The 2008/09 UEFA European Under-19 Championship will be the first grand football event of such level ever hosted by Mariupol. This reward looks completely deserved for a seaside city which already hosted UEFA Cup matches and where the game of football enrooted about 100 years ago.
A gift from sailors
Mariupol owes its football traditions to the sailors from English ships coming to the port at Azov sea shore at the end of XIX century. The Britons were keen on kicking the ball in their spare time, gradually turning the aboriginal residents into this exotic game. Finally in 1899 the contractor Stefan Krasovsky originated the first Mariupol team at 'Nikopol' plant.
Football fever
Krasovsky (of Czech origin) used to be a coach and a captain at the same time in the team predominantly consisted on local residents. Later on, they extended the list of rivals and started playing against Odesa, Yekaterynoslav (presentday Dnipropetrovsk), Kharkiv, and sometimes they would venture upon clashes against teams from Austro-Hungary and Turkey. The 20s of the last century saw the city experiencing a football boom: new teams started to spring up all over the city, newspapers in their turn provided regular reports of the latest games.
Debut at new level
After the October revolution of 1917 year they considered the strongest team in Mariupol to be Olimp, then it succumbed to Dynamo who took the forefront position. In the 30s the city saw Illich stadium and Stal sports complexes built. The latter used to be the football venue for Stal team which participated in the first USSR Cup tournament in 1936. Truly speaking, the debut proved to be weak: on the qualifying srage Stal suffered a crushing 0:5 defeat from Dynamo Kryvyi Rih.
Azovstal, Avantgard and others
In the post World War II years the best footballers of the city were gathered in Azovstal team which was renamed to Metalurh in 1947 and successfully played in Ukraine Soviet Republic championship. Avantgard gained the right to participate in the second league of USSR back in 1960. Quite a few city teams have been looking for success at the country level throughout some 30 years. The highest achievement belongs to Novator which placed on the 12th position in 1985. Eventually, the most prominent descendant of Mariupol football is Vitaliy Khmelnitsky who became a repeated champion of the USSR in Dynamo Kyiv squad. Moreover he played four games at FIFA World Cup 1970. It’s worth noting that the first coach of Ukraine national team Victor Prokopenko started his career in Mariupol.
Pavlov’s contribution
After Ukraine became independent Azovets represented the city at the state competitions. In the mid of 1995/96 season it was renamed to Metalurh. That was the time when the team stunningly progressed from the second division to the elite one. In summer 1997 a famous coach Mykola Pavlov took over the team. His lads finished in the fourth place in 2000/01. Four years later they played their debut international matches. At the first stage of UEFA Cup qualifying Ukrainian club had no difficulty to beat Armenian FC Banants. However, in the second stage they faced Austria and ensuingly moved out of the way.
Home arena
Nowadays Mariupol is a true football center of Ukraine. FC Illichivets (former Metalurh) represents this glorious city in the Premier League. The footballers play their home matches on a splendid newly-restored 'Illichivets' stadium which will host UEFA European Under-19 Championship matches alongside with 'Zahidnyi' stadium.
