SKA Rostov-on-Don

The stadium in Rostov-on-Don still carries the initials of the army sports society that built it, and for most of its life it held far more people than it does now. It once took 33,300 for a match, later settled around 11,000, and after reconstruction work finished in 2019 the registered capacity dropped to 2,402.

SKA traces back to 27 August 1937, when it started life as RODKA, the football side of the Rostov District House of the Red Army. The name changed with the times — ODO through the mid-1950s, SKVO at the end of that decade — before settling on SKA in 1960.

SKA lost two other Soviet Cup finals, in 1969 and 1971.

The club's more recent history turned on money rather than results. In October 2019, rapper Vasily Vakulenko, known as Basta, bought SKA and paid off its debts. It wasn't enough to keep the professional project alive: on 25 January 2024, SKA lost its professional status, dropped out of Russia's Second League and moved into the Media League under the name SKA-Rostov, while the original club carried on at amateur level in the Rostov regional championship.

What remains is a ground built for tens of thousands now fitted for 2,402.