Veres-Rivne

Soviet times

The team was founded in 1957 as Kolhospnyk (collective farm worker) and played the 1958 season in the Class B Third Zone, finishing 14th of the 16 teams that participated. The team played 13 seasons in Class B. The best results came in the 1968 and 1969 seasons when the team placed 7th. In 1966, it changed its name to Horyn after the river that flows in Volhynia.

After the reorganization of the Championship of the USSR in 1971, Horyn played in the Second League of the Ukrainian Zone until the fall of the Soviet Union. In 1972, the club became part of the all-Ukrainian Avanhard voluntary sports society and changed its name to Avanhard. In the first season in the Second League of the Ukrainian Zone Avanhard placed 26th. Starting in the late 1970s Avangard started progressing and in 1981 under the management of two famous Dynamo Kyiv players Viktor Matvienko and Volodymyr Troshkin Avanhard got 3rd place. Nine years later under the management of Viktor Pokora Avanhard placed 3rd again.

Three seasons in Vyshcha Liha

During the fall of the Soviet Union it changed its name again to Veres (heather) and was placed in the 1992 Ukrainian First League. In the same season, Veres placed first and was promoted to the Vyshcha Liha. In their first season in Vyshcha, Veres placed last but wasn't relegated because the league was expanded. The following season was the most successful in the club's history. The team was 4th at the mid-way point, beating teams like FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, FC Metalist Kharkiv, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, defeating FC Dynamo Kyiv in the Ukrainian Cup to reach the semi-final. But during the second half, Veres fell to 12th place. During the 1994–95 season, their second in the Premier League, Veres struggled and was relegated to the Ukrainian Second League.

Liquidation in 2011

After relegation from the Ukrainian First League, Veres remained in the Second League until 2011 when, after 54 years as a professional football club, Veres declared bankruptcy and was liquidated.

The huge People's Club project

On 19 March 2015, the club was reinstated as Public Union Rivne Football Club Veres Rivne by two Ukrainian public organizations "Rivne City Football Federation" and "Rivne Oblast Football Federation". The chairman of the Public Union became a well known businessman of Rivne Oblast Oleksiy Khakhlyov, a son-in-law of former President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko (check also FC Nafkom Brovary). It was the first club in Ukraine to have club membership among its fans and as of May 21 had over 3,500 members (3,728 in 2016). Khakhlyov initiated a powerful promotion campaign in social media such as Facebook ("the 12th player") to reflect popularity of the newly created club. The club was announced as "PEOPLE's" (Narodnyi). During the campaign members of the new club claimed that the club accepts no outsiders, only Rivne natives. About that fact even commented one of Ukrainian football journalist Artur Valerko complementing it as appealing, interesting, and seems like a "policy of Athletic Bilbao". The club's statute also stated that no one unrelated to Rivne Oblast may sponsor or in any way participate in the club. The idea of people's club is not new and previously for propaganda was used when FC Prykarpattia Ivano-Frankivsk transformed into FC Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk back in 2003 as People's Football Club Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk (NFK Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk).

In the 2015–16 Ukrainian Second League season, Veres finished in second place and was promoted to the Ukrainian First League. The promotion was widely celebrated at the Rivne city central square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti). Following the success Khakhlyov came out and announced, "I appeared in front of perspective that "Veres" wants to play in the First League, but there are no money. Membership contributions, help of the budget and sponsors are not enough. We gathered, conditionally speaking, 5 million, but need 15. Why 15? It is a simple thing. I cannot live without a dream. The dream was not only revive "Veres", but to get promoted to the First League. They were looking at me as on an idiot. Now I have a dream that "Veres" in the Premier League, Veres among elites of Ukrainian football. We will be realizing it".

After the end of the 2015–16 Ukrainian Second League season, the club was reconstituted as a limited liability company TOV FC Veres-Rivne by the Public Union "Rivne Football Club Veres Rivne" and Lviv Refrigerating Company "Limo", with the latter becoming the majority holder with a 61% stake. (Note: TOV is a Ukrainian acronym for limited liability company (Ukrainian: товариство з обмеженою відповідальністю, tovarystvo z obmezhenoiu vidpovidalnistiu).) The Veres-Rivne company headed by Ihor Dedyshyn was founded to manage the club. Previously Dedyshyn was a sports journalist, football manager of FC Karpaty Lviv, and a manager of Lviv media company "ZIK". "Limo" whose final beneficiary is Bohdan Kopytko will cover the budget costs of approximately ₴15 million for the 2016–17 Ukrainian First League season. The goal for the season was to achieve promotion to the Ukrainian Premier League. The club FC Veres-Rivne received certification (attestation) to play in the PFL competitions from the Football Federation of Ukraine signed by O.Bandurko and Yu.Zapisotskyi (acting head of the FFU committee on licensing of clubs).