Soviet times The team was founded in 1957 as Kolhospnyk (collective farm worker) and played the 1958 season in the Class B Third Zone, finishing 14th of the 16 teams that participated. The team played 13 seasons in Class B. The best results came in the 1968 and 1969 seasons when the team placed 7th. In 1966, it changed its name to Horyn after the
river that flows in
Volhynia. After the reorganization of the Championship of the USSR in 1971, Horyn played in the Second League of the Ukrainian Zone until the fall of the Soviet Union. In 1972, the club became part of the all-Ukrainian Avanhard voluntary sports society and changed its name to Avanhard. In the first season in the Second League of the Ukrainian Zone Avanhard placed 26th. Starting in the late 1970s Avangard started progressing and in 1981 under the management of two famous Dynamo Kyiv players Viktor Matvienko and Volodymyr Troshkin Avanhard got 3rd place. Nine years later under the management of Viktor Pokora Avanhard placed 3rd again.
Three seasons in Vyshcha Liha During the
fall of the Soviet Union it changed its name again to Veres (heather) and was placed in the
1992 Ukrainian First League. In the same season, Veres placed first and was promoted to the
Vyshcha Liha. In their first season in Vyshcha, Veres placed last but wasn't relegated because the league was expanded. The following season was the most successful in the club's history. The team was 4th at the mid-way point, beating teams like
FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk,
FC Metalist Kharkiv,
FC Shakhtar Donetsk, defeating
FC Dynamo Kyiv in the
Ukrainian Cup to reach the semi-final. But during the second half, Veres fell to 12th place. During the 1994–95 season, their second in the Premier League, Veres struggled and was relegated to the
Ukrainian Second League.
Liquidation in 2011 After relegation from the
Ukrainian First League, Veres remained in the Second League until 2011 when, after 54 years as a professional football club, Veres declared bankruptcy and was liquidated.
The huge People's Club project On 19 March 2015, the club was reinstated as Public Union Rivne Football Club Veres Rivne by two Ukrainian public organizations "Rivne City Football Federation" and "Rivne Oblast Football Federation". The chairman of the Public Union became a well known businessman of
Rivne Oblast Oleksiy Khakhlyov, a son-in-law of former
President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko (check also
FC Nafkom Brovary). It was the first club in Ukraine to have club membership among its fans and as of May 21 had over 3,500 members (3,728 in 2016 The supervisory board that was created in May 2015 was setup with controlling functions of the club, but has been ignored by the club's leadership. The license was granted to NK Veres Rivne, the third-place team during the previous season in the second division. Both clubs, FC Desna Chernihiv and NK Veres Rivne, had not played at their home stadiums in the
2016–17 Ukrainian First League. Desna had played in
Kyiv at the
Obolon Arena, while Veres played in
Varash, at the Izotop Stadium of the
Rivne Nuclear Power Plant. The administration of Desna released a letter of protest before a meeting of FFU representatives. In protest, the Desna administration announced that the club would not play its final game of the season against
FC Illichivets Mariupol, but later relented. Nonetheless, during the game, players of both teams protested on the field in a special way: when the whistle was blown the players, instead of starting play, stood around kicking a ball back and forth among themselves. On 2 June 2017, upon conclusion of its conference, the
UPL administration announced the final composition of the league and calendar for the upcoming season. The conference confirmed the admission of Veres to the league, with only one vote against, from
FC Dynamo Kyiv; six votes in favour of the decision; and three (including
FC Zorya Luhansk) abstentions. On 2 June 2017, the Desna fans were picketing the
House of Football in
Kyiv after they arrived on four buses from
Chernihiv. On 7 June 2017, sports media UA-Football requested permission from
Football Federation of Ukraine and
FC Desna Chernihiv to publish related documents to clarify the situation and come to some kind of closure. A number of football experts commented negatively on the situation, while the
PFC Sumy head coach
Anatoliy Bezsmertnyi stated sarcastically that these football functionaries would make Veres the national champions by decree. The former
PFL president
Svyatoslav Syrota said that the
FFU vice-president was lying about Desna's problems. President of
FC Inhulets Petrove, Oleksandr Porovoznyuk, called on other clubs to withdraw their teams from the league in support for
FC Desna Chernihiv. President of
FC Hirnyk-Sport Horishni Plavni Petro Kaplun stated that it made him laugh when the president of Veres, Oleksiy Khakhlev, asked that the regulations be followed, pointing out that Veres had been admitted to the Second League in complete disregard of the regulations. Kaplun also called on the FFU authorities to pay attention to what owners of professional clubs had to say as they have a right to express their vote of confidence or non-confidence in the FFU leadership.
Ukrainian Premier League successes In June 2017, Veres was taken over by Lviv businessman
Bohdan Kopytko who was suspected of having ties with organized crime, and who was known under the nickname "Kopyto". Kopytko also owns the Lviv refrigerating company "Limo" and became an honorary president of NK Veres Rivne. On 27 March 2018, Kopytko became the president of Veres after Oleksiy Khakhlyov resigned. Khakhlyov claimed that he left his position because of possible conflict of interest between his positions with the club and with the
Football Federation of Ukraine and the Football Federation of Rivne Oblast. On 17 January 2018, NK Veres-Rivne officially re-registered as a
Lviv-based club. On 19 February 2018, the Rivne city council announced that it would stop sponsoring the club because of its relocation to
Lviv. On 13 March 2018, Veres became a provisional member of the
Lviv Oblast Football Federation. Finally, NK Veres Rivne took sixth place in the
2017–18 Ukrainian Premier League after a controversy which preceded the match of Round 31 with
FC Shakhtar Donetsk in
Kharkiv.
Castling of the big People's Club with FC Lviv On 21 May 2018, news broke in Lviv that a type of "
castling" (swap) was to take place between NK Veres Rivne and
FC Lviv after which FC Lviv would advance straight to the Premier League, while NK Veres would join the lower league instead of Lviv. According to the official club's legend the big People's Club Veres Rivne was merged with the Second League FC Lviv and was recreated with admitting reinstated another no less bigger People's Club Veres in the Second League despite the
Ukrainian Association of Football requirements to participate in amateur competitions before applying for professional competitions. One possible reason for the merger was that renovations at the club's home field,
Avanhard Stadium, were suspended by the local authorities and had not yet recommenced. The Rivne-based media were claiming that the club is simply being renamed as FC Lviv. On 21 May 2018, a letter signed by Kopytko that was published on the official website of the club confirmed the intention of the club's administration to merge with
FC Lviv. After the last game of the
2017–18 season with
FC Mariupol, the club's fans were attacked by security group of Bohdan Kopytko including the general director of the club Andriy Pankiv. Following the club's decision to merge with FC Lviv, some players announced that they would resign from the club. According to FootballHub, the following individuals had already left the club: players
Yevhen Morozenko,
Stanislav Kulish,
Denys Kozhanov,
Dmytro Fastov,
Pavlo Lukyanchuk,
Mykyta Kamenyuka, as well as sports director Anatoliy Sorokin, and some other staff members. According to Mykola Nesenyuk (FC Dynamo Kyiv department director in relations with mass media), the new NK Veres Rivne had no connection to the previous Veres club. During the interview to Channel 24 in May 2018 Nesenyuk who is native of
Rivne added that the whole project with "People's Club" seems as a hoax. In the 2018–19 season, the new NK Veres Rivne is set to play in the
2018–19 Ukrainian Second League with Oleksiy Khakhlyov as president and with a home stadium in
Rivne Oblast. In May 2019 it became clear that Veres was transformed into joint stock company consisting of public association Rivne football club Veres–Rivne, UkrTeplo (Rivneteploenerho), and Rivne city council (
Avanhard Stadium).
Team names :
Sponsors ==Honors==