USSR competitions The team has played under the following names: • KhPZ (1925–1937, 1941) – factory team • Zenit (1938–1940) • Dzerzhinets (1947–1952) – All-Union Dzerzhinets sports society (merger into Avangard in 1956) • Avanhard/Avangard (1956–1967) – Republican Avanhard sports society (until 1957 All-Union Avangard sports society) • Metalist/Metallist (since 1967) – All-Union
Zenit sports society (part of reinstating and separating from Avanhard) FC Metalist Kharkiv was initially founded on 11 December 1925 as
KhPZ (Kharkovskiy Parovoznyi Zavod – Kharkiv Steam Locomotive Factory), when a local locomotive construction facility (Kharkiv Steam-locomotive Factory, today the
Malyshev Factory) provided funding and allowed use of its land to start a football club. The first factory team however played under the name of "Parovoznik" since 1922. A big impulse to development of football among factory teams was construction of the Traktor Stadium (today
Metalist Stadium) which was opened in September 1926. It was built by workers of the Lokomotive Factory and became the biggest in the city. Following unsuccessful protests from Metalist, a disheartened management, team and fan base would see the club finish bottom in the following season and earning a demotion to the
Ukrainian First League. However, the club would return to the UPL after one season and following a financial crisis and a takeover of the club by
UkrSibbank owner
Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, steady investment would see Metalist show improvement and balanced performance. Yaroslavsky sold the club to new owner
Serhiy Kurchenko late in December 2012.
Kurchenko left Ukraine in February 2014 following the
2014 Ukrainian revolution and his current whereabouts are unknown.
European competitions . In the
2006–07 season, Metalist finished third place in the league, qualifying for the
2007–08 UEFA Cup, their second appearance in a
UEFA competition. They were drawn against English club
Everton. The first leg, away at
Goodison Park, ended in a 1–1 draw while Everton won the second leg 3–2, eliminating Metalist. Metalist's next European competition was the
2008–09 UEFA Cup. The club beat
Beşiktaş 4–2 on aggregate in the first round to qualify for the group stage, where they were grouped with
Galatasaray,
Olympiacos,
Hertha BSC and
Benfica. Metalist finished top of the group, beating Galatasaray, Olympiacos and Benfica, whilst drawing 0–0 with Hertha. In the round of 32, Metalist defeated Italian club
Sampdoria 3–0 on aggregate, setting up for an all-Ukrainian round of 16 tie against
Dynamo Kyiv. After losing in
Kyiv 1–0, Metalist won the return leg 3–2, but were eliminated on the
away goals rule. When the competition was re-branded as the Europa League for the
2009–10 season, Metalist beat
Croatian side
HNK Rijeka 4–1 on aggregate in the third qualifying round before losing 2–1 on aggregate to
Austrian side
Sturm Graz, despite holding them 1–1 in
Graz. The following season, they finished second in
Group I behind Dutch giants
PSV Eindhoven, thus qualifying for the round of 32 where they were thrashed 6–0 on aggregate by
Bayer Leverkusen. They reached the quarter-finals the following season, beating Olympiacos on away goals in the round of 16, but falling to
Sporting CP. The following season, they then faced Bayer Leverkusen again—after beating Leverkusen 2–0 on 22 November 2012, Metalist finished above the side on head-to-head points (13), as they both finished on 13 points and had played out a goalless draw at the
BayArena. In the round of 32, Metalist then faced English club
Newcastle United. After holding them to a goalless draw at
St James' Park in the first leg on 14 February,
Shola Ameobi scored a penalty sent Newcastle through 1–0 on aggregate. In August 2013, UEFA disqualified Metalist from all 2013–14 UEFA competitions. On 16 May 2016, the FFU Appeal Committee left in force the decision of the FFU Football Clubs Attestation Committee of 22 April 2016 and refused in issuing attestation for the next season for the club by declining its appeals. Metalist owed in salary to its players 32 million
Euros with 5 million to
Cleiton Xavier in particular. According to the Kominternivskyi District Court of Kharkiv, Metalist debt to its players and personnel exceeds over
₴30 million. "SK Metalist Kharkiv" is owned by the same man under whose watch Metalist Kharkiv was expelled from the professional leagues: Serhiy Kurchenko. UPhC Olimpik is a team of the
Kharkiv State College of Physical Culture 1. In August 2016, a new club called
FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv applied for the
2016–17 Ukrainian Football Amateur League, where it was headed by
Oleksandr Pryzetko. The owner of FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv is the company TOV Avanhard Kharkiv, later renamed to FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. TOV Avanhard Kharkiv is controlled by businessman and
Kharkiv City Council deputy for
Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity" Oleksandr Davtyan and his family. On 28 April 2017 the FFU Control and Disciplinary Committee (CDC) implemented sanctions against 14 players of the FC Metalist Kharkiv on petition of the FFU Committee on ethics and fair play. Most players were restricted from conducting any activity related to football between six months to a year. Sanctions of three out of those 14 players exceeded that period up to three years and included such players as Yevhen Malyk (2yrs), Dmytro Skarzhynskyi (3yrs), and Oleksandr Medvedev (3yrs). (The original) Metalist Kharkiv was in October 2017 confiscated by a Ukrainian court from Kurchenko and placed under state property. The approximate value of the assets accounted for about $220 million, $65 million of which is the actual property of FC Metalist. For undetermined reason the Metalist property was never transferred to the Assets Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) which is a state agency in management of recovered property. by former vice-president of
Dynamo Kyiv and former sportive director of Metalist Yevhen Krasnikov. Metal debuted in the
Ukrainian Second League in the
2020–21 season. Along with
Oleksandr Kucher as the head coach, Metal was joined by former head coach of
Metalist 1925 Kharkiv Oleksandr Pryzetko. After winning the Second League in June 2021, Metal was renamed Metalist, and the old logo returned to the club, along with its brand and history.
Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, who was in charge of the old club from 2005 to 2012, became the president of the new club. On 18 October 2023, a former player of Metalist
David Caiado filed a new case with CAS against the revived club to recover his salary compensation (CAS 2022/A/9288). David Caiado played for Metalist in 2015. The club has appealed denying its relationship to the original club in hope to avoid paying owed compensations. Metalist has been playing in the
Ukrainian First League since the
2023–24 season. Due to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022) Metalist has been playing its home matches since the 2023–24 season in
Uzhhorod. ==Stadium==