Baltika (football club)

Soviet period

A team from the shores of the Baltic Sea was created under the management of expeditionary fishing in the city of Kaliningrad on August 23, 1954 under the name “Pischevik” and made its debut in the championship of the RSFSR among the Collectives of Physical Culture (KFK) in 1955. In the northern zone of the championship, Kaliningraders took 4th place out of 7 teams, and the next year Pishevik became the finalist of the RSFSR championship and the RSFSR Cup. Since 1957, the team has been playing in the championship of the USSR in class “B”. In 1958, the team received a new name “Baltika”. In the period from 1957 to 1965 he performed in class “B”, where he took the 2nd place three times (1959, 1961, 1962), in 1969 he took 10th place in the second group of class “A”, and in 1984 won zonal tournament of the second league of the USSR .

The best years. 90s

Qualitative changes occurred in 1992, when, against the backdrop of political and economic changes in the country, the team was joined by the honored trainer of Russia, Korney Sperling . In 1992, Baltika took first place in the fourth zone of the second league . Baltika became one of the leaders of the First League , in 1994 becoming the bronze medalist of the tournament, and in 1995 , under the leadership of the Honored Coach of Ukraine Leonid Tkachenko , she won the First League by a wide margin. The next three seasons, Baltika spent in the Premier League . The very first year of playing in the major league was the best in the history of the Kaliningrad club - the team took seventh place, thanks, first of all, to a very confident game at home, including with the leaders - victory over the future champion - Moscow Spartak and the current - Vladikavkaz Alania ” , as well as victories over CSKA , “ Torpedo ” , “ Wings of the Soviets ” and other league old-timers. The following season , Baltika lost only 7 matches out of 34, which was the fourth result in the League (after three winners), but the abundance of draws did not allow the team to take a high place, and Baltika finished ninth. The next season, Baltika took part in the European Cup matches for the first time in its history, reaching the 3rd round of the Intertoto Cup . Perhaps it was participation in this tournament that played a cruel joke with the “Baltic”. All matches were held in a bitter struggle, but the team was unlucky, and at the end of the season , taking 15th place, Baltika left the elite of Russian football. In total, Kaliningraders played 98 games in 3 seasons in the major league (30 wins, 37 draws, 31 losses). In December 1998, Dmitry Chepel became the new general director of the club, who appointed Vladimir Dergach as head coach. The team was tasked with returning to the highest echelon of Russian football. The first round the team finished in first place. In the interval between the circles within the team, a conflict arose between the players and the coach, to whom, in their opinion, Dergach was arrogant ^[6] . As a result, in the 1999 season, Baltika took only 5th place and did not fulfill the task of reaching the top division. After this season, a group of leaders left the club, the lineup has weakened significantly, coaching leapfrog has begun.

Unstable 2000s

Between 1999 and 2011, the head coach changed about 20 times in Baltika. Naturally, in such a situation it was difficult for the team to achieve significant success. Baltika finished the 2000 season in 12th place, and in 2001 the strong middle peasant of the first division completely dropped into the Zapad zone of the second division. Under the guidance of Lithuanian specialist Benjaminas Zelkevicius , Baltika became the unconditional favorite of the 2002 tournament . With a huge margin (31 points) from the Tula “Arsenal” , which took second place, she finished with 35 wins with 3 draws in 38 matches and with the difference of goals scored and conceded +89 (109-20). In 2003 , Baltika under the leadership of Zelkevicius took 7th place. But after this season, the Lithuanian specialist left the club, and Baltika in the next season , taking 20th place, again flies to the second division. In one season the team managed to return to the first division - Baltika became the first. In 2006 and 2007 , the “Baltic” took 14th and 15th places, respectively. The next two seasons were more successful - 7th place in 2008 and 9th in 2009 . In 2010, the team again goes down the table, and finishes in a step from the relegation zone - in 15th place.

Modernity

The season 2011/2012 began for Baltika unsuccessfully, from the first rounds the club sank into the relegation zone and was there for almost the entire first half of the championship. In mid-July, Yevgeny Perevertaylo was appointed head coach. The fate of the team was decided in the last round in a home meeting with a direct competitor in the struggle for survival - the Orenburg Gazovik , in which Kaliningraders won 2-1, sending Gazovik to the second division. The next season was the most successful for the team in the last 14 years. The Baltics took 5th place, being one step away from the butt games . A battle-ready team for the first time since 1999 could really claim to enter the Premier League . But insufficient financial opportunities did not allow the team to fight for first places, and in the 2013/2014 season , Baltika finished in 9th place. In the offseason, the team left the group of leaders - Votinov , Sysuyev , Chirkin and Zimulka changed clubs, but despite personnel losses, Baltika confidently began the season , issuing a win-win series of seven matches from the second to the ninth round. Subsequently, from the 7th to the 20th round, only one victory was won. The main problem was a weak attack line - 17 goals were scored in 20 rounds. In defense, only once in 20 rounds, Baltika conceded more than two goals. At the end of 2014, Baltika changed its coach - Sergey Juran led the team. He was assigned two tasks: to keep his residence in the first division in the 2014/15 season, and to bring the club to the Premier League by 2017 or 2018 ^[7] . The team completed the task in the 2014/2015 season , in a bitter struggle, retaining a place in the FNL . On June 16, 2015, Juran announced that he was leaving Baltika ^[8] . After the season ended, the club underwent serious changes due to the difficult financial situation, the head coach left the club, as well as almost all the players, only nine people remained: Sergey Tsukanov , Evgeny Ovsienko , Vitaliy Zaprudskikh, Alexey Alekseev , Vitaliy Kalenkovich , Alexey Kutsero, Grigory Postanogov, Evgeny Butakov and Denis Vambolt. In the offseason, the club was replenished with a number of players who had previously played for white and blue, as well as local pupils and several promising players from other teams. Despite serious personnel losses and financial problems, the team started successfully in the 2015/2016 season , having spent the first six matches without defeats, but by the middle of the season it slipped into the second half of the tournament table, and having suffered six defeats in a row in the final rounds for the first time since 2004, to fly out of the FNL , however, thanks to the liquidation of the Nizhny Novgorod Volga, she avoided moving to the second division ^[9] . Most of the 2016/2017 season , Baltika spent in the relegation zone, however, in the last 14 rounds it won 7 times with 4 draws and 3 defeats, which allowed it to move from 16 to the saving 14th place in the last round. The following season, the team was strengthened by a number of well-known players, such as Maxim Grigoryev , member of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League , Dmitry Torbinsky , bronze medalist of Euro 2008 , rented from Rostov, Dmitry Skopintsev , as well as the Ivorian legionary Senin Sebay . Kaliningraders, under the leadership of Igor Cherevchenko , were close to gaining the right to participate in play-offs, the winner of which will be in the Premier League next season, however, like 5 years ago, the team took only 5th place. Baltika finished the season 2018/2019 in the relegation zone in 16th place, however, it kept its registration in the FNL due to the refusal of the winner of the PFL zone Vostok FC Sakhalin to participate in the next season of the FNL championship ^[10] .

• 7th place in the Major League Championship of Russia in 1996
•   Winner of the first division of the Championship of Russia (1 time): 1995
•   Bronze medalist of the first division of the Championship of Russia (1 time): 1994
•   Winner of the second division of the Championship of Russia (West) (2 times): 2002 , 2005
•   Winner of zone tournaments of the 2nd League of the USSR / Russia (2 times): 1984, 1992
•   Bronze medalist of zonal tournaments of the 2nd league of the USSR (1 time): 1987
•   Silver medalist of the zonal tournaments of the RSFSR championship in class “B” (3 times): 1959, 1961, 1965
• Out in 1/8 of the Cup of Russia ( 1997/98 , 1999/00 , 2008/09 , 2009/10 )
• Entry into the 3rd round of the 1998 Intertoto Cup
•   FNL Cup bronze medalist in 2013

The biggest victories in history ^[11]

• “Pischevik” - “Spartak” (Kostroma) 8-0 (1955) ( KFK )

The biggest victories in the top division ^[11]

• “Baltika” - “ Wings of the Soviets ” 5: 0 (1996)
• “ Lada ” - “Baltika” 0: 5 (1996)

In 1998, the team participated in the Intertoto Cup .

Main cast

As of August 11, 2019

Winter 2018—2019

Have come

Gone

* For rent
** From rental
*** Free agent

Club record holders by the number of matches played

In the top division:

Top scorers

In the top division:

In Russian History

Baltika Players on the List of 33 Best Russian Championship Players

USSR Championship

In the championship of Russia

USSR Cup

In the Russian Cup

Division Statistics ^{[18] [19]}

In the lower leagues of the Russian championship several seasons (1994, 2006, 2007) were held by the second club team - Baltika-2 . The Tarko club, which was called Baltika-Tarko in 2002-2005, also collaborated with the main team. Baltika-Tarko spent one season (2004) in the second division . Once, these teams won the KFK championship in the North-West zone: Baltika-Tarko in 2003, Baltika-2 in 2005 (and took 2nd place in the final tournament of the Russian championship among LFK).

The team spent home games for the 2017/2018 season at the Baltika city ​​stadium (14,660 seats). Since the season 2018/2019, the club has been playing at the new Kaliningrad stadium.

Attendance in Russian History

Note: attendance over the declared capacity of the Baltika stadium (14,660 seats) is due to the sale of tickets not only for seats, but also for standing. Attendance data taken from Sportbox.ru .

At a meeting with the public on June 27, 2013, speaking about the achievements of the regional administration in supporting Baltika, the governor of the Kaliningrad region Nikolay Tsukanov publicly stated that in the 2012–2013 season the team could take the high 2-3rd place that gave it to her the right to automatically transfer to the Premier League or, at least, to participate in an additional tournament for the right to transfer. But the governor, according to him, “asked” the team not to occupy such a place, explaining that the shareholders do not have money to maintain Baltika in the Premier League. ^[20] After many media outlets reprinted the governor's statement, he accused journalists of misrepresenting his words, but did not indicate what exactly was misrepresented or subjected to inaccurate interpretation ^[21] . Literally Tsukanov said the following:

“Our team today takes fifth place in the season, could take second and enter the Premier League. I asked them not to do this. Because we don’t have enough money to contain the Premier League ^[22]

• Official site
• Fan group
• Club history at klisf.info
• Twitter
• https://instagram.com/fcbaltika