Karpaty Lviv

Football Club Karpaty Lviv (Ukrainian: Футбольний клуб «Карпати» Львів ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Lviv. The team of Karpaty was founded on January 18, 1963. In 1962 Selmash Lvov won the championship and cup of the Lvov Region and, thus, obtained the rights to participate in the Soviet Class B championship (Soviet First League). However in 1963 the Football Federation of USSR conducted another reorganization in football national 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, players of which did not stay there for long leaving it at the end of their military service, while the best would be drafted to CSKA Moscow. In light of that the city administration decided to create independent from military a civilian team. Since Ukraine gained its independence, Karpaty have primarily participated in Ukrainian Premier League competitions. They have taken 3rd place once and were Ukrainian Cup runners-up twice, losing both times to Dynamo Kyiv in the final. The thirteen’s season in Ukrainian Premier League became an unfortunate one for Karpaty and in 2003–04 season the team was relegated to Persha Liha. However Karpaty remained there only for two seasons and in the 2005–06 season, the club was successful in taking second place in the Persha Liha, which allowed them to participate in the Vyscha Liha the following year.