Fakel Voronezh

The Chernozem derby, against Lipetsk's Metallurg, is the fixture that pulls at Fakel more than any other — two clubs from the Central Black Earth region, close enough on the map that the meetings carry a weight the league table doesn't fully explain. There was a lesser, more local version too: for part of the mid-2010s, Voronezh had its own derby against Vybor-Kurbatovo, a club that no longer exists in the form it did then.

Fakel has worn several names since it was founded in 1947. It started as Krylia Sovetov, became Trud in 1959, and only took the name Fakel in 1977 — with a brief detour as Fakel-Profus in 1992 and spells as Voronezh and Fakel-Voronezh either side of 2002 and 2003. The current name has stuck since 2004.

The club's best days in Soviet football came in 1984, when it won the Soviet First League and reached the semi-final of the Soviet Cup — still its highest mark in that competition. Since then, the honours have come further down the pyramid: three titles in Russia's Second Division zone Centre, in 1994, 2004 and 2015. In the Russian Cup, the furthest Fakel has gone is the quarter-final, most recently in 2023/24, when Krasnodar eliminated them on penalties. The club has never won it.

The team plays at the Fakel stadium in Voronezh, which reopened in 2024 after reconstruction with a capacity of 10,052. The colours are white and blue, and for 2026/2027 the club has gone back to its old look — a white shirt with a broad blue wave across the chest, blue shorts and blue socks — after spells, including 2022/23, in an all-blue kit.

A national cup remains the one thing missing from the collection.