FC Zirka Kropyvnytskyi

FC Zirka Kropyvnytskyi is a Ukrainian amateur football club from Kropyvnytskyi, Kirovohrad Oblast, with its team currently playing in the Ukrainian Amateur League.
The club traces its history of a football team that existed at the British factory of Elvorti since 1911. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the factory was nationalized and converted into Soviet factory "Chervona Zirka", and likewise, the former team was dissolved, and the Soviet football team Chervona Zirka was formed in 1922. The club's professional football history started in 1958 when it was admitted to the Class B competitions.

History

The club traces its history back to the former sports club Elvorti Yelizavetgrad that was founded in 1911 at the Elvorti Factory owned by Robert Pearce Elworthy. Since 1907 the factory had its own football field.
After start of World War I and the Ukrainian-Soviet War, most sports events in the region were suspended and in 1917 the club dissolved. Sports competitions were resumed in Lyzavetghrad in 1921 that saw participation of a team.
In 1922, based on the former sports club Elvorti Yelizavetgrad were created two Soviet sports clubs Chervona Zirka and Chervony Profintern that participated in Soviet competition. The sports club Zirka was a multi-athletic club which beside football included volleyball, gymnastics, track and field, wrestling, fitness and others. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, some of Zirka's club shields contained 1922 as the club's year of establishment as well as a sketch of the fortress of St. Elizabeth which was built as a star fort. In 1924 there were established local competitions of Zinovyivsk Okruha and they were accounted for some 16 teams.
In 1928 Chervona Zirka changed its name to Metallist Zinovyevsk and in 1934 – Selmash Kirovo. To expand its operations and development, the sports club obtained the building of the factory theater which was transformed into a physical culture center with halls for sports competitions, wrestling, boxing, gymnastics. In 1928 the Zinovyivsk city team took part at the republican competitions among city teams for the first time. In 1931 in the Soviet Union was introduced the GTO athletic standards.
In 1934 the local athletic cell of the Dynamo sports society and NKVD organized construction of the city stadium by a method of subbotnik. It was headed by the NKVD officer Dmitry Medvedev who during the World War II became a notable Soviet partisan. The stadium was built in the city park that was recently opened in summer of 1933. The stadium began its operations in 1935 and was awarded to the sports club Silmash, former Metalist.
During the World War II the team was dissolved once again. The stadium was ruined almost entirely, at 84%.
The sports club was reestablished in 1945, but its football team was not revived until 1948 when by being a member of the former Volunteer Sports Society Selmash, it was reorganised as Traktor Kirovograd and after 1953 – Torpedo. In 1953 Torpedo Kirovohrad won its first republican trophy, the Ukrainian SSR football cup. In the final Torpedo defeated Lokomotyv Poltava.
In first post-War years 1946–47 Kirovograd was represented in football competitions by a law enforcement team "Dynamo".
In 1958, the club was renamed into Zvezda Kirovograd when it advanced to the professional level of Soviet competitions, the B Class. On 22 November 1961 the sports club, which Zirka represented, followed the suit and adopted the name of its football team. In 1961 Zirka established its own sports school, DYuSSh. Also, that year the Zirka football team obtained another republican trophy, the Ruby Cup that was awarded to the team with the most goals scored. The next year, 1962, Kirovohrad was once again represented by the NKVD/KGB team of Dynamo in place of the factory team. In 1963 Zirka was reinstated.
In 1973 and 1975 Zirka obtained the Ukrainian SSR football cup among the "teams of masters". In the 1973 final Zirka defeated Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk, while in the 1975 final it was Tavriya Simferopol. Note that since 1957 the original Ukrainian Cup competitions were degraded and became a regional competition of the Soviet Amateur Cup, so for short period in 1970 there existed two parallel competitions. However, the competition among the teams of masters was discontinued.
On the initiative of the athletes who were war veterans on 8 May 1985 in Kirovohrad at the Stadion Zirka was installed a memorial benchmark to the warrior-athletes who perished during the World War II.
In 1992, the Zirka football team reorganized into a separate organization as FC Zirka Kirovohrad. Also, the factory owned sports club Zirka liquidated its sports school.
From 1993 to 1997 the club carried a name of its title sponsor NIBAS as Zirka-NIBAS. Already in 1994 Zirka debuted at a top level for the 1994–95 season, where they finished 6th. In the 1999–2000 season they finished in last place and were relegated to the Ukrainian First League. They were promoted immediately as champions once again for the 2003–04 season but finished in last place and were demoted again. The football club Zirka existed until 2006 when it went bankrupt.
In 2007 the club was revived in amateur regional competitions. On 15 July 2008, the Professional [Football League of Ukraine] approved exchange names between Zirka and another club from Kirovohrad, FC Olimpik Kirovohrad, that competed at professional level to yield its place in the Ukrainian Second League.
In July 2016, the name of Zirka's hometown was renamed to Kropyvnytskyi. The next day the club announced it had changed its name to FC Zirka Kropyvnytskyi and its logo accordingly.

Team names and crest

Crest

Current club's crest was adopted in 2012. In 2016 as part of decommunisation process, the club changed its city's name and year of establishment claiming its heritage of the previously existing team of British factory "Elvorti".
In 2008-2011 the club's crest contained the Red Star and most of elements of coat of arms of the city of Kropyvnytskyi.

Owners (sponsors)

1911–1993: Elvorti factory, Kirovohrad
1993–1998: Agrarian company Nibas, Petropavlivka
1998–2011: City authorities, Kirovohrad
2011–present: Creative Industrial Group, Kropyvnytskyi

Honors

Football Cup of the Ukrainian SSR

*Winner : 1953Football Cup of the Ukrainian SSR
*Winner : 1973, 1975Ukrainian First League
*Winner : 1995, 2003, 2016Ukrainian Second League
*Winner : 2009

League and cup history

Soviet competitions
The republican football competitions in Ukraine during the Soviet period is poorly documented, so there is little information available about the Zirka's competition record before 1958.

ImageSize = width:1000 height:60
PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/1957 till:01/07/1970
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1958
Colors =
id:bl2 value:rgb
id:bl3 value:rgb
id:bl5 value:rgb
PlotData=
bar:Position width:15 color:white align:center
from:01/07/1957 till:01/07/1958 shift: text:13
from:01/07/1958 till:01/07/1959 shift: text:6
from:01/07/1959 till:01/07/1960 shift: text:5
from:01/07/1960 till:01/07/1961 shift: text:5
from:01/07/1961 till:01/07/1962 shift: text:23
from:01/07/1962 till:01/07/1963 shift: text:6
from:01/07/1963 till:01/07/1964 shift: text:12
from:01/07/1964 till:01/07/1965 shift: text:7
from:01/07/1965 till:01/07/1966 shift: text:18
from:01/07/1966 till:01/07/1967 shift: text:8
from:01/07/1967 till:01/07/1968 shift: text:4
from:01/07/1968 till:01/07/1969 shift: text:5
from:01/07/1969 till:01/07/1970 shift: text:7
from:01/07/1957 till:01/07/1962 color:bl2 shift: text:"Class B"
from:01/07/1962 till:01/07/1965 color:bl3 shift: text:"Class B"
from:01/07/1965 till:01/07/1970 color:bl2 shift: text:"Class A"

ImageSize = width:1000 height:60
PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1991
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1971
Colors =
id:bl2 value:rgb
id:bl3 value:rgb
id:bl4 value:rgb
PlotData=
bar:Position width:15 color:white align:center
from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1971 shift: text:6
from:01/07/1971 till:01/07/1972 shift: text:14
from:01/07/1972 till:01/07/1973 shift: text:12
from:01/07/1973 till:01/07/1974 shift: text:17
from:01/07/1974 till:01/07/1975 shift: text:5
from:01/07/1975 till:01/07/1976 shift: text:7
from:01/07/1976 till:01/07/1977 shift: text:5
from:01/07/1977 till:01/07/1978 shift: text:7
from:01/07/1978 till:01/07/1979 shift: text:9
from:01/07/1979 till:01/07/1980 shift: text:6
from:01/07/1980 till:01/07/1981 shift: text:17
from:01/07/1981 till:01/07/1982 shift: text:15
from:01/07/1982 till:01/07/1983 shift: text:17
from:01/07/1983 till:01/07/1984 shift: text:18
from:01/07/1984 till:01/07/1985 shift: text:10
from:01/07/1985 till:01/07/1986 shift: text:21
from:01/07/1986 till:01/07/1987 shift: text:23
from:01/07/1987 till:01/07/1988 shift: text:23
from:01/07/1988 till:01/07/1989 shift: text:14
from:01/07/1989 till:01/07/1990 shift: text:19
from:01/07/1990 till:01/07/1991 shift: text:25
from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1989 color:bl3 shift: text:"Vtoraya Liga"
from:01/07/1989 till:01/07/1991 color:bl4 shift: text:"Vtoraya nizshaya Liga"

Ukrainian competitions

ImageSize = width:1000 height:60
PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1992 till:01/07/2018
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1992
Colors =
id:bl1 value:rgb
id:bl2 value:rgb
id:bl3 value:rgb
id:bl4 value:rgb
id:bl5 value:rgb
PlotData=
bar:Position width:15 color:white align:center
from:01/01/1992 till:01/07/1992 shift: text:4
from:01/07/1992 till:01/07/1993 shift: text:4
from:01/07/1993 till:01/07/1994 shift: text:3
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 shift: text:1
from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/1996 shift: text:6
from:01/07/1996 till:01/07/1997 shift: text:10
from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 shift: text:11
from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift: text:11
from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift: text:16
from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift: text:15
from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift: text:9
from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift: text:1
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift: text:16
from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift: text:12
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift: text:9
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift: text:1
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift: text:12
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift: text:12
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift: text:11
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift: text:8
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift: text:6
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift: text:4
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift: text:1
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift: text:9
from:01/01/1992 till:01/07/1992 color:bl3 shift: text: "TL"
from:01/07/1992 till:01/07/1994 color:bl3 shift: text: "2L"
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 color:bl2 shift: text: "1L"
from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/2000 color:bl1 shift: text: "Vyshcha Liha"
from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2003 color:bl2 shift: text: "Persha Liha"
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 color:bl1 shift: text: "VL"
from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2006 color:bl3 shift: text: "2L"
from:01/01/2007 till:01/01/2008 color:bl5 shift: text: "Amateurs"
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 color:bl3 shift: text: "2L"
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2016 color:bl2 shift: text: "Persha Liha"
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2018 color:bl1 shift: text: "Premier Liha"