Creation, Growth and Catastrophe: The Story of FC Stroitel Pripyat
Football clubs - there's many reasons and varying stories of how these sporting institutions, big or small, around the globe, came to be. Likewise, the explanations are plentiful (though often finance related in truth) as to why some ultimately cease to exist or have to start afresh. However, the story of FC Stroitel Pripyat, perhaps remembered more by native Ukrainians as Budivelnyk Football Club Pripyat, is very different to the norm, both in its foundation and, sadly, but understandably, its eventual folding.
Many will have knowledge of the city of Pripyat. There's literature and film aplenty in which the northern Ukrainian (then Soviet) ‘atomgrad’ is discussed. It was at the epicentre of what is commonly viewed as the worst nuclear disaster in history, that of Chernobyl. A catastrophic incident which claimed the lives of many, and forever altered those of many more, as the effects within the province and further afield are still felt to this day.
The fate of local football team, FC Stroitel (or, as mentioned, Budivelnyk, which translates as ‘builder’ in Ukrainian - heralding the reason behind the city's, and in-turn the clubs’ creation) Pripyat was only of very minor concern in the grand scheme of things, but, tasked by interest from our followers - some of whom had learnt about the sides’ existence in recent years following Philadelphia-based football fashionwear company Icarus Football’s production of a retro concept design shirt in the teams’ honour - we wanted to take a closer look at the club, the impact it had on the city and its inhabitants, and vice-versa. To do so we reached out and enlisted the help of Ukrainian football expert and historian Artur Valerko (AV) and journalist Serhiy Peichev (SP), who give us their in-depth knowledge of various factors as we move through what is an emotional story of great hope and unthinkable despair.
Image - Charlotte Patterson. The concept design FC Stroitel Pripyat shirt produced by Icarus Football in recent years.
Pripyat itself, initially a town before receiving city status in 1979, was set up and founded in early February of 1970 as the then USSR began its concerted development of nuclear energy. Named after a prominent, neighbouring river within the northern Kyiv Oblast region, it was designed and constructed entirely to provide a comfortable place of residence for the tens of thousands of workers the large Chernobyl plant - one of many stations constructed throughout the Union in this era - would require. Artur explains: “ Pripyat was a new town. The average age of residents was around 25-27 years-of-age. Soviet Union (at that time) had a ‘deficit’ Only in big cities could you buy sausagemeat, toilet paper, televisions, fur coats etc.
But Pripyat was a town (then, city) of first category - the products range there was better than in Kyiv, at a similar level to that of Moscow. Residents of the surrounding towns and villages came to Pripyat for sausagemeat. Local stores specially displayed the best goods in the second shifts, before the last buses to other cities were leaving.” (AV)
Serhiy: “There were a lot of young people, young families moved here (to Pripyat). They came because in Soviet times, they were given flats and good wages. Professional people were lured by finances and prospects. So the city grew rapidly. According to the pictures I've seen, it was clean, surrounded by beautiful nature. But there was not enough entertainment. Football helped here” (SP)
As Serhiy goes on to tell us, a football club - FC Stroitel Pripyat - was muted, and subsequently founded (along with other leisure facilities such as swimming pools) by key figures within the Soviet hierarchy during the mid-1970’s in an attempt to provide that missing entertainment for what was a youthful, fledgling town at the time. “In addition to work and housing, people wanted to relax somehow. There were many young men here, and of course they were happy when a football club appeared.” (SP)
FC Stroitel Pripyat came to fruition to serve that need. To offer recreation and enjoyment for a workforce that was perhaps looking for a distraction from their day-to-day activities on the plant. Playing at a modest venue, in-keeping with their amateur level, the team itself was initially comprised of players from the local areas surrounding the city; Christogalovka, a village on the outskirts of Pripyat provided many of the ‘Builders’ original squad, which began competing at district and regional levels (tiers four and five of the Soviet game) around the Kyiv Oblast province. As Serhiy explains, the level of the team gradually grew over those first few seasons, aided by economical benefits. “ There was certain finances, and players were lured from other cities. Here, they were given basic work. Usually it was not very difficult. And in their free time, they played football.” (SP)
Image - storiedicalcio.altervista.org. FC Stroitel Pripyat players line-up prior to a match in their formative years.
With this financial backing, the club were able to entice players and coaches that were, perhaps, above their level on the field. Over time, the likes of Stanislav Honcharenko (who would go on to become very prominent in the world of Futsal), brothers Nikolai and Valentin Litvin, and former USSR international forward Anatoliy Shepel, famed for spells at Dynamo Kyiv and FC Chornomorets Odessa, would be involved at the club in either a playing or managerial capacity.
Following the teams’ early incremental improvement and steady growth overall at regional level, the club entered the Ukrainian Association of Amateur Football - known also as the KFK Championship - ahead of the 1981 season. Therefore, as well as continuing to take part in the local Kyiv Oblast division and associated cup competitions, Budivelnyk would also contest what was a higher level, Soviet-wide format, taking on some of the top amateur clubs on a more national scale. The prize at stake for succeeding at the finals stage of the KFK Championships (thought of as something akin to a Soviet development league) was that of promotion to the top tiers of the game, of professional status, and the opportunity of accelerated growth.
Image - transfermarkt.co.uk. Former USSR international and Dynamo Kyiv striker Anatoliy Shepel, who briefly coached Budivelnyk at the beginning of the 1980’s.
At first, Stroitel found this level tough going, often finishing in midtable or the lower half of their group. By 1985, however, Pripyat appeared to have acclimatised a little, narrowly finishing runners-up in their section. Many considered the club to be on the right path, that genuine success in the KFK tournament was forthcoming, and what was seen by many as a modern, stylish city would soon be home to a professional football club. This belief is what ultimately prompted the construction of the Avanhard Stadium - a fascinating, though heartbreaking part of the story in itself which is covered in more depth later in the piece by my colleague, Vincent Duitsch, in a special highlighted section to conclude.
Returning to matters on the pitch, and as Artur explains, Budivelnyk did have their moments, certainly locally at least. “They won three Championships of Kyiv Oblast in a row (1981, 1982, and 1983). Even now, this is one of the most spectacular starts. They took many players from Kyiv, Dnipro, and other cities, but, as a consequence, fewer players in the squad were from Chernobyl Raion.” (AV)
Most Soviet sides at that time had associated industrially-related names. Typical league and cup opponents for Budivelnyk would be teams from Borodyanka, Kyiv, Fastov, Nizhyn, Poltava, Oleksandriya, and Cherkassy, amongst others.
Having struggled somewhat at the all-union level, that 3-year spell of regional success between 1981 and 1983 would be as good as it got for FC Stroitel Pripyat in terms of honours. Local cup competitions brought mixed results. Most notably, they came close to lifting the Kyiv Region Cup in 1979, losing out in the final to rivals Fastov, a side Pripyat would later overcome to lift that first title in 1981. Despite being able to attract high quality players and managers, the club couldn't quite reach the professional level of the game before those hopes were forever dashed by one of the the modern era's most notable, and cruellest incidents.
And so to those events of Saturday 26th April 1986. An explosion of the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl power plant. A meltdown that changed everything for a developing city, and left an indelible mark on the region, the country, and the world as a whole.
Image - theguardian.com. The remains of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (No.4 reactor) following the explosion.
Thought to be caused by an accident during testing of the plant’s steam turbine’s capabilities, the blast saw radioactive contamination drift across the Soviet Union and beyond. The players of Stroitel Pripyat were preparing themselves for a cup semi-final against Borodyanka when the blast occurred. Serhiy describes the events that unfolded: “The Soviet authorities kept everything quiet, and even on the day of the accident at the Chernobyl station, the team had a match. The players gathered at the stadium, when a helicopter landed at the ground. They realised something was wrong. They were told to go home because there had been a disaster. In fact the decline of the Budivelnyk Football Club began on that day.” (SP)
To give further context to the events of the day, Artur adds: “When the station exploded, All-Union youth wrestlers, who were taken on an overnight camping trip, saw helicopters fly by and chemical troops move in from their tents” (AV)
Obviously, there were infinitely more pressing issues than football, but as Serhiy had mentioned, that would be the beginning of the end for FC Stroitel Pripyat, who instantly withdrew from the 1986 KFK Championship. Following the blast, the highly dangerous radiation spread quickly through the air. The entire city was immediately evacuated. As fires from the blast raged on for over a week, an exclusion zone that would eventually reach a radius of around 19 miles was set up, and well over 100,000 people moved from the area on safety grounds.
Serhiy: Over time, they were relocated to safer regions. Some of the (FC Stroitel Pripyat) players went to other teams. I know the players who were involved in the elimination of the accident. They worked with radiation. It was very dangerous for health.” (SP)
One of the places many residents of Pripyat relocated to was a city called Slavutych, built to the northeast of the exclusion zone to provide a home for those that had been impacted by the blast and subsequent fall-out. Following the relocation, there were attempts to keep the team going, under a new name, to no avail, and as Artur and Serhiy explain, by 1988, what was a promising football club with real potential was no more. “After the disaster, for some time, Budivelnyk played in Vyshgorod, where they represented (the region of) Kyiv Oblast, rather than Pripyat. Then in the new town of Slavutych - as Football Club Stroitel Slavutych.” (AV).
But this would, understandably, prove to be short-lived. “The club was dying. It was only a matter of time. The desire to play was less. There was not enough money. The level of the team had significantly decreased. The club did not have a strong fanbase and history. It was a young project, and did not survive the destruction of it’s hometown. Probably, for many, it became a reminder of a terrible period in life - of pain, illness, and death.” (SP)
So Budivelnyk, the club formed for a city with a purpose, slipped away. It’s particularly cruel that it was an accident involving that very purpose which brought an end to the city, and all the ventures within it, and more agonisingly, cost many lives and caused untold suffering.
In 2016, 30 years on from the catastrophe at Chernobyl, Serhiy explains how a football match was played in memory of the tragic events. “ After 30 years, Budivelnyk played against Borodyanka. It was the postponed match that was not played on the day of the Chernobyl accident. The players, who were now around 60-years-old, on the football field, almost cried from emotions and nostalgia. One of the players, Serhiy Velichko, gave an assist with his head in that match. Doctors had forbidden him to play, let alone head the ball. He'd had a brain tumour, but survived, went on the field, and played the most important match of his life. The match finished 2-2, with Borodyanka winning on penalties. This is how the history of the Budivelnyk Football Club ended.” (SP)
Image - urbanks.co.uk. The abandoned city of Pripyat.
The tragedy of Chernobyl, of Pripyat and the surrounding areas is still tangible today, nearly 38 years later. The exclusion zone remains under the tight control of the Ukrainian government. Authorised tour operators are allowed to organise tours for visitors, but must adhere to stringent safety protocols. Rightly or wrongly, the region has become something of a hotspot for ‘adventure tourists’ - looking for something unique. What will never be forgotten, however, is the events that took place nearly four decades ago. A catastrophe that claimed thousands upon thousands of lives and has caused immeasurable physical and mental hardships. Something which wiped out people's hopes, dreams, aspirations and prospects; their home. Forever altered their and their families’ future; and, though an incredibly minor consequence, took away their local football club, too.
Words by Chris Kelly
Image - pagina12.com.ar.
Avanhard Stadium
Words by Vincent Duitsch
Just like many other new towns in the Soviet Union, Pripyat needed their own club and of course a new stadium. Although it’s not the stadium everyone is thinking about. The one you see in the pictures, is not the first stadium of Stroitel Pripyat. From the info I gathered there was a little stand before in which they had their first matches up until the middle of the 1980’s and had some successes like region champions of Kyiv in 1981, 1982, 1983 and just 4 points away from another regional title in 1985.
Because of these successes, the ambition of the fairly rich city and the matches being sold out weeks before, there was a need for a new stadium so Stroitel could aim higher in the Soviet football leagues. This is why in 1986 the building of the Avanhard Stadium was commissioned. Cautiously dreaming of matches against Dinamo Kyiv, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
In style with Soviet efficiency, a new stadium was built with a capacity of 5000, and of course, an athletics track. Called the Avanhard Stadium, it is named after the Ukrainian Sports Society like many other stadiums in that time.
Image - @FootballFanCast.
The last match in the old stadium was planned on the 26th of April 1986, against Mashinobudovnik (Borodyanka) in the semi final of the Kyiv Regional Cup. The first match in the new stadium was planned on the 1st of May 1986. Independence Day in the Soviet Union. However, on the same day as the last match was planned, the disaster happened.
While the players of Mashinobudovnik were training in Borodyanka, a helicopter landed on the training field informing them the match had been cancelled and they would not be travelling to Pripyat.
With this, the stadium was closed forever before it even opened. The ruins of the ground are still visible today, taken over by nature, like the city as a whole. Forest-like amongst the concrete, wood, and iron remains. An eerie reminder, both of what happened, and what could have been.
Image - Wikipedia/Picasa.
There's some people we wish to thank for their greatly appreciated assistance in putting this article together: Serhiy Peichev, Artur Valerko (@ArchieValerko), @ZoryaLondonsk, and Charlotte Patterson (@kirbyhazard). It was their input, knowledge, and suggestions which allowed us to produce what we hope has been an informative look at FC Stroitel Pripyat, the city it called home, and the terrible events that brought about its abandonment.
Words by Vincent Duitsch