Football Club Karpaty Lviv ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Lviv.
In 2020–21, the club was reorganized and changed owners. During that period, two clubs existed with the same name — one at professional level competitions and another at amateur level. In 2023, Karpaty filed an appeal to the CAS after FIFA ordered them to pay unpaid wages to a former player, claiming that they are a different business entity, Karpaty lost the appeal. Following their return to the Ukrainian Premier League in 2024, they have been treated as a new club.
History Early years (1963–68) The team of Karpaty was founded on 18 January 1963, and was originally called Silmash Lviv. In 1961 the team won the championship of Lviv Oblast but lost its promotional play-off against Naftovyk Drohobych to qualify for the Soviet Class B championship.1961. Первенство УССР. . football.lg.ua In 1962 Silmash Lviv won the championship and cup of the Lviv Oblast and won the promotional play-offs against Naftovyk,1962. Первенство УССР. . football.lg.ua obtaining the rights to participate in the Soviet Class B championship. However, in 1963 the Football Federation of the Soviet Union conducted another reorganization of national football tournaments, creating the Second Group of Class A and Class B became the third tier, where a berth was reserved for a team from Lviv. At that time the best city team was SKA Lvov. However, SKA Lvov players did not tend to stay there for long, leaving the club at the end of their military service, while the best would be drafted to CSKA Moscow. The city administration decided to create a civilian team, independent from the Soviet military.
In December 1962, in the building of Regional Council of Trade Unions (at prospekt Shevchenka), the head of the council and the regional football federation, Hlib Klymov, invited coaches of SilmashSilhospmash Stadium. Interactive Lviv. – Yuri Zubach (former player of Ukraina Lwów) and Vasyl Solomonko, as well as the director of the city plant "Lvivsilmash"Pauk, O. Silmash Stadium as a stumbling stone. Halychyna Sportive. Ivan Kalynychenko to discuss a new name for the club. The name Silmash was recognized as inadequate for participation on such a level. Among the proposed names were Spartak, Dynamo, Halychyna. In the end the group agreed upon the regional toponym Karpaty (Carpathians).
In Soviet times all sports teams were "tied" to certain industrial unions or sport societies; therefore, the Regional Tax Administration won 1–0. The goal was scored by the club's captain Oleksandr Filiayev. The first official game was against Lokomotiv Gomel on 23 April 1963, which Karpaty won 1–0 (goal scored by Anatoliy Kroshchenko).
Karpaty debuted in Group B in 1963 and remained there for four seasons, until 1968 when they were promoted to Soviet First League.
Winning the Soviet Cup
On 17 August 1969, Karpaty became the first (and the only) club in Soviet football history to win the Soviet Cup while playing in the Soviet First League. The road to the cup was as exciting as the final itself. On the way there, the Lions were challenged by Soviet heavy-weights such as Ararat Yerevan and Chornomorets Odesa. The quarterfinal round matched them with Trud Voronezh that in the prior round had eliminated Spartak Moscow. After a narrow victory over Voronezh, Karpaty faced Mykolaiv's Shipbuilders. The game was perceived by the Lvivians as the chance to avenge the previous year's loss to the Mykolaivans, which cost them a ticket to the Soviet Premiership. A score of 2–0 was enough to secure a trip to Moscow.
In the final, Karpaty faced the Red Army team from Rostov-on-Don at the Lenin Stadium. The Rostov army-men were one of the best Soviet clubs in the mid-1960s and for that game they were considered the favorites, being the representatives of the Soviet Top League. Before the start of the game, Karpaty's captain Ihor Kulchytskyi shook hands in the traditional manner with every match official, except the assistant referee, Eugen Härms. The reason was that Härms, the Estonian referee in charge of their game a year earlier against Uralmash Sverdlovsk, allowed a goal from what was regarded as an obvious offside position that eventually contributed to Karpaty's denial of a promotion. Karpaty were trailing 0–1 already after the first 20 minutes and were not able to equalize by the end of the half, but numerous Karpaty fans drove their team forward.
(Petro Danylchuk, "Karpaty" defender)
(Ihor Kulchytsky, "Karpaty" captain) In the second half the Ukrainians broke the course of the game flow, and two goals from Lykhachov and Bulhakov put the Lions ahead. Near the end of the game the Rostov team scored another goal, but it was given offside. The match referee, without consulting his assistants, initially allowed the goal and the Russians ran joyfully towards the center of the field. However, a moment later, he noticed the raised flag from Härms who had identified an offside and reversed his decision, awarding the victory to Lviv.
In the following season, Karpaty's first opponent in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was Romanian Steaua București that, led by István Kovács, advanced on a 4–3 aggregate.
Soviet Top League (1970–1977) In 1970–77 and 1980, Karpaty played in the Soviet Top League. Karpaty's best achievement was 4th place in 1976. Karpaty placed 4th twice that year since the season was split into two separate championships (spring and fall). Karpaty were primed to win silver that season, but an unexpected loss in their last home game to Zenit Leningrad pushed Karpaty back into fourth place.
While playing in the Soviet First League in 1979, Karpaty were close to repeating their 1969 achievement, when they met Dynamo Moscow in the Soviet Cup semi-final. The match, which was played in Moscow, went into overtime with a 1–1 score with Dynamo prevailing in the end, scoring a penalty kick in extra time.
Merger and period of SKA Karpaty (1981–1989)
In 1981, Karpaty were merged with another city team, SKA Lviv belonging to the Carpathian Military District and part of the Soviet Union Sports Society of the Armed Forces. In 1980 Karpaty were relegated from the Soviet Top League (Vysshaya Liga) and in the 1981 Soviet First League placed only 11th. Already before the season's finish there appeared rumors about possible merger. The logic of authors of that decision was in following, the city is receiving one, but strong and competitive team. In January 1982 the leaders of regional football ultimately decided to unite two clubs. It was motivated by the fact that it is difficult to finance two teams. As a result, Karpaty were liquidated and their place in the Soviet First League was taken by army team SKA Karpaty that was established in place of SKA Lvov. The new team was gathered from players of SKA, Karpaty, and several other who have recently arrived. The head coach became Russian Nikolay Samarin. It is believed that Ukrainian and Soviet coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi commented on liquidation of Karpaty, that it is a disaster of football in all western region of the republic. That it would take not single decade before they realize the whole tragedy of this merger.
The newly created SKA Karpaty were playing in red and white colors, and traditional green and white colors were banned. Militsiya were watching that fans would not bring to stands any green markings. The club's attendance fell immediately. Back in 1980 the Karpaty's home games were visited on average by 20-25 thousands spectators. In the first season after merging of the Lviv teams at stadium were gathering about 5-6 thousands spectators. The newly arrived footballers also did not stay long with the army club and were leaving as soon as their military service was terminated.
SKA Karpaty continued playing in the Soviet First League until 1989, getting close to promotion in 1986, when CSKA Moscow was promoted ahead of Karpaty on goal difference. As their highest achievement, SKA Karpaty placed third twice while being coached by Volodymyr Bulhakov. After that, their performance worsened. In 1987, the club managed to place fifth, but after two more years, it dropped to last place. It lost 18 of its 21 away games, and its losing streak reached 15 games . Only 54 spectators came to watch one of the home games, which was the absolute anti-record of the season.
Revival The Karpaty's revival started with publication in a newspaper. In 1983 journalist and writer Ivan Salo wrote a critical article, "Football... outside of play" (, in Ukrainian the phrase "outside of play" is actually used for football term of offside). Now due to censorship in the Soviet Union, it dared to be printed only in four years in newspaper "Leninska molod" (The Lenin's Youth). The author was demanding to separate SKA Karpaty into two teams as it was earlier. The subject was expanded by "Sportyvna Hazeta" (The Sports Gazette). In November–December 1988 the publisher held a rally "Ya, mama, tato – za komandu Karpaty" (Mother, father and I – for the Karpaty team). The newspaper succeeded to gather 70,000 signatures from the whole Ukraine. After that the case actually moved from standstill. The Lviv delegation departed to Kyiv for negotiations with republican football federation (Ukrainian SSR, precursor of UAF). Negotiations also were held with Moscow.
Finally on 5 January 1989 at 15:00 in office No.290 of the State Committee on Sports of the Soviet Union at Luzhniki Embankment in Moscow was signed the certificate about revival of the Karpaty football team. His signature placed the future president of the Football Federation of the Soviet Union Vyacheslav Koloskov. And on 10 January in "Sportyvna Hazeta" was printed a text titled "The birthday of the club". It has been seven years from the moment of the Karpaty's liquidation. The Lions began to play from the Second League (Zone 5, not Zone 6 with the rest "Ukrainian" teams), and SKA continued to play in the First.
The revival of the club was taken over by leadership of the Elektron Factory (television manufacturer), at facilities of which in 1963 Karpaty were actually created. In 2019 already the late Yuriy Dyachuk-Stavytskyi was telling, "At that time I worked as a head coach of Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk. To Lviv I was invited along with Rostyslav Zaremba (at that time he headed a club of the Karpaty football fans). We were told: The club must be moved ahead [with establishment]", said Dyachuk-Stavytskyi. "For office we were given a space at vulytsia Dudaieva. On the third story there were two rooms. We found couple of chairs and a coffee table for magazines. I brought my personal typewriter as many people remember it. My friends laughed at me telling "Why do you need all this?" The same thing they said to Rostyslav as both of us came to an empty lot de facto".
"However", continued Dyachuk-Stavytskyi, "in renewed Karpaty was gathered a battle-ready team since to Lviv returned a good number of local "fosterlings" (former recruits) such as Stepan Yurchyshyn, Serhiy Kvasnykov, Viktor Rafalchuk, Hryhoriy Batych, Vasyl Leskiv, Bohdan Bandura and others. A squad chief (nachalnik komandy) became Ihor Kulchytskyi, as a head coach was appointed Borys Rossykhin, while his assistant became Rostyslav Potochniak. Companies were transferring us their funds, and people were simply bringing in their caps their money that they gathered at the city's streets. So, I ask you not to be confused, the football team was created in 1963, and the club – in 1989", said Dyachuk-Stavytskyi. (Many football teams were forced to adopt the Soviet policy of khozraschyot during that period, some earlier than others.) "Those are two important historical dates".
Ukrainian League (1991–present)