FC Levadia Tallinn

Football club infobox
clubname = FC Levadia


fullname = Mittetulundusühing Spordiklubi
Football Club Levadia Tallinn
nickname =
founded = October 22, 1998 [cite web | url=http://www.fclevadia.ee/dyna/site/fclevadia.html | title=FC Levadia Tallinn |work=fclevadia.ee | accessdaymonth=June 17 | accessyear=2008]
ground = Kadrioru Stadium
Tallinn
capacity = 4,750cite web | url=http://www.fclevadia.ee/dyna/site/66est.html | title=Kadrioru staadion |work=fclevadia.ee | accessdaymonth=June 16 | accessyear=2008]
owner = flagicon|Ukraine Viktor Levada
chairman = flagicon|Estonia Juri Tšurilkin
manager = flagicon|Estonia Igor Prins
league = Meistriliiga
season = 2007
position = Meistriliiga, 1st
shirtsupplier = Adidas
shirtsponsors = EOS
pattern_la1=_whiteshoulders|pattern_b1=_levadia_home1|pattern_ra1=_whiteshoulders
leftarm1=00a650|body1=00a650|rightarm1=00a650|shorts1=FFFFFF|socks1=00a650
pattern_la2=_shouldersonwhite|pattern_b2=_levadia_away0|pattern_ra2=_shouldersonwhite
leftarm2=00a650|body2=00a650|rightarm2=00a650|shorts2=00a650|socks2=FFFFFF
website= http://www.fclevadia.ee/dyna/site/cgi/news

MTÜ SK FC Levadia Tallinn is an Estonian football club based in Tallinn. The club was founded in 1998, under the name FC Levadia Maardu. FC Levadia currently play in the Meistriliiga, the highest level of Estonian football. Levadia's home is the 4,750-person capacity Kadrioru Stadium multi-use stadium in Kadriorg, Kesklinn, Tallinn, where they have played since 2000.

FC Levadia have won five league titles, five Estonian Cups, three Estonian SuperCups, and have reached UEFA Cup first round in 2006. [cite web | url=http://sloleht.ee/index.aspx?id=206814&q=Levadia | title=Martins kukutas Levadia | work=SL Õhtuleht| accessdaymonth=June 16 | accessyear=2008 ]

History

SK FC Levadia was founded in 1998, when metal manufacturer OÜ Levadia accepted to support Estonian Esiliiga club, FK Olümp Maardu. For the honor of new sponsor, FK Olümp Maardu changed his name to FC Levadia. Successful cooperation immediately brought the victory of Esiliiga and for the next season Maardu's football club will play in Meistriliiga.

In preparing for the next season in Meistriliiga, the team needed replenishments. At the same time, Tallinna Sadam was ending his work as a football club and both teams chairmans Viktor Levada (Levadia) and Vladimir Volohhonski (Tallinna Sadam) decided to merger. FC Levadia's debut season was very successful, the team won League Cup, Meistriliiga, Estonian Cup and Estonian SuperCup. In 2000 Levadia won again Meistriliiga, Estonian Cup and Estonian SuperCup. During the whole season, Levadia didn't lose any of his games, except his both UEFA Champions League second qualifying round games against Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk. After two loss to Shakhtar Donetsk, Levadia fired manager Sergei Ratnikov and for season 2001 Levadia hired Russian Valeri Bondarenko. The first season with new manager didn't went very well, because they changed gold to bronze and in Estonian Cup they only reached to semi-finals. They only won Estonian SuperCup in 2001. On November 20, 2001, Levadia hired well known Finnish manager, Pasi Rautiainen. The season turned out to be very exciting, because the title was open until the last round. At Kadrioru Stadium, there was against two Estonian team Levadia and Flora, the attendance was 3,200 and the game ended to 0-0 draw. Flora kept his Meistriliiga title, with two points ahead. In Intertoto Cup, Levadia reached to second round. At the end of the season Pasi Rautiainen left the club and returned to Finland for personal reasons. New head coach was appointed Italian Franco Pancheri. In the middle of the season Levadia fired Franco Pancheri, because he was unable to maintain the level, what achieved with Pasi Rautiainen. Levadia appointed a new manager, Tarmo Rüütli, who was Levadia's second coach. Under the guidance of former Estonia national team coach, the team rose from crisis and finished in third place. In 2004, the team moved from Maardu to Tallinn, the capital and largest city in Estonia. Under the leadership of Tarmo Rüütli, the team won Meistriliiga and Estonian Cup. In UEFA Cup, Levadia reached to second qualifying round. In 2005, Levadia won only Estonian Cup. In 2006, Levadia won only Meistriliiga.

In UEFA Cup, their fisrt opponent was Finnish club FC Haka. They were equal opponents for each other and Levadia just narrowly scraped through to the next round where FC Twente was a much tougher nut to crack. Levadia caused a huge upset and beat the Dutch club 2-1 on aggregate and with that was the first Estonian club to advance to the third round of a European competition. After a 1-1 away draw, Konstantin Nahk scored a magnificent free-kick at the A. Le Coq Arena which Levadia used from then on in Europe to give the Estonian club a shock 1-0 victory. They were drawn against Newcastle United in the first round proper and the English club had real trouble breaking down a stubborn Levadia defence. After going down 0-1 at home through an Antoine Sibierski goal in Tallinn, Levadia lost 1-2 at St. James' Park with ex-international Indrek Zelinski the goalscorer.

In season 2007, Levadia won Meistriliiga and Estonian Cup and in UEFA Champions League they reached to second qualifying round, losing to Red Star Belgrade by away goals rule. The darkest point in the season was Levadia's contract extensions. Levadia moved many of his first-team players to reserve teams, because they didn't sign the contract extension what Levadia was offering. In 2008 Levadia appointed a new manager Igor Prins, because Tarmo Rüütli left the club and started to manage the Estonia national team. [cite web | url=http://www.fclevadia.ee/dyna/site/64est.html | title=Klubi ajalugu |work=fclevadia.ee | accessdaymonth=July 10 | accessyear=2008]

tadium

FC Levadia's home stadium have been Kadrioru Stadium since 2000. The stadium holds a capacity of 4,750 and is the oldest football stadium in Estonia. The stadium was opened on June 13, 1926. Levadia is sharing his home ground with one of their biggest rivals FC TVMK, their other rivals FC Flora have his own stadium A. Le Coq Arena. Before the A. Le Coq Arena was built, Kadrioru Stadium was the home ground for the Estonia national team. [cite web | url=http://www.kadriorustaadion.ee/?id=1437 | title=Ajalugu |work=kadriorustaadion.ee | accessdaymonth=July 10 | accessyear=2008]

Achievements

*Meistriliiga: (5) (Includes titles as FC Levadia Maardu)1999, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007

*Estonian Cup: (5)1998-99, 1999-00, 2001-02, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2006-07

*Estonian SuperCup: (3)1999, 2000, 2001

FC Levadia in Estonian Football

ImageSize = width:600 height:60PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyyDateFormat = dd/mm/yyyyPeriod = from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/2008ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1998 Colors = id:bl1 value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5) id:bl2 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.3) id:rs value:rgb(0.8,0.6,0.6) id:rn value:rgb(0.9,0.1,0.1)

PlotData= bar:Position width:15 color:white align:center

from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:3 from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:1 from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:1

from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 color:bl2 shift:(0,13) text: "Esiliiga" from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/2008 color:bl1 shift:(0,13) text: "M e i s t r i i i g a"

UEFA club competition results

:"As of July 14, 2008:"

Reserves

Notable former players

* Andrei Krasnopjorov
* Dmitri Kruglov
* Artur Kotenko
* Sergei Pareiko
* Ats Purje
* Eduard Ratnikov
* Darius Regelskis
* Kaimar Saag
* Maksim Smirnov
* Modestas Stonys
* Mark Švets
* Konstantin Vassiljev
* Vladimir Voskoboinikov

"See also: cl|FC Levadia Tallinn players"

* A complete list of all the Club's former players can be found [http://www.fclevadia.ee/dyna/site/501est.html here]

Coaches

"See also: cl|FC Levadia Tallinn managers"

References

External links

* et icon ru icon [http://www.fclevadia.ee/ FC Levadia official website]
* [http://www.uefa.com/footballEurope/Club=77482/domestic.html FC Levadia's page at uefa.com]
* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UEFACup/news/Kind=1/newsId=448982.html uefa.com: Levadia clear historic hurdle]