club was formed under the name Borysfen and later changed names due to several events during this period.
  • *1993: Borysfen → Nyva–Borysfen : the club merged with FC Nyva Myronivka in the Transitional League in the middle of the 1992–93 season as Nyva–Borysfen.
  • *1993: Nyva–Borysfen → FC Borysfen Boryspil : started out in the Second League in place of FC Nyva Myronivka, due to the merger, for the 1993–94 season under the new name of FC Borysfen Boryspil.
  • *1994: FC Borysfen Boryspil → FC Boryspil : then changed its name to FC Boryspil during winter break and gained promotion and the end of the season.
  • *1994: FC Borysfen Boryspil → FC CSKA–Borysfen Boryspil : merged with CSK ZSU Kyiv as FC CSKA–Borysfen Boryspil for the 1994–95 season
  • *1995: FC CSKA–Borysfen Boryspil → FC CSKA–Borysfen Kyiv : relocated to Kyiv, which saw another name change to highlight its base at the CSK ZSU Stadium in Kyiv, which belonged to the Central Sports Club of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
  • *1996: FC CSKA–Borysfen Kyiv → FC CSKA Kyiv and FC Borysfen Boryspil : a disagreement with members and key stakeholders of the club brought about the splitting of FC CSKA–Borysfen Kyiv to form FC CSKA Kyiv and FC Borysfen Boryspil.
  • *2001: FC CSKA Kyiv → FC Arsenal Kyiv : during this year, the Kyiv City governing body purchased the club from Ministry of Defense and adopted new name to draw on the history and significance of the former identity.
  • *2013: FC Arsenal Kyiv filed for bankruptcy and was dissolved.
  • 2014–2019: The third installment of the club was formed under the name of FC Arsenal-Kyiv.
  • *2014: FC Arsenal-Kyiv was established and was based at the Arsenal's Football Academy, and stadium, in Shchaslyve. This was a culmination of efforts from its fan and private investors, among which was notably Oleksiy Kikireshko.
  • *2018: In four years, FC Arsenal-Kyiv passed through the lower three leagues to be crowned as Champions of the Ukrainian First League and promotion to the Ukrainian Premier League.
  • *2019: Another collapse in management and lackluster performance in the Premier League saw FC Arsenal-Kyiv cement itself to the bottom of the Premier League table and its relegation and withdrawal from the League.

    Soviet period

Created on 14 July 1925, as a multi-sports club of the Arsenal Factory in Kyiv, before World War II the club played mostly in regional competitions for factory workers. In 1936 Arsenal Kyiv took part in the Soviet Cup in football where it was eliminated after the first round of competition after a replay.
After World War II the club played in the Ukrainian Soviet competitions under the name of FC Mashynobudivnyk Kyiv. In 1958 Mashynobudivnyk won the competitions and was accepted to the Soviet Class B under the name of FC Arsenal Kyiv. In 1959–1964 the club played in the Soviet Class B. In 1964 the teams of master Arsenal Kyiv was dissolved. In reality however, FC Arsenal Kyiv either lost its relegation play-off or simply yielded its place to already existing FC Temp Kyiv which represented the Kyiv aviation factory Aviant. After the season Temp was withdrawn and until the end of 1960s played at the Soviet competitions among collectives of physical culture.
Later the Arsenal factory also was fielding its football team in the competitions among collectives of physical culture in 1972 – 1977, 1979 and 1980.

Nyva-Borysfen, FC Boryspil, and CSKA-Borysfen (1993–2001)

Foundation and Nyva Myronivka

The club takes its roots from the appearance of FC Boryspil and that fact is well documented. FC Boryspil was established on 9 March 1993 by Ukrainian geologist and entrepreneur Dmytro Zlobenko along with his partner Ihor Kovalevych and his science production firm "Geoton". Zlobenko managed to find ways in cooperation with local administrations of Myronivka and Boryspil raions. With the ongoing season, the club merged with the already existing FC Nyva Myronivka that competed at the Ukrainian Transition League and took over their brand temporary renaming into Nyva-Borysfen, while the original Nyva restarted as FC Nyva Karapyshi in the Kyiv Oblast Championship. The idea of club's organization, in the beginning, came from another former football player and coach from Kyiv, Ivan Terletskyi who also offered to seek help from Mikhail Oshenkov, a son of Oleg Oshenkov and worked closely with Valeriy Lobanovskyi. Among other people who were involved in creation of the new club were children coach out of Kuchakiv, Viktor Haiduk, director of the local "Kolos" sports society Mykola Kostianets, head of the Boryspil Raion state administration, Mykhailo Muzyka, and Boryspil mayor, Oleksandr Prydatko.
The original coach Volodymyr Kolomiets was left managing the club. Some new players were brought to the squad like Igoris Pankratjevas from FC Dynamo Kyiv and Oleksandr Ivanov from FC Metalist Kharkiv. With the help of Anatoliy Kroshchenko, Nyva-Borysfen's squad was increased with Dynamo Kyiv's young footballers. The same year Nyva-Borysfen won the Kyiv Oblast Cup, in order to participate in the Ukrainian Cup competitions. The new Nyva-Borysfen started out with a home loss to FC Naftokhimik Kremenchuk, while its next game it surprisingly won away in Kerch against the local FC Voikovets. The first recorded game of the merged club took place on 3 April 1993.

Fielded squad: Ruslan Novikov, Serhiy Kalian, Serhiy Yaroshenko, Vyacheslav Nivinskyi, Oleksandr Otlyotov, Andriy Mikhno, Yuriy Hetman, Ihor Symonenko, Serhiy Hura Yuriy Zhabynskyi, Oleg Solovyov. Coach - Volodymyr Kolomiets.

At the same time in Boryspil started out reconstruction of Kolos Stadium. Already since 15 May 1993, Nyva-Borysfen played its home games at the CSK ZSU Stadium. Nonetheless, the team failed its goals placing just outside the promotion zone in a tournament table. Luckily, the FFU Executive Committee decided to expand leagues and the "Myronivka Boryspilians" obtained the opportunity to jump on a last train car of the amateur "train" that was moving towards the official professional competitions, while heading back there was a more sad "train" that carried to the Transition League relegated from the last place FC CSK ZSU Kyiv. During the inter-seasonal break there were almost no changes made to the club's squad and coaching staff, except for a few players who went on to play for Borysfen Boryspil.

Sponsorship of the Football Federation of Ukraine

Since 1993, Dmytro Zlobenko provided funding for still developing and young Football Federation of Ukraine. He sponsored various FFU projects, tours and travels of its teams. The amount of financial support was over $500,000. The club administration managed to find a common ground with Yevhen Kotelnykov who at that time was the first vice-president of the Football Federation of Ukraine and played a key role in Ukrainian football. At the club presentation that took place in Kyiv was present Anatoliy Konkov who then administered the Ukrainian amateur football.

Among main sponsored events were an international tournament in Spain for Volodymyr Muntyan U-21 team and a tour of the Ukraine national football team to the United States. Later the club's administration helped the Volodymyr Kyianenko U-16 team with a travel to the 1994 UEFA European Under-16 Championship where it placed third. Cooperation with the Muntyan's youth team gave certain preferences in signing several better players among which were Hennadiy Moroz and Vitaliy Pushkutsa. The latter was targeted by Dynamo Kyiv and was signed just before Dynamo came with its offer. Alas, a signing of Vitaliy Kosovskyi did not materialized as Dynamo was faster in signing him, also fell through a transfer of Oleh Luzhnyi.

In 1993, the club among the first in Ukraine built its football stadium in Boryspil on the funds of private investors. It was completely demolished and built anew in three months. It was completed just before the game for Ukrainian Cup against Dynamo during the 1993-94 season. During the stadium's reconstruction, Borysfen played at a high school stadium in Shchaslyve.