Metallurg Zaporozhye began its history in 1949. It was created on the basis of the factory football team “Stal” of the plant “Zaporizhstal”.
Communication with the plant was not lost even after Ukraine gained independence.
In 1999, after the privatization of the Zaporizhstal plant, one of the new co-owners, Igor Dvoretsky, took over the financing of Metallurg. In later interviews, he said that the maintenance of the club took 12-15 million dollars a year. And “Metallurg” showed himself well during this period.
In 2002, under the leadership of Oleg Anatolyevich Taran, the team finished the championship in the European Cup zone.
Metallurg, coached by Vyacheslav Grozny, achieved the greatest success in the national cup in the 2005/06 season and, as a finalist of the Ukrainian Cup, played in the UEFA Cup.
In 2011, Igor Dvoretsky sold his stake in Zaporizhstal to Metinvest. Rinat Akhmetov had enough of Shakhtar and he was interested in buying a second club.
In 2012, Metallurg was acquired by Alexander Boguslaev, the son of the owner of the Motor Sich plant, Vyacheslav Boguslaev.
“Metallurg” during this time managed to go down one standings of the results of the 2010/11 season and go to the first league. Then return to the Premier League on 12/13, and in 2015, without finishing the championship, white was expelled from the Premier League.
In the same period, information began to appear in the press that the financing of the club would be terminated. Alexander Boguslaev in an interview reassured players and fans that funding would not be stopped. But over the course of the year, funding gradually decreased and Metallurg actually ceased to exist.
In 2017, the then mayor of Zaporozhye decided to revive Metallurg as a municipal club, i.e. funded from the local budget. The team was supposed to start with games in the second league, but the main goal was to preserve the Zaporozhye football school and Metalurh as its symbol.
MFC “Metallurg” moved to the first league, and in 2023 it received increased funding – almost twice as much as in 2022, UAH 63 million. against UAH 34 mln. Let’s see how this year the team will be able to please their fans.
Source: Obozrevatel
Brayden White, a veteran sports writer at Global Happening, brings his wealth of knowledge and expertise to the sports section. With over a decade of experience, he is committed to delivering high-quality coverage of the latest games and events.
