Rubin Kazan

FC Rubin Kazan (Russian: Футбольный клуб Рубин Казань, Futbolny klub Rubin Kazan [fʊdˈbolʲnɨj ˈkɫup rʊˈbʲin kɐˈzanʲ], Tatar: Рубин Казан) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there ever since, winning the Russian Premier League championship in 2008 and 2009. The club also won the 2011–12 Russian Cup and has been a regular in European competition in recent seasons.

The team plays in the Ak Bars Arena.

History

FC Rubin Kazan was previously called Iskra from 1958 to 1964 and Rubin-TAN from 1992 to 1993. The name Rubin means "Ruby".

Having never played in the Soviet Top League, the football club joined the Russian First Division in 1992 and fell to the Russian Second Division in 1994. The mayor of Kazan at the time, Kamil Iskhakov, purchased the team in 1996. Rubin won the Second Division in 1997 and was promoted back to the First Division the following season. The next four seasons, the team consistently finished above 8th place. Finally winning the title in 2002, Rubin was promoted to the Russian Premier League for the first time in 2003. Rubin finished third in its debut season to qualify for the UEFA Cup. The team faced a temporary setback in the 2004 campaign finishing in 10th place, but 2005 saw them finish fourth, again qualifying the team for the UEFA Cup.

The Flower of Sentyabrev's Epoch (1958–1965)

The year of 1958 came, and the team formed a part of Class B of the USSR Championship, because of successful performances and the Class B expanding. Nowadays 1958 is considered to be a year of foundation of an up-to-date "Rubin".

"Iskra", thus was the name of a debutant, found itself in the first zone of RSFSR Class B, in which mainly clubs of Povolzhye and Ukraine played.

The debut was on 20 April in Kherson. The team lost to local "Spartak" 2–4. The author of the first goal of "Iskra" in USSR champio

This page also has a version in other languages :  Рубин (russian)