Relocation of professional sports teams occurs when a team owner moves a team, generally from one metropolitan area to another, but occasionally between municipalities in the same conurbation.
In Europe, moves are very rare because of the different relationship between clubs and their league in the European system of professional sports league organization. The practice is considered anathema. In most European sports, teams can be relegated from their current league to a lower one or promoted to the one above.
Armenia FC Banants were founded in 1992 in the village of Kotayk, representing the Kotayk Province. Between 1992 and 1995, the club was commonly referred to as Banants Kotayk.History of Football Club Banants, from fcbanants.com, retrieved May 1, 2009. During the 1992 season, the club won the first Armenian Cup. At the end of the 1995 transitional season, Banants suffered a financial crisis. The club owners decided that it was better to merge the club with FC Kotayk of Abovyan, rather than disband it. In 2001, Banants demerged from FC Kotayk, and was moved from Abovyan to the capital Yerevan. FC Alashkert was founded in 1990 in the town of Martuni of Gegharkunik Province. In 1992, the team played in the Premier League representing Martuni and using the City Stadium of the town as their home venue. In 1999, they did not participate in the First League competition and later in early 2000, the club was dissolved. In February 2013, the club purchased the Nairi Stadium in Yerevan, to become the official venue of their home games. As a result, the club was officially moved from Martuni to Yerevan starting from the 2013–14 season.
Austria ASKÖ Pasching in 2007 moved from Pasching to Klagenfurt and became SK Austria Kärnten, effectively a new club to play in the Austrian Football Bundesliga.Endgültig keine Lizenz für SK Austria Kärnten > Kleine Zeitung In Pasching, FC Pasching was founded immediately after the move, while SK Austria in Klagenfurt took over the former name of rivalling FC Kärnten as well as several notable players and sponsors' funds. In June 2010, SK Austria announced it was filing for bankruptcySK Austria Kärnten hat Konkurs angemeldet – oesterreich.ORF.at and the city of Klagenfurt founded a new club, SK Austria Klagenfurt (FC Kärnten's historical name). Sportklub Admira moved from Jedlesee, Vienna, to Maria Enzersdorf in 1967. Their main sponsor, who was located in Maria Enzersdorf, requested the club to relocate and built a new stadium for them there.
Azerbaijan Olimpik Baku was founded on the basis of a futsal team in 2004. In 2009, the club moved from central Baku to Şüvəlan and was renamed Olimpik-Shuvalan PFC."Olimpik" club to be renamed ФК "Олимпик" переименован The club once again was renamed in 2010, this time to AZAL PFC due to sponsorship reasons from the airline company Azerbaijan Airlines."Olimpik-Şüvəlan" adını dəyişib, AZAL oldu АЗАЛ в премьер-лиге In September 2010, the club management announced the construction of new AZAL Arena in Şüvəlan. Qarabağ FK is a football club from Aghdam, but has been based in Baku since 1993 due to the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Shusha FK is a football club based in Baku but represents the city of Shusha, which is controlled by the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Standard Sumgayit was founded in Baku as Standard Baku. The club moved to Sumgayit on June 12, 2009, which changed also club's name accordingly.
Belgium Football Couillet La Louvière was formed in June 2009 as the result of a merger between R.A.C.S. Couillet and R.A.A. Louviéroise. The matricule of the club is the number 94 of RACS Couillet, so technically it is a continuation of Couillet, whereas La Louvière has dissolved into Couillet, with their matricule (number 93) being lost. At the time of the merger, La Louvière played in the third tier of Belgian football and Couillet in the fourth, as a result, the new team started in the fourth tier. After the merger, the team was based in La Louvière and renamed to Football Club Couillet-La Louvière with abbreviation FCLL. However, the team moved back to Couillet in Charleroi in 2011 after third division team URS Centre moved to the center of La Louvière and changed its name to UR La Louvière Centre. As a result, the team name was changed again to Football Club Charleroi. RFC Liège, after its home stadium the Stade Vélodrome de Rocourt in Liège was destroyed, the club became 'homeless'. After having played during 4 years at rue Gilles Magnée, in Ans where a temporary stand was built, the RFC Liège is currently playing in Seraing at the Pairay Stadium. Racing Club Jette was founded in Jette, Brussels, in 1944. In 1988 the club moved to Wavre, Walloon Brabant and became Racing Jet Wavre.
Cyprus At least three clubs were forced to move due to the 1974 Turkish invasion of that country: Two clubs from Famagusta, Anorthosis (founded in 1911) and Nea Salamis (founded 1948), moved to Larnaca, and built new stadiums in that city. Doxa Katokopia, founded in Katokopia in 1954, moved to Peristerona. The club later moved again to the country's capital of Nicosia.
Czech Republic Dukla Prague, a successful football team under the patronage of the Czech Armed Forces, originally from Prague, merged with second division side FC Portál Příbram in 1996.Pivoda 2013, p. 99. The new club, which later became known as 1. FK Příbram, played one season in Prague at the Juliska Stadium before moving to Příbram in 1997, the last home match at Juliska being a 2–2 draw with relegated Baník Havířov on June 1, 1997,Pivoda 2013, p. 100. effectively meaning that the original FC Příbram, founded in 1929, moved to Prague, merged and then moved back. The club currently playing under the Dukla Prague name, and the current spiritual successor of the original team, FK Dukla Prague, was founded in 1958 as FK Dukla Dejvice and advanced to the Prague Championship in the 1983–84 season. Prior to 2001, the club's best finish in a season had been second in the Prague Championship in the 1984–85 season. In 2001, the club became known as FK Dukla Prague, but not the legal successor of the original Dukla Prague team. In November 2006, the new FK Dukla Prague management announced that it had agreed to a takeover of second league rights of the Jakubčovice team and in 2007 Dukla took Jakubčovice's place in the Czech 2. Liga, having finished the 2006–07 season in second place.Pivoda 2013, p. 128. In ice hockey, the Kontinental Hockey League, based in Russia but also including teams from several other post-Soviet states, expanded outside the former Soviet Union for the first time in 2011, adding the Slovakian team Lev Poprad. The team was purchased by Czech interests after the 2011–12 season; the new owners folded the club and replaced it with a similarly named team, the Prague-based Lev Praha. Although the two Lev teams are technically separate corporate entities, this situation can effectively be viewed as a move; not only are the team names similar, but the new owners retained much of the Poprad roster. Mountfield HK originated with a club that began playing ice hockey in České Budějovice in 1928. Following the 2012–13 season, the Czech Extraliga reached a sponsorship deal with Radegast to sell its beer in all Extraliga arenas. This agreement conflicted with the naming rights deal HC České Budějovice already had with Budweiser Budvar Brewery for their arena. Under the agreement, the club and the city would face stiff penalties for selling any beer other than Budvar products. Unable to resolve the dispute, the club decided on June 18, 2013, that no agreement could be reached between the parties involved and voted to immediately move to Hradec Králové for the 2013–14 season. The ice hockey traditions of HC České Budějovice was continued in the town by a club which adopted the historical club name "Motor" – ČEZ Motor České Budějovice Basketball club Nymburk relocated to Prague and changed its name to Slavia Praha NBK.
Estonia JK Tervis Pärnu moved in 1996 and played its home games in Lelle, small borough in Kehtna Parish, becoming Lelle SK. At the end of 2002 the club moved back to Pärnu and reinstated its original name. KSK Vigri Tallinn moved from Tallinn to Maardu, becoming FK Maardu. Lantana Tallinn moved in 1996 from the Kadriorg Stadium in Tallinn to the Viimsi Stadium in Viimsi. Levadia Maardu was founded in 1998 in Maardu. In 2004, they moved to Tallinn, and were renamed to Levadia Tallinn. The original Levadia Tallinn founded in 2000 subsequently became the moved club's reserve team, Levadia II Tallinn.
France In 1967, the top-tier but deep in-debt Toulouse FC, located in Toulouse, merged with Paris suburbs Red Star, then a tier-2 club, actually moving the entire club, including players and staff, North. This created a major scandal, leading to legislation changes, in particular the 1984 Avice law, which prevents out-of-departement fusions or moves for all sports Athlétic Club Arles founded in 1913 in Arles, moved in 2010 to the nearby () Avignon and adopted its current name, Athlétic Club Arles-Avignon Evian Thonon Gaillard F.C. were rumoured to be pursuing a move to play its home matches at the Stade de la Praille in Geneva, Switzerland after it was determined that the club's current facility, the Stade Joseph-Moynat, did not meet the Ligue de Football Professionnel's (LFP) standards. Thonon-les-Bains, the commune where the club situates itself, is a few kilometres from the Swiss border and is only , a 45-minute car drive, from the city of Geneva. It was reported that the club's president, Patrick Trotignon, had been in the process of advocating for the move since the beginning of the 2009–10 Championnat National season just in case the club had achieved promotion to the second division. The vice-president of Swiss club Servette FC, who occupy the stadium, questioned the move citing possible schedule conflicts, as well as the health of the pitch if both clubs were to use the stadium on a weekly basis. However, his claims were refuted by Benoît Genecand, who serves as president of Fondation du Stade de Genève (FSG), which owns and operates the facility. The club responded immediately to Genecand's comments via a press release posted on the club's official website. Evian petitioned to the State Council of Geneva and obtained approval from the LFP for the move in early May. On May 20, 2010, Evian received a favourable ruling from the French Football Federation (FFF) with the Federal Council voting in favour of the move. According to the federation, the move now had to be agreed upon by a UEFA executive committee, which is composed of seventeen officials. On June 8, UEFA officially denied Evian's request to play at the Stade de la Praille meaning the club would play its home matches at the Parc des Sports in nearby Annecy.
Georgia Due to the Abkhaz–Georgian conflict several clubs from the region cannot compete in the Georgian league and therefore several clubs have been re-founded by internally displaced persons from Abkhazia in Tbilisi, and although the original clubs continue to exist in exile, and no actual move has occurred, the Abkhaz peoples who had founded these club consider the clubs to be the continuation of the original club:
Dinamo Sokhumi continues to exist however two phoenix clubs have been found. FC ASMC Sokhumi was first founded as Dinamo Sokhumi and continues to represent the city in Tbilisi. FC Tskhumi Sokhumi was formed to represent Sokhumi initially in 1990, due to FC Dinamo Sokhumi refusing to join Umaglesi Liga and played in the Soviet First League, when the vast majority of the Georgian clubs withdrew from the Soviet League system and joined the Georgian SSR regional league, as the first Umaglesi Liga. After bankruptcy in 1993, the club was re-founded in 1999.