FC_Partizan_Minsk Knowpia

Partizan Minsk
Full name	Football Club Partizan Minsk
Founded	2002
Dissolved	2014
Ground	SOK Olimpiysky, Minsk
Capacity	1,500
League	Belarusian Second League
2014	22nd
Home colours	Away colours

FC Partizan Minsk (Belarusian: ФК Партызан Мінск) was a Belarusian football club based in Minsk.

History edit

The old MTZ-RIPO logo.

The club was founded as MTZ-RIPO Minsk in 2002 as a merger of two Minsk teams from the Second League (Traktor Minsk, a club with a 55-year history, and Trudovye Rezervy-RIPO Minsk, a football academy-based team which only spent one season in the Second League). The merge allowed the new team to have its own football school to recruit young players from as well as financial supply from the Minsk Tractor Works, the main sponsor of Traktor Minsk.

MTZ-RIPO Minsk started playing in the Second League in 2002. In their first season the team finished first, and then did the same in the First League in 2003. Since 2004, they played in Belarusian Premier League.

At the end of 2004 the club was acquired by a Russian-Lithuanian businessman Vladimir Romanov and became a part of his football holding alongside Scottish Premier League club Hearts and Lithuanian A Lyga club FBK Kaunas. During 2005–2010 many foreign players owned by FBK Kaunas or Hearts had successful loan spells in MTZ-RIPO.

Before the start of the 2010 season, the club announced a name change.^[1] On 27 January 2010, the new name was revealed to be Partizan Minsk.

Partizan finished the 2010 season at bottom of the table and were relegated. In the following season in the Belarusian First League, they finished second and had to face FC Vitebsk in a two-legged play-off, which they won 3–2 on aggregate to secure a place in the 2012 Belarusian Premier League.

In early 2012, the club was mostly abandoned by Romanov (who withdrew his financial support, having some legal troubles himself) and had to release all players.^[2] Partizan withdrew from the Premier League, leaving it with only 11 teams.^[3] The team spent the 2012 season playing at the amateur level in Minsk Championship. In 2013, they renamed to Partizan-MTZ Minsk and joined the Second League, before renaming back to Partizan Minsk in 2014. Midway through 2014, season the club announced its withdrawal from the league and was folded.

Honours edit

Belarusian Premier League
- 3rd place (2): 2005, 2008
Belarusian Cup
- Winners (2): 2005, 2008

Supporters edit

The club had a fierce rivalry with Dinamo Minsk. The support across the two Minsk clubs was drawn across political lines, with Dinamo fans being strongly right-wing and Partizan fans being strongly left-wing. Partizan fans were known for their anarchist, anti-government, anti-fascist, and pro-LGBT rights stances.^[4] As a result of their political views, they had a strong friendship with fans of Arsenal Kiev,^[5] SV Babelsberg, and Original 21.^[6]

Former managers edit

League and Cup history edit

Season	Level	Pos	Pld	W	D	L	Goals	Points	Domestic Cup	Notes
2002	3rd	1	24	22	2	0	102–21	68		Promoted
2003	2nd	2	31¹	22	4	5	64–17	70	Round of 32	Promoted
2004	1st	14	31²	7	9	15	36–57	30	Round of 16
2005	1st	3	26	16	1	9	43–30	49	Winners
2006	1st	4	26	16	3	7	54–24	51	Round of 16
2007	1st	5	26	11	9	6	32–25	42	Quarter-finals
2008	1st	3	30	17	6	7	65–37	57	Winners
2009	1st	11	26	8	6	12	34–38	30	Quarter-finals
2010	1st	12	33	5	8	20	24–70	23	Quarter-finals	Relegated
2011	2nd	2	30	20	5	5	59–26	65	Quarter-finals
2011	2nd	1	2	1	0	1	3–2	3		Promotion Play-off
2012	4th	5	14	6	4	4	17–17	22		Promoted
2013	3rd	11	24	5	7	12	26-46	22

¹ Including additional game (1–2 loss) against Lokomotiv Vitebsk for the 1st place.
² Including additional game (4–1 win) against Lokomotiv Vitebsk for the 14th place.

MTZ-RIPO in Europe edit

Season	Competition	Round	Club	1st Leg	2nd Leg
2005–06	UEFA Cup	1Q	Ferencváros	2–0 (A)	1–2 (H)
2005–06	UEFA Cup	2Q	Teplice	1–1 (H)	1–2 (A)
2006	UEFA Intertoto Cup	1R	Shakhter Karagandy	5–1 (A)	1–3 (H)
2006	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R	Moscow	0–2 (A)	0–1 (H)
2008–09	UEFA Cup	1Q	Žilina	2–2 (H)	0–1 (A)
2009–10	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Sutjeska Nikšić	1–1 (A)	2–1(aet) (H)
2009–10	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Metalurh Donetsk	0–3 (A)	1–2 (H)

References edit

^ "New name will be announced soon". mtz-ripo.by. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
^ Partizan with not play in Premier League, pressball.by, retrieved 2012-01-31
^ 11 teams will participate in 22nd Belarusian championship, pressball.by, retrieved 2012-02-03
^ "Partizan Minsk - the DIY Football Club from Belarus". Futbolgrad. August 13, 2013.
^ "Ukrainian Ultras - Where Two Wings Collide". Futbolgrad. July 20, 2013.
^ "MTZ-RIPO Minsk (Belarus) at "Original 21" AEK (Greece) 15/02/2018 match against Dynamo Kiev". Ultras-tifo Forum. February 16, 2018.