Rotor Volgograd
| Full name | Football Club Rotor Volgograd |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Сине-голубые (Blue-cyan) |
| Founded | 1929 |
| Ground | Zenit Stadium |
| Chairman | Andrei Rekechinsky |
| Coach | Lev Ivanov |
| League | Russian Professional Football League, Zone South |
| 2015 | Amateur Football League, Chernozemye Region, 1st (Champions) |
FC Rotor-Volgograd Volgograd (Russian: ФК Ротор Волгоград) is a Russian football (soccer) club from the large city of Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast (formerly Stalingrad). They play in the third-tier Russian Professional Football League, zone South, returning to professional levels for the 2016–17 season. They are the largest and best supported Volgograd club and for most of their existence have been the city's only representatives in the national league system. They played at the top level of Soviet/Russian football either side of World War II, from 1989 to 1990, and from 1991 to 2004. During the 1990s they were one of the strongest clubs in newly independent Russia and qualified for European competition four times. In recent years financial and ownership difficulties have repeatedly threatened their professional status and they have played mostly in lower regional leagues.
Both the current team name and the former name "Traktor" are references to the Stalingrad Tractor Factory, once a major producer of tractors, and the scene of heavy fighting during the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II.
The creation of a Russian national football pyramid immediately prior to World War II propelled Traktor Stalingrad to national prominence. Traktor were champions of the new fourth-level Group G in 1937, and were then promoted straight to the highest-level Group A as it expanded from 9 clubs to 26. They remained at the top level until 1950.
Rotor then spent three decades at the top regional level, although the creation of the Supreme League in 1970 pushed their league from the second level overall down to the third. They gradually improved throughout the 1970s and finally won Zone III of the Soviet Second League (the third tier) in 1980 and 1981, and were successful in the promotion playoffs the second time.
In 1988 Rotor finished second in the Soviet First League, earning promotion to the Soviet Top League. They finished 13th and last in the downsized 1990 competition after the Georgian and Lithuanian teams withdrew, and the decision was made to relegate them. However they bounced straight back as champions of the First League in 1991, thus becoming founder members of the new Russian Top Division after the USSR collapsed.
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