FBK Kaunas

Full name	Kauno futbolo ir beisbolo klubas
Nickname(s)	Geltonai-Žali (Yellow-Greens)
Founded	1960
Dissolved	2012 [1]
Ground	S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium
Capacity	9,180
Home colours Away colours

Kauno futbolo ir beisbolo klubas, commonly known as FBK Kaunas, was a Lithuanian football club from the city of Kaunas.

History

Banga Kaunas (1960–1993)

Originally the team was founded in 1960 as Banga Kaunas and played its first three years in the Soviet First League. Afterwards the club decided to play in the Lithuanian SSR Championship and they did so until 1990. In that period they won two Lithuanian SSR Championship's. One in 1986 and another in 1989. When Lithuania regained independence in 1991 A Lyga was created and they played as Banga Kaunas until 1993 before the club changed its name.

FBK Kaunas (1993–1999 and 2000–2012)

The club changed its name in 1993 to Kauno futbolo beisbolo klubas. The club had in its first years not such a great success and FBK Kaunas had to wait until 1999 before they could lift a trophy again. Club was shortly renamed to Žalgiris Kaunas after the 9th round of 1999 A Lyga, but only carried the name for the remaining of the season. From 1999 to 2008, Kaunas won 8 championships, 4 Lithuanian cups, 3 super cups and 1 Baltic league title, but in the autumn of 2008 Kaunas dominance was once and for all broken when FK Ekranas won the championship in front of FBK Kaunas. After finishing second in 2008 A Lyga championship the club's president announced that the club were being demoted from the A Lyga in favour of LFF I Lyga, the 2nd tier of Lithuanian football system, but as conflict with LFF intensified, FBK Kaunas was relegated to LFF II lyga (consisting of amateur teams). ^{[2] [3]}

FBK Kaunas won II lyga championship in their first year in that division. Despite relegation FBK Kaunas also participated in the new UEFA Europe League as a vice-champ of Lithuania but did not advance past FK Sevojno. Despite drawing both games FBK Kaunas lost on away goals. ^[4] FBK Kaunas won I Lyga in 2010 and was promoted to the 2011 A Lyga season. The 2011 season was a huge disappointment for Kaunas as they didn't manage to live up to the high expectations and eventually ended at a 10th place.

FBK Kaunas were not granted a 2012 A Lyga license because of financial problems and was due to play in the 2012 I Lyga. However, due to the clubs increasing financial problems the chairman eventually decided to withdraw the club from any competitions and later declared the club bankrupt. ^[5] Shortly afterwards the fans decided to form a new club. ^[6]

Kaunas have played Celtic, Rangers and Liverpool among others in Europa League and Champions League qualifying stages. On 5 August 2008, FBK Kaunas defeated Rangers, 2–1, to advance to the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League for the first time. The game was won in dramatic circumstances as Kaunas had to come from behind and finally took the lead just four minutes from time. Linas Pilibaitis was the scorer.

FBK Kaunas were for many years (1993–2012) sponsored by Ūkio bankas, a bank which had Vladimir Romanov as its principal shareholder. In October 2005 Romanov became the majority shareholder of Scottish Premier League side, Heart of Midlothian. Romanov then used Kaunas as a feeder club for Hearts by signing players ostensibly for Kaunas, then immediately loaning them to the SPL side. Romanov's mismanagement and dubious dealings effectively destroyed the clubs he was involved with FBK Kaunas and Partizan Minsk going bankrupt and Hearts into administration. BC Zalgiris also suffer from his dishonesty to this day. Romanov fled to Russia where he was granted asylum in 2014 and is now wanted by the Lithuanian prosecutors on charges for fraud and embezzling for at least £308m. ^[7]

Honours

Domestic

• A Lyga
  • Winners (8): 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007
  • Runners-up (2): 2005, 2008
• I Lyga
  • Winners (1): 2010
• II Lyga
  • Winners (1): 2009
• Lithuanian Cup
  • Winners (4): 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008
  • Runners-up (2): 1998, 1999
• Lithuanian Super Cup
  • Winners (3): 2002, 2004, 2006,
  • Runners-up (2): 2003, 2005
• Lithuanian SSR Championship
  • Winners (2): 1986, 1989
• Lithuanian SSR Cup
  • Winners (1):1989
  • Runners-up (3): 1984, 1985, 1986

Continental

• Baltic League
  • Winners (1): 2008
• Commonwealth of Independent States Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 2006

Season-by-season

Domestic

Season	Div.	Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	Goals	Pts	Top Scorer	Cup	Supercup	Baltic League	Europe		Notes
1991	1st	3	14	9	4	1	24–10	22			Not contested	Baltic League not founded until 2007
1991–92	1st	4	25	11	10	4	26–15	32
1992–93	1st	5	27	11	5	11	36–29	27
1993–94	1st	5	22	12	4	6	31–18	28
1994–95	1st	6	22	8	8	6	25–22	24		1/4	dnq
1995–96	1st	4	28	14	3	11	33–15	31		1/4	Not contested
1996–97	1st	4	28	15	5	11	48–35	41		1/2	dnq		IC	Group stage
1997–98	1st	5	30	18	4	8	63–19	58	Trakys	Final	Not contested		IC	Group stage
1998–99	1st	3	23	18	3	2	57–14	57	Trakys	Final
1999	1st	1	18	12	5	1	36–10	41	Kšanavičius	1/4			UC	1st Qualifying round
2000	1st	1	36	26	8	2	115–24	86	Velička	1/2			CL	2nd qualifying round
2001	1st	1	36	26	7	3	76–13	85	Pocius	Winner			CL	1st qualifying round
2002	1st	1	32	24	6	2	85–20	78	Šlekys	1/4	Winner		CL	1st qualifying round
2003	1st	1	28	21	5	2	64–20	68	Opic	1/2	Runner up		CL	2nd qualifying round
2004	1st	1	28	20	5	3	49–19	65	Velička	Winner	Winner		CL	2nd qualifying round
2005	1st	2	36	26	4	6	89–25	82	Beniušis	Winner	Runner up		CL	2nd qualifying round
2006	1st	1	36	28	4	4	85–30	88	Velička / Beniušis	1/4	Winner		UC	2nd qualifying round
2007	1st	1	36	25	8	3	91–26	83	Grigalevičius	Not contested	Not contested	1/2	CL	1st qualifying round
2008	1st	2	28	16	7	5	51–17	55	Ledesma	Winner		Winner	CL / UC	3rd qualifying round / 1st round	Relegated to II Lyga
2009	3rd	1	20	19	0	1	110–10	57	Macežinskas	1/2	dnq	dnq	EL	2nd qualifying round	Promoted to I Lyga
2010	2nd	1	27	27	0	0	108–16	81	Pehlić	1/2	dnq				Promoted to A Lyga
2011	1st	10	33	8	8	17	41–53	26	Razulis	1/2	dnq	dnq			Didn't get a license for the 2012 season

European cup

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate	Scored
1996–97	Intertoto Cup	Group stage	Lillestrøm SK	1–4	—	4th	Kirilovas
			FC Nantes	—	1–3		Žalys
			Sligo Rovers	1–0	—		Miknevičius
			Heerenveen	—	1–3		Gvildys
1997–98	Intertoto Cup	Group stage	Samsunspor	0–1	—	3rd
			Leiftur	—	3–2		Buitkus Trakys Bezykornovas
			Hamburger SV	1–2	—		Bezykornovas
			Odense	—	2–2		Bezykornovas Trakys
1999–00	UEFA Cup	Qual. round	Maccabi Tel Aviv	2–1	1–3	3–4	Pacevičius-2 Papečkys
2000–01	UEFA Champions League	1st QR	NK Brotnjo	4–0	0–3	4–3	Kšanavičius-2 Žuta Puotkalis
		2nd QR	Rangers FC	0–0	1–4	1–4	Žuta
2001–02	UEFA Champions League	1st QR	Sloga Jugomagnat	1–1	0–0	1–1	Papečkys
2002–03	UEFA Champions League	1st QR	Dinamo Tirana	2–3	0–0	2–3	Velička-2
2003–04	UEFA Champions League	1st QR	Havnar Bóltfelag	4–1	1–0	5–1	Beniušis-2, Kančelskis, Opic
		2nd QR	Celtic	0–4	0–1	0–5
2004–05	UEFA Champions League	1st QR	Sliema Wanderers	4–1	2–0	6–1	Sanajevas-2, Žutautas, Gedgaudas, Mikoliūnas, Žaliūkas
		2nd QR	Djurgården	0–2	0–0	0–2
2005–06	UEFA Champions League	1st QR	Havnar Bóltfelag	4–0	4–2	8–2	Velička-3, Zelmikas-2, Rimkevičius-2, Klimek
		2nd QR	Liverpool	1–3	0–2	1–5	Barevičius
2006–07	UEFA Cup	1st QR	Portadown	1–0	3–1	4–1	Manchkava, Pehlić, Velička, Ivaškevičius
		2nd QR	Randers	1–0	1–3	2–3	Juška, Velička
2007–08	UEFA Champions League	1st QR	Zeta	3–2	1–3	4–5	Kvaratskhelia-2, Beniušis, Kšanavičius
2008–09	UEFA Champions League	1st QR	Santa Coloma	3–1	4–1	7–2	Pilibaitis-4, Ledesma-2, Zelmikas
		2nd QR	Rangers FC	2–1	0–0	2–1	Radžius, Pilibaitis
		3rd QR	Aalborg	0–2	0–2	0–4
	UEFA Cup	1st round	Sampdoria	1–2	0–5	1–7	Zelmikas
2009–10	UEFA Europa League	2nd QR	Sevojno	1–1	0–0	1–1	Fridrikas

Coaches

References

External links

• Official website
• Statistics & Info (in English and Lithuanian)