FC Ural Yekaterinburg

FC Ural Yekaterinburg (Russian: ФК Урал) is a Russian professional association football club based in Yekaterinburg. They play in the Russian First League in the 2024–25 season.^[1]

Ural Yekaterinburg

Full name	Football Club Ural Sverdlovsk Oblast or FC Ural Yekaterinburg
Nickname(s)	Bumblebees, Orange and Black, Uraltsy (Ural men)
Founded	September 1, 1930; 94 years ago
Ground	Ekaterinburg Arena
Capacity	35,061
Owner	Sverdlovsk Oblast
Chairman	Grigori Ivanov
Manager	Yevgeni Averyanov
League	Russian First League
2023–24	Russian Premier League, 13th of 16 (relegated through play-offs)
Website	Club website
Current season

The club was founded in 1930 and was known as Avangard (1930–1948, 1953–1957), Zenit (1944–1946), Mashinostroitel (1958–1959), and Uralmash (1949–1952, 1960–2002).^{[citation needed]} The club is currently named after the Russian region of Ural, where Yekaterinburg is the capital.

The club participated in the Soviet championships beginning in 1945. They mostly played in the higher leagues, with the exception of the 1969 season spent in the lowest league. They were the easternmost Russian SFSR club to compete in the third Soviet division (the easternmost Soviet club overall was FC Kairat from Alma-Ata, Kazakh SSR).^{[citation needed]}

Uralmash reached the quarterfinals of the Soviet Cup in 1965/66, 1967/68, and 1990/91.^{[citation needed]}

After the dissolution of the USSR, Uralmash were entitled to enter the Russian Top Division and played there for five seasons, from 1992 to 1996. Their best result was eighth position in 1993 and 1995. Despite reaching the semifinal of the Intertoto Cup in 1996, Uralmash finished 16th out of 18 in the league and were relegated. In 1997 another relegation followed, now to the Second Division. From 1998 to 2002 Uralmash played in the Second Division. After winning promotion, the club was renamed Ural. In 2003, the team were relegated from the Russian First Division, but were promoted again after the 2004 season. The team's best finish in the First Division was third in 2006.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2023–24 season, Ural finished 13th, qualifying for the relegation play-offs.^[2] They lost 2–3 to Akron Tolyatti on aggregate and were relegated to the Russian First League after 11 seasons at the top tier.^[3]

As of 20 September 2024^[4]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

• 23 –   Pyotr Khrustovsky, forward (2003) – posthumous honor

• Head coach – Yuri Matveyev
• Assistant coach – Vladimir Kalashnikov, Andrei Danilov,   Ivan Jovanovski
• Goalkeeping coach – Andrei Shpilyov

Had international caps for their respective countries. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Ural/Uralmash.

^{[citation needed]}

•   Pavel Gusev (2003–04)
•   Aleksandr Pobegalov (2005–09)
•   Vladimir Fedotov (2009–10)
•   Boris Stukalov (2010)
•   Dmitriy Ogai (2011)
•   Yuri Matveyev (2011)
•   Aleksandr Pobegalov (2012)
•   Sergei Bulatov (2012)
•   Pavel Gusev (2012–13)
•   Oleg Vasilenko (2013)
•   Aleksandr Tarkhanov (2013–15)
•   Viktor Goncharenko (2015)
•   Vadim Skripchenko (2015–2016)

• Soviet Second League / Russian Football National League
  • Champions (2): 1990, 2012–13
• Russian Second Division
  • Champions (2): 2002, 2004
• Russian Cup
  • Runners-up (2): 2016–17, 2018–19

• ANFA Cup
  • Champions (1): 1989^[5]

• Official website (in Russian)