FC Luch-Energiya Vladivostok

Luch-Energiya

Full name	Football Club Luch-Energiya Vladivostok
Founded	1958
Ground	Dynamo Stadium, Vladivostok
Capacity	10,500
Chairman	Anatoli Beznyak
Manager	Sergei Perednya
League	Russian National Football League
2014–15	10th
Home colours Away colours

FC Luch-Energiya (Russian: Футбольный клуб "Луч-Энергия" Владивосток) is an association football club based in Vladivostok, Russia. In 2005, Luch-Energia won the Russian First Division and played in the Premier League from 2006 to 2008.

The club was called Luch before 2003, when it was renamed Luch-Energia due to sponsorship from Dalenergo, an energy distribution company.

History

Luch has been playing in the Soviet Union championship since 1958. The club played in the Far East regional tournament of "B-class" teams and eventually won it in 1965, earning promotion to "A-class". Luch played in this regional tournament until league reorganization in 1972.

From 1972 to 1991, Luch played in the Eastern zone of Soviet Second League. The club's best result was a runner-up position in 1984.

In 1992, after the dissolution of Soviet Union, Luch was entitled to play in the Eastern zone of Russian First League and won that tournament. Luch played in Russian Top League in 1993 and was relegated, having finished 15th.

Luch played in Russian First Division from 1994 until relegation in 1997, and in Russian Second Division from 1998 to 2003. In 2003, Luch-Energia finished 1st in the Eastern zone and earned promotion. The club spent another 2 years in First Division, earning promotion to Premier League in 2005. In 2008 Luch finished in the last position and was relegated to the Russian First Division.The club had some financial problems and were forced to sell some of their key players making the club vulnerable at home, formerly considered a fortress on the remote Pacific coast.

Complications

Situated in the Far East of the country, their location poses a significant problem for away teams, for example being 9 hours by flight from Moscow. When playing FC Zenit Saint Petersburg at home, a trio of Zenit fans (Evgeny Stepanov, Aleksandr Zaraysky and Veronika Davidova) drove 15,000 km across the country only for their car to break down when in Vladivostok, leaving them unable to drive home. These fans thus took the Trans-Siberian Railway back to Saint Petersburg, upon which the club rewarded them with a new car on October 1, 2006.^[1]

There has been much controversy about whether the Russian league should be split into Western and Eastern leagues; however, this is yet to happen. Igor Akinfeev, the CSKA Moscow goalkeeper, said that "they should play in the Japanese League", after his team lost 4–0 after a seven-hour flight. In addition to this, even their own players admitted it was awkward as they had to travel long distances for away games. Matija Kristić said "It's not as bad for other teams because they only need to travel this distance once a year whereas we have to do it for all away matches". Srđan Radonjić said "It is just crazy, they should have two Russian premier leagues, one for the European teams and another for Asian teams. Vladivostok is 4,000 miles from Moscow."

League and Cup history

Russia

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Europe		Top Scorer (League)	Head Coach
1992	2nd, "East"	1	30	20	4	6	44	14	23	—	—		Kasyanenko – 9 Dubovik – 9	Burchalkin Ivchenko
1993	1st	15	34	11	7	16	29	56	29	R256	—		Ruslyakov – 7	Ivchenko
	Releg. tourn.	4	5	2	2	1	11	9	6				Galimov – 4
1994	2nd	12	42	15	11	16	44	53	41	—	—		I. Protasov – 9	Ig. Saenko
1995		6	42	20	6	16	51	48	66	R256	—		Selenkov – 16	Burchalkin
1996		15	42	14	12	16	39	49	54	R128	—		Shpilov – 9	Szekecs
1997		22	42	3	12	27	23	76	21	—	—		Selenkov – 5	Kobersky
1998	3rd, "East"	7	30	14	6	10	42	24	48	R64	—		Melnik – 8	Fedyakin
1999		7	30	14	7	9	43	32	49	R128	—		Melnik – 11	Fedyakin
2000		4	24	12	3	9	41	26	39	R512	—		Tikhonovetsky – 9	Karamyan Zhuravlyov
2001		8	28	9	10	9	31	29	37	R128	—		Tikhonovetsky – 8	Lukyanov
2002		6	30	15	6	9	51	34	51	R512	—		Kisurin – 10	Tolkin Zhuravlyov
2003		1	24	16	4	4	53	23	52	R512	—		A. Smirnov – 11	Zhuravlyov Antikhovich
2004	2nd	14	42	15	11	16	50	50	56	R128	—		Sokolov – 11 Atangana – 11	Antikhovich Pavlov
2005		1	42	27	11	4	81	32	92	R64	—		D.A. Smirnov – 19	Pavlov
2006	1st	7	30	12	5	13	37	39	41	R16	—		A. Ivanov – 5	Pavlov
2007		14	30	8	8	14	26	38	32	R32	—		Strelkov – 5	Pavlov
2008		16	30	3	12	15	24	53	21	R32	—		Bulyga – 5 I. Shevchenko – 5	Vulić Altman
2009	2nd	14	38	13	11	14	42	43	50	R32	—		Dedechko – 9	Yemelyanov Pobegalov
2010		12	38	13	13	12	42	42	52	QF	—		Satalkin – 9	Nazarenko Arcos
2011–12		17	48	11	21	16	37	39	54	R16	—		Alkhazov – 10	Arcos Pavlov
2012–13	3rd, "East"	1	30	18	8	4	48	27	62	R128	—		Tikhonovetsky – 14	Yemelyanov
2013–14	2nd	8	36	15	10	11	40	25	55	SF	—		Asildarov – 5 Mikhalyov −5	Yemelyanov Grigoryan
2014–15		10	34	11	9	14	40	46	42	R32	—		Myazin -11	Grigoryan Ushahin
2015–16										R32	—			Veretennikov

Current squad

As of 26 February 2016, according to the FNL website.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Vladimir Zamoroka 2 MF Wýaçeslaw Krendelew 3 MF Maksim Nasadyuk 4 MF Roman Slavnov 5 MF Denis Klopkov 7 MF Dmitri Kabutov 10 FW Maksim Kazankov 12 MF Sergei Ponomarenko 13 DF Aleksei Gritsayenko 14 MF Maksim Semakin 17 MF Aleksei Rebko 18 MF Mikhail Kozlov 22 FW Ruslan Gordiyenko

No. Position Player 23 DF Yevgeni Kirisov 24 FW Ivan Stolbovoy 25 MF Yevgeni Belonogov 27 DF Dmitry Guz 30 DF Albert Gadzhibekov 35 GK Illya Hawrylaw 55 DF Anton Piskunov 70 GK Aleksandr Kotlyarov 85 FW Nivaldo 89 DF Mikhail Mishchenko 90 FW Dmitri Kortava 92 DF Andrei Semyonov

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Luch-Energiya.

Nikolai Gontar Andrei Chichkin Anatoli Kanishchev Andrei Kondrashov Ramiz Mamedov Aleksandr Sheshukov Manuk Kakosyan Andrey Movsisyan Vital Bulyha

Andrei Kovalenko Konstantin Kovalenko Vitali Lanko Kirill Pavlyuchek Sergei Shtanyuk Gennady Tumilovich Dario Damjanović Josip Lukačević Dragan Stojkić

Marek Čech Giorgi Lomaia Jurģis Pučinskis Mihails Ziziļevs Igor Kralevski Srđan Radonjić Vladimir Vujović George Hummel Aleksei Poliakov

References

1. "Far East and far out: Russia's remotest derby, on the Sea of Japan". Four Four Two. 23 March 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2015.

External links

• (Russian) Official website