Professional Football Club In Ukrainian FC Shakhtar Donetsk

 Logo of FC Shakhtar Donetsk

FC Shakhtar Donetsk is a Ukrainian professional football club, playing in the city of Donetsk, the capital of Donetsk region. The club has won numerous domestic honours and appeared in several European competitions, but they are best known for having won the final UEFA Cup in 2009.

The team has played under the following names: Stakhanovets (1936–1946), Shakhtyor (Shakhtar) (1946–1992) and FC Shakhtar (since 1992).

The club was originally formed in May 1936 and was initially named Stakhanovets which was the name of labor society and, in its turn, named after Aleksei Stakhanov, the Russian coal-miner in the Donbas, who became a propaganda celebrity in 1935. The first team was based upon two other local teams, the participants of the All-Ukrainian Spartakiads: Dynamo Horlivka and Stalino. The first game was unofficial against Dynamo Odessa and took place on May 12, 1936 at Balitsky Stadium. The team of Donbas lost it 2:3 after scoring the first. Its first official game with Dynamo Kazan was even more disappointing, which they lost 1:4.

Nonetheless, the selective job conducted constructively by the clubs administration allowed the club to compete successfully at the top level by the end 1930s. During the war championship of 1941 which was interrupted unexpectedly the club defeated the Soviet champions FC Dynamo Moscow and after about ten games was placing the fifth. The last game of that championship they played on June 24 two days after the start of the Great Patriotic War, which they lost at home to Traktor Stalingrad.

The All-Union coal mining society of Stakhanovite had changed its name in July of 1946 to Shakhtyor. The first success for the team was in 1951, under name of Shakhtyor when it took the third place in the USSR Championship.

In the 1960s, Shakhtar under Oleg Oshenkov’s coaching were three-time USSR Cup finalists, winning it twice in 1961 and 1962. The club was nicknamed “The Cup Team” due to Shakhtar’s success in vying for the trophy every year, however the Miners’ more notable achievements occurred later from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s.

Stadium of FC Shakhtar Donetsk

FC Shakhtar has been playing most of its games at the RSK Olimpiyskiy stadium. The construction of a new stadium, Donbas Arena has finished and was opened on 29 August 2009. The stadium has a capacity of 50,149 and has been awarded a UEFA five star rating.

FC Shakhtar's old home, the central Shakhtar Stadium which was built in 1936, and was reconstructed four times, is currently being used by FC Shakhtar Reserves. The stadium received some major renovations, including the installation of bench seats in 2000, when FC Shakhtar made it to the Champions League Group Stage.