FC Volyn Lutsk ( ) was a Ukrainian football club based in Lutsk.
On 21 June 2023 the 31st PFL Conference excluded several clubs that did not compete in the 2022–23 season and did not renew their membership.ХХХІ чергова Конференція ПФЛ: підсумували сезон 2022/23, визначили орієнтири нового чемпіонату. pfl.ua. 21 June 2023
Their home stadium is Avanhard Stadium.
Colours are (Home) light red shirt, deep red shorts; (Away) white shirt with light red collar and upper sleeve, white shorts.
History
Traceable evidence of football in Volyn Oblast takes its roots from the Polish Wołyń District League that was liquidated during the World War II in 1939. The best city's team Policejski Klub Sportowy (PKS) Lutsk competed along with other clubs of the region with many clubs of the today's neighboring Rivne Oblast. Before establishing of FC Volyn, the best clubs of the region were Dynamo Lutsk (1940-1956) and army club GDO (Garrison Officers' Club, 1957-1959). Both clubs competed at Republican competitions that until 1959 were considered to be amateur.
Soviet period
In the beginning of 1960 in connection with expanding of the second tier (2nd) of the Soviet football (Soviet Class B) to Lutsk city was granted a place among "teams of masters". Since the strongest team of the city and region GDO Lutsk was part of the Armed Forces society, it was decided to create absolutely new team under auspices of the regional organization of the Volunteer Sports Society "Avanhard". Its actual name the team received on April 3, 1960 when it was time to apply for the competitions. According to one of the players of that time Mykhailo Kuzmin, at the gathering of players and the team's staff it was debated for long time what name the team will have.КЛУБ: ІСТОРІЯ. www.fcvolyn.net. Accessed 15 June 2023 Among variations there were "Dynamo" (as the leading regional team in 1946–1956) or more patriotic "Styr" until one of the players did not say "Volyn"... After a brief pause, everyone caused a noise and unanimously determined that it is what needed to be.
Its opening match Volyn played in Kirovohrad (today Kropyvnytskyi) on 10 April 1960. It was when the team earned its first victory with the score 3–1 with the first goal scored by Volodymyr Boichenko. He was the first player who made a hat-trick in that match. Its debuting match at the Avanhard Stadium in Lutsk took place on 2 May 1960 with Sudobudivnyk Mykolaiv. That match ended in goalless draw. Its first home victory Volyn gained on 7 May 1960 over Avanhard Chernivtsi 2–1. The first goal at home was scored by Viktor Pyasetskyi. Its first season Volyn finished 13th among 17 teams, while throughout the season being among the best 10 teams with misfortunes at the final rounds moved the team to the bottom of the table. The next two seasons for Volyn were disastrous, twice in the row the team was placing dead last. In 1963 there were some reforms in the Soviet football and Class B was downgraded to third tier. It was the season when the Volyn's crisis was ending and it rose to 17th place out of 20 teams. But during the relegation play-off matches of that season against the regional champion, the Lutsk team lost to the Volodymyr team "Zenit" 1–0 and 3–3. Nonetheless, it was "Volyn" that the regional leadership decided to keep in class "B".
In the following, the team's results improved, but its weakness was instability. A great start to the 1964 season was marred by continuous failures in the second half. The Volhynians demonstrated a rather bright game in 1966, when they were among the leading five for 30 rounds. But again - a series of defeats and goalless draws pushed the team down to 12th place, although it was mere 4 points away from the same fifth place. In the following seasons, the team performed with disruptions, jumping from twelfth to nineteenth place in the table.
In 1968, the club was placed under the care of a new "sponsor" - Mashzavod (later - Lutsk Automobile Plant, LuAZ) and renamed Torpedo. The last season in class "B" was the best for the team. At the winter pre-season preparations in Transcarpathia, "Torpedo" won the "Podsnezhnik" Cup of the Ukrainian SSR Football Federation, which was quite prestigious at the time. And in the 1970 championship, the team confidently held zonal competitions and finished in second place. There was not enough strength for the final and the Lutsk team fell to the 8th place in the table. The 1970 season was the last season for Class B competition which for that season was considered to be at the fourth tier.
In 1971, Class "B" was disbanded, and its best teams were included in the newly created Soviet Second League. Lutsk "Torpedo" was among them. However, the first season in the Second League was unsuccessful - the second-to-last 25th place. But behind us was our most principled opponent - "Horyn" Rivne. According to the regulations, both teams were supposed to leave the Second League, but the Football Federation of the Ukrainian SSR, taking into account the loss of master teams in two adjacent regions of Western Ukraine, decided to leave the teams of both cities in the Second League. However, in 1972, on the basis of the team out of the city of Lutsk, a team of masters of the Carpathian Military District was formed and SC Lutsk was established based on SKA Lviv.
In 1977 the club was revived as Torpedo and re-entered the Soviet third division and until 1980 remained at the bottom of the league's table. Although, for example, in 1979, "Torpedo" had quite a good first half, constantly being in the top ten. But a single victory in 23 matches of the second half pushed the Torpedo team to the bottom again. Another surge took place in 1981, when head coach Vyacheslav Pershin by attracting talented youth and experienced veterans to the team managed to create a true fighting collective. From 20th place in 1980, "Torpedo" rose to 8th place. The highlight of the season were two victories over "Kolos" Poltava - 5–0 each in Lutsk and Poltava.
In the following seasons, "Torpedo" moved into the category of strong middling teams and constantly finished in the middle of the tournament table. The team was equipped with a backbone of experienced players, the seasonal rotation of the team decreased, etc. In 1986, managed by Myron Markevych, "Torpedo" confidently finished the tournament calendar and was among the contenders for "bronze". Its fate was decided in the match of the last round between SKA Kyiv and "Torpedo" - both teams had an equal number of points. Unfortunately, the Lutsk team conceded 2–0 and finished fifth, because "Nyva" Ternopil also passed Lutsk. In the same year, "Torpedo" received the "Mark of Quality" (Znak Yakosti) prize for teams of the Second League, which was awarded to the team that trained the most players for the teams of the First and Top leagues and gathered the most spectators. Taking into account the fact that during the season only Oleh Fedyukov, Oleh Benko and Vasyl Storchak joined the Top League from the Lutsk team, winning this prize became natural. The 1987 season was marked by the team reaching the 1/16 finals of the Soviet Cup, where the Torpedo team lost to CSKA Moscow 1–0 and 0–0. Unsuccessful performances in the championship led to the resignation of Myron Markevich, and in his place came another coach of the team - Vitaliy Kvartsyanyi, who raised the team from 16th to 8th place.
Taking into account the political and economic changes in the life of the country, on January 30, 1989, at a meeting of public organizations of the city, a self-supporting (khozrasschyot) football club was created, which was given back its initial name - "Volyn". In the same season, from the very first rounds, the players of Lutsk entered the fight for the highest awards and, having confidently passed the intense competition of 52 matches (32 wins with 6 losses), won the title of champions of Ukraine. The club's record was set by striker Volodymyr Dykyi, who scored 22 goals during the season. Unfortunately, again Volyn came short to win the promotional tournament for entry into the First League. The Football Federation of the Soviet Union also jammed a pole into wheels by forbidding re-signing of players for promotional matches, and canceling this decision before the very start of them, warning only Volyn's competitors about it. A large number of injured players led to the fact that even goalkeeper Mykhailo Burch had to be released on the field as a field player. Therefore, the Volhynians could not compete on an equal footing with their rivals and settled for second place.
The gold medals of the 1989 Champions of Ukraine were awarded to: goalkeepers - Raimonds Laizāns, Mykhailo Burch; defenders - Volodymyr Antonyuk, Oleh Fedyukov, Ivan Polnyi, Hennadiy Shukhman, Roman Kryshchyshyn; midfielders - Anatoliy Radenko, Mykola Sluka, Andriy Fedetskyi, Serhiy Kovalyov, Volodymyr Hashchyn, Volodymyr Martyniuk; attackers - Armands Zeiberliņš, Volodymyr Dykyi, Pavlo Filonyuk, Volodymyr Mozolyuk. The head of the team - Anatoliy Barabasevych, head coach - Vitaliy Kvartsyanyi, coach - Oleksiy Yeshchenko.
Ukrainian period After the championship season, there was a certain decline, however, Volyn finished the 1991 season in 8th place in the Western Buffer Group of the Second League. This made it possible to enter the first national championship of Ukraine as a team of Vyshcha Liha. The first season turned out to be successful for Volyn - 5th place in the group. Although during the season the team was among the leaders for some time. However, in the summer, the head coach of "Volyn" Myron Markevych left the team without warning and went to Lviv, taking with him two key players - Plotko and Topchiyev. The financial and organizational problems that began at that time in most Ukrainian clubs also affected Volyn. During the third and fourth championships of Ukraine, the team performed well, twice taking 11th place in the table, and twice reaching the quarterfinals of the Cup of Ukraine.
The team was "pulled" by experienced veterans, and there was no young replacement worthy of them. So when Antonyuk, Polnyi, Fedetskyi, Burch were unable to play, the team went into decline. After a series of bleak matches at the beginning of the 1994–95 season, the fans forced Roman Pokora to leave the coaching post. Vitaliy Kvartsyanyi took over the team again. "Volyn" managed to keep its place in the top league that season. But... The lack of effective support from sponsors and authorities did not contribute to the improvement of results. However, at the beginning of the second half, the local authorities helped dismiss Kvartsyanyi from the position of head coach, and Yuriy Dyachuk-Stavytskyi took his place. He failed to find mutual understanding with the players and Volyn was relegated to the First League (Persha Liha).
Its former player Anatoliy Radenko was called to elevate the team in class. And at first he succeeded. In the 1996–97 season, a 90% changed team, in which many young players appeared, showed a super game. After the first half, the Lutsk players secured second place. But financial problems remained unresolved - key players had to be sold. As a result, in the second half, the "Luchans" could not stand the competition with more powerful rivals and settled for fourth place.