History of CSKA Kyiv

CSKA Kyiv is one of the oldest sports clubs in Ukraine. The official founding date of the football team is 1934, in 1960 it became part of the Ukrainian Army Sports Club, became the name SKA (Army Sports Club) and represented the Kyiv Military District. Since 1992, when Ukraine became an independent state, SKA has received the status of Central, receiving the name CSKA.

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1926

There is reason to consider July 28, 1926, the birthday of the Kyiv Army Team. It was on this day that a football match between the team of military units of the Kyiv garrison and the team of trade union teams of Kyiv was held. Thus, for the first time in the history of Kyiv army football, an official match of the Kyiv garrison team took place. Confirmation of the above was published in the newspapers: "Kyiv Proletarian" from 28.07.1926 and "Proletarska Pravda" from 30.07.1926. There are also facts that confirm that the team of the Kyiv garrison took part in the football life of Kyiv since 1926. For example, on August 10, 1926, at the Red Stadium, the Kyiv team of the House of the Red Army (HRA) - the team of the Kyiv garrison received their teammates from the Central House of the Red Army (CHRA), where they lost 1:4. Currently, the study of facts and the reliability of sources, which should be confirmed by expert opinions.

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Football team of Kyiv Artillery School, 1927.

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1934

The official date of the team's founding is 1934, when the team called UMD (Ukrainian Military District) was founded in the then capital of Ukraine, Kharkiv. In June 1934, the Central Committee of the Red Army (Central House of the Red Army) in Moscow hosted football competitions for the championship of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (WPRA) among the army teams of the Moscow, Leningrad, Belarusian, and Ukrainian military districts (MMD, LMD, BMD, UMD). In the first official meeting, which took place on June 7, 1934, our compatriots lost to the Belarusians (BMD) with a score of 1:5.

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UMD national team, Kyiv, 1934.

On June 24, 1934, by the decision of the People's Commissar of Ukraine, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv, where the UMD army team also moved. After moving to Kyiv, a plan to prepare the district's athletes for the 1935 All-Army Games was approved. This directly affected the players. In order to prevent further formal approach to the staffing of the team in July 1934 were held district qualifying competitions UMD in football. The commander of the 80th division and the commissioner of the 7th Rifle Corps ROGALOV took especially seriously in holding these competitions. His wards defeated the team of the 45th division in the final match 6:0 and became the winners of the tournament. After the competition, in July 1934, on the basis of the winning team formed the main composition of the UMD football team, it included the following players: BAGNENKO, USATIUK, RUCHENKO, TOKMATOV, KOLESNIKOV, ZADNIPROVSKY, MYKHAYLOV, CHYVA, LANGE, GREBENIUK, SLEPOV. I. V. MYRONOV was the team coach.

Almost immediately after the creation of the team, their colleagues from the Moscow CHRA came to Kyiv for a friendly meeting with the UMD players. The team of CHRA included four players of the main team of the Moscow national team: RYZHOV, SAVANOV, NIKISHIN and AKSENOV. Despite this, our compatriots defeated the Muscovites with a score of 2:1. In the first days of August 1934, the UMD team held two more interesting matches in Kyiv. In the first of them army team competed with the first national team of Dynamo Kyiv, the match ended in a draw 3: 3. The same score was recorded in the next match with the first team of trade unions in Kyiv.

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1934 – 1980

The club has been participating in professional competitions since 1947. Army team was five-time Champion of the USSR in football (1949, 1951 1967 1980, 1983). The highest achievement of the period of the USSR - reaching the semifinals of the USSR Cup in football in 1952, where the army lost to Moscow "Spartak" with a score of 2:0.

Until 1960, the team changed its name several times: OH (Officers' House), DOH (District Officers' House), DSC (District Sports Club), MDSC (Military District Sports Club).

In 1960, the team became part of the Ukrainian Army Sports Club, retained the name SKA (Army Sports Club) and now represents the Kyiv Military District. In the USSR, SKA was part of the "Physical Culture and Sports Association of the Armed Forces" (along with CSKA, CSK Air Force and CSK Navy) and was subordinated to the Sports Committee of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

In the 1970s, the Kyiv army team did not have the best of times. Perhaps the most significant event in the life of the team of this period - the appointment of the head coach of the former player of the USSR national team, Honored Coach, Master of Sports of the USSR Mykola MANOSHYN (1970-1973).

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SKA (Kyiv), 1989.

 

 

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1992 - 1995

In the spring of 1992, SKA started in the first league of the Ukrainian championship and dropped to the second. In the 1992/93 season, the team was named CSK ZSU (Central Sports Club of the Armed Forces of Ukraine), played in the second league, but had to leave it according to the results of the championship. However, in the 1993/94 season, the CSC ZSU, due to the reorganization of the league and the change in the number of its members, retained its place in the second league.

In the winter of the 1994/95 season, an alliance between the Ministry of Defense and private business emerged: Minister of Defense of Ukraine Valery SHMAROV and head of Boryspil "Geoton" Dmytro ZLOBENKO reached an agreement on joining forces and establishing a football club CSKA-Borysfen. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense kept its own team in the third league, which successfully reached the second at the end of the season.

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CSKA-Borysfen, Kyiv, 1995.

CSKA-Borisfen started the spring part of the championship with a new name, the capital's "registration" and a significant increase. Fans began to go to the matches of the team that played at the CSKA army stadium on Povitroflotsky Avenue: of course, it included honored masters of sports, holders of football trophies and even legends of Soviet football. For the first match of the spring against Chortkiv "Crystal" (CSKA defeated Crystal - 5: 0) the club put an updated lineup, which would make even the teams of the first league tremble. At the gate - Victor CHANOV. In defense - Oleg KUZNETSOV, who returned to Ukraine from Israel. Next to them are other ex-Dynamo players: SUKIASIAN, JISHKARIANI, ANENKOV, PRUDIUS, as well as an experienced scorer MATVIYIV and his younger talented compatriots - VOLOSIANKA and ZAKOTIUK, ex-citizen of Kharkiv PUSHKUTSA and brilliant PESTRIAKOV, who immediately became one of the best players of the season. Starting with an eight-match winning streak, in the course of the second round, one after another, the army team defeated all its main competitors - Okhtyrka Naftovyk, Nikopol Metallurg and Kirovohrad Zirka (although Zirka won in the first league), finishing second in the season.

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1995 - 1997

The army team made its debut in the premier league of the national championship of Ukraine in 1995. CSKA-Borisfen was thoroughly preparing for its debut in the premier league. However, the short off-season, which turned out to be even shorter for the newcomers of the elite division, forced to carry out rapid personnel work. The capital's debutant received at his disposal a powerful landing party, which was remembered by the army team after the first league: goalkeeper REVA arrived from Poligraftekhnika, creating competition for GUMENIUK and SAVCHENKO, future long-term leaders of the team LEVCHENKO and REVUT came to the defense, young Dynamo player FEDOROV, as well as ex-Dnipro DYRIAVKA, former player of the national team of Ukraine. BELKIN returned from Israel, as well as one of the best scorers of the Dynamo backup team Andriy GUSIN came to the team. About a dozen legionnaires visited the review together with these players, Peruvian midfielder Alfonso JANES RAMIRES and Zairean forward Mafumba MFILU appeared in CSKA-Borysfen's bid.

Starting the new season with a draw in Kirovograd, Fomenko's wards made a remarkable move. In the fourth round, their victim was Shakhtar from Donetsk. 8,200 spectators (for the then Kyiv, and even more so not Dynamo - a decent audience) saw the magnificent victory of the Kyiv team. Eduard TSYKHMEISTRUK, a native of Donetsk region, opened the scoring in the 2nd minute, at the beginning of the second half the captain of the team VOLOSIANKA scored two crucial goals, and at the end of the match another defender, DYRIAVKA, set the final score 4:0. Even for Shakhtar, which was not yet the star team, it was a powerful and convincing indicator of the team's strength. After the starting rounds (the next two matches the army won with a total score of 8: 2) of the debut season in the major leagues, CSKA-Borysfen broke into first place, becoming a serious threat to all clubs in the major leagues without exception. The meeting of the 7th round against the then unconditional leader of Ukrainian football Kyiv Dynamo on August 27, 1995 gathered a significant audience for that time - 10 thousand spectators. Among those present was not only football beau monde, but also high army ranks. But the tense, nervous game did not reveal the winner - 0:0. But the moral winner of the first elite derby of Kyiv was clearly CSKA-Borysfen. If the team lost fewer optional points with weaker opponents, who knows, would be Dynamo able to go on a winter break in a good mood or not.

After the winter off-season, CSKA-Borysfen returned in a completely different status. The team was respected, but the attitude towards it was not the same as in the summer. In the spring, the team lost a few more important points. In the home match against Dynamo, the army team took the lead thanks to Volosianko's goal, but eventually lost - 1:2. And although in the main match with Shakhtar in Donetsk the team won 3:2, in the end the team finished only in 4th place.

In the off-season, a well-known businessman Igor BAKAY, then Head of the State Administration under President Leonid Kuchma, not achieving the desired success with the Dnipropetrovsk Dnipro, decided to do it with the army team. First of all, CSKA-Borysfen had eight high-class Dnipro players at their disposal, led by ex-coach of the GDR national team Bernd SCHTANGE.

At the beginning of the 1995/96 season, there was an unprecedented scandal between the co-founders of the club, which led to the fact that the club CSKA-Borysfen broke up, and the successor of the team was the army. Club CSKA-Borysfen was reorganized into a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and was named CSKA. At the same time, the team that went from the second league to the first became a team of backups - CSKA-2. Mykhailo GRINSHPON was elected president of a separate army club. Following the results of a season under the direction of the head coach of LOZYNSKII CSKA finished 11th.

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1997 - 2001

Gradually, the army team stabilize, ZAKARLIUK, HONCHARENKO, KOSTYSHYN, REVA will declare themselves. As a result, in a year CSKA will reach the final of the Cup of Ukraine 1997/1998 and will have the right to represent Ukraine in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. In the same year, Viktor TOPOLOV, former president of Kyiv-Donbass company, became the new head of the club.

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CSKA team, 1998.

Debut in the European Cup, unfortunately, was not very successful. Starting with the victory over the Irish "Cork City", the army team lost in 1/16 to the Moscow "Lokomotiv".

In the future, the honorary president of the club will be the People's Deputy of Ukraine Oleksandr DANYLCHUK, and the leadership will include President Oleh MYKOLAYIV, Vice Presidents Mykola POLISHCHUK and Serhiy HRYHOROVYCH.

In the 2000/2001 season, CSKA will repeat the achievements of two years ago and reach the final of the Cup of Ukraine, in which it will lose to Shakhtar Donetsk 1:2, but will again receive the right to participate in international competitions - the UEFA Cup.

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CSKA team, 2001.

The 2001/2002 European Cup season has become more successful. Starting in the Cup draw, CSKA confidently passed the Finnish Jokerit and the Yugoslav Zrvena Zvezda. The stumbling block was the match with Belgian "Brugge", which the army team lost (7:0 for the sum of two matches). Despite the unfortunate defeat, CSKA showed one of the best results in European Cup competitions among Ukrainian clubs since the independence of Ukraine at that time.

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Creation of FC "Arsenal" and division of the club

Despite the principled protest of the fans, in December 2001 a new football club "Arsenal" was created on the basis of the first football team of CSKA, wich was transferred in transit through the Kyiv city administration into private ownership. This day became probably the blackest page in the life of the army club, because it was from this time that the disintegration began, and then the complete disappearance of the famous club, the decline of the army stadium.

At the same time, on the basis of the second team (backup, which played in football competitions among the teams of the first league - CSKA-2), a club was formed under the old name, which was also given into private ownership. The vast majority of fans decided to support the club with its native name.

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2002 - 2009

For the next 8 years, the newly created football club under the CSKA brand played in the Ukrainian football championships in the first and second leagues. In the 2007/2008 championship, the club took 19th place and dropped to the Second League. In September 2009, in the midst of the Ukrainian Football Championship among the teams of the second league, the owners of the club suddenly refused funding, and the team stopped participating in the competition.

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CSKA team, 2008.

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Revival

The first attempt to revive the club in amateur status was made by fans in 2013. CO "CSKA Ukraine" and the staff of the Kyiv amateur football team "Atlant" have reached an agreement on the merger and establishment of the CSKA football club and had applied to participate in the Premier League of the Christian Football League (CFL). However, after the first round, in which CSKA met with the team "Katran", the leadership of the CFL decided to withdraw the team from the championship. According to unofficial information from sources in the CFL, the leadership of the league was not ready for increased attention to the CFL competitions by the media and fans.

In 2015, the coach with first league experience Victor Ishchenko and the former head of the club Serhiy Hryhorovych, quite unexpectedly took the initiative, gathering and announcing the CSKA team to participate in the anniversary Makarov Memorial. The team was headed by Viktor Ishchenko, who in the last years before that worked with amateurs at the Republican Higher School of Physical Education. Not surprisingly, the basis of the army team were his wards. However, immediately after the performance at the tournament, the team disappeared again, just as mysteriously and unexpectedly as it appeared.

In 2019, the Kyiv Army Club was recreated by a private group of investors. In May 2019, the structure of the club was reorganized, the authorized capital was formed, the opening of the children's football school "CSKA - Kyiv" was announced, and a new team formation was announced to participate in the competition, in the future - at the professional level. 

Veterans who played as part of the former professional club during their performances in the second league also joined the revival of the club.


CSKA team, 2021.

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Current state

In 2021, the team began playing in amateur football competitions under the auspices of the KSDFF (Kyiv-Sviatoshynsky District Football Federation).

In 2022, CSKA Kyiv prematurely won the gold medals of the 2021-2022 Kyiv 1st League Championship, which was interrupted by the war.

The club continues to play in the Higher League of the Kyiv City Championship.