Orenburg

In the spring of 2021 Orenburg finished second in the FNL, a result that should have carried the club into the Russian Premier League. Instead the promotion was refused: the Gazovik stadium did not meet the top flight's requirements. A year later there was no such ambiguity. Orenburg came third in the FNL, beat Ufa in the play-offs and went up on their own terms.

The club traces back to 1976, when it played under the name FC Gazovik. Home matches are still played at the Gazovik, rebuilt between 2021 and 2022 and now holding 10,046, in a blue kit meant to echo the open sky over the steppe.

Robert Evdokimov took the team up from the second tier and then out of the FNL for the first time, winning the division in 2015/16. Marcel Ličko's spell brought the silver medal that was never converted into promotion, followed a year later by the bronze. Among the forwards who did the scoring, Joel Fameyeh stands out: 90 appearances, 37 goals. In the cabinet there is also a Cup of the FNL, won in 2016 against Shinnik of Yaroslavl, 1-0 in the final, and a top-flight finish that has twice reached seventh place, in 2018/19 and again in 2022/23.

There is no derby to speak of inside Orenburg itself — no second club in the top divisions to share the city with — so the closest thing to a rivalry runs east to Yekaterinburg, where matches against Ural carry the name of the Urals derby. At home, it is just Orenburg and the Gazovik.