Mordovia is a football club of the Russian Premier League from the city of Saransk. Champion of the championship of FNL 2012 and 2014.
Dossier
Full name - Mordovia Football Club. Established May 2, 1961 Spends matches at the Start stadium. Capacity - 11,600 spectators. Club colors - red, blue, white. Executive Director - Vladimir Bibikov, head coach of FC Mordovia - Andrey Gordeev, captain - Alexey Ivanov. The place of participation in the competition is the Russian Premier League. The highest achievement - 8th place in the season 2014/2015.
Club history
The team of FC Mordovia was founded on May 2, 1961. The current name is from April 2005. In previous years, the club was called:
- 1961 - The Builder;
- 1962-1971 - Spartak
- 1972 - "Electric Light";
- 1980-2003 - "Lighting Engineering";
- 2003-2005 - “Lisma-Mordovia”;
- 2005-present - “Mordovia”.
Performance in the championship and USSR Cup
From 1961 to 2012, FC Mordovia played exclusively in the lower soccer leagues (both the USSR Championship and Russia). The team played their first match in the championship of the Soviet Union on May 2, 1961 in the city of Saransk against the club "Geologist" (Tyumen). From 1961 to 1991, Mordovia took part in 23 championships of the USSR championship.
In the USSR Cup, the debut match for the club took place on July 11, 1961. On this day, the team again met with the club "Geologist" and was defeated - 1: 3. In total, FC Mordovia took part in the trophy 9 times. The highest achievement is the 1/32 finals of the 1985 season.
In parallel, the club participated in the Cup of the RSFSR. The team played its first match on April 28, 1980 against the Steel club (Cheboksary) and lost with a score of 0: 1. There were 9 participations in this contest. The highest achievement was reaching the semifinals in 1990.
Championship and Cup of Russia
In the Russian championship, the team debuted on April 25, 1992 against the Dynamo club (Kirov). The home match ended with the score - 1: 1. From 1992 to 2012, FC Mordovia performed with varying success in the first and second leagues of the Russian championship. In the 2011/2012 season, the team took first place in the FNL championship and made their way to the Premier League for the first time, where they performed extremely unsuccessfully, taking 15th place.
A year later, the club returns to the elite competition of the best Russian teams. The second run was much more successful. According to the results of the 2014/2015 championship, the team took eighth place. In the current season, the club performs very poorly. After 18 rounds of the championship, the team takes the last line in the standings, gaining only 14 points. The club is separated from the saving 12th place by 5 points.
Most likely, according to the results of the championship, the team from Saransk will again be in the FNL league. There are all the prerequisites for this. The composition of FC Mordovia did not become stronger. The club lost seven players. Maxim Budnikov, Akaki Khubutia, Ismail Ediev and Sergey Vaganov left as free agents, Viktor Vasin returned to CSKA Moscow as a rented player, Alexander Dimidko and Maxim Rogov moved to richer clubs.
As a team reinforcement for the club "Krasnodar" was bought by Eugene Shipitsin. The remaining four players came to FC Mordovia as free agents. The tournament position of the Saransk club may indirectly testify to their playing level. It is unlikely that strong players will come to the team taking the last place in the Premier League.
The team spent the first match of the Cup of Russia on June 13, 1992 against the Titan club (Reutov). It was an away match in which the Titan was credited with a technical defeat for not ensuring proper order at the stadium. A total of 21 attempts were made by the club to win a prestigious trophy. The best achievements in this tournament so far are three exits to the quarterfinal stage of the tournament.
Five players played for FC Mordovia, having played 300 or more matches in the national championship and cup. They all played in the period of the 80s, 90s. The club’s “guards” list includes: Alexey Bessonov - 421 matches, Vitaliy Nikulin - 403 matches, Valery Strokov - 317, Sergey Dikarev - 304, Oleg Antonov - 301.
The best scorer in the history of the club is Vitaly Nikulin, who scored 110 goals in all matches. 70 and more goals scored: Valery Guba (88), Alexey Bessonov (78), Ruslan Mukhametshin (71).
FC Mordovia is a team composed of football players who played for the Russian national team. In different years, the following were involved in the ranks of the country's main team: Anton Beaver, Oleg Veretennikov, Evgeny Aldonin, Dmitry Smirnov. In addition, five club players played for the Russian national team, another 9 footballers who defended the honor of the first national teams of their countries.
Well, of course, it is worth mentioning the coaches who worked in recent years at FC Mordovia and who applied all their knowledge and skills to achieve the status of a Premier League team. These are Fedor Shcherbachenko, Dorinel Munteanu, Yuri Maximov, Yuri Semin.
Stadium
FC Mordovia holds matches at the Start stadium. It was built in 2004 as an alternative to the old arena, called "Lighting".
In 2018, Russia will host the World Cup. This event will not pass Saransk. In view of this, the construction of a new modern building with 45 thousand seats was started in the city. It is planned that after the end of the tournament, collapsible stands will be dismantled, after which the stadium will have a capacity of 25,000 seats. The construction of the arena should be completed by the beginning of 2018. In the future, it will be the home arena of FC Mordovia.