History

By the collapse of the Soviet Union, Spartak Vladikavkaz were the only non-Muscovite Russian club competing in the old Soviet Top League. This had been their second and last season in the STL; before that the only other season they competed in the top Soviet division was in 1970.

Their most successful season was 1995 when they managed to grab the Russian Premier League champions title, after several years of Spartak Moscow domination having previously won a silver medal for the second place in 1992 and 1996. However in the qualification stages of the UEFA Champions League Alania lost 10-3 on aggregate to Rangers F.C..

However, after departure of manager Valery Gazzaev and several players from the club, Alania weren't able to get anywhere near the trophy again, finishing at the bottom half of the table.

Previously, the club was known as Spartak Ordzhonikidze (1937--1990), Spartak Vladikavkaz (1990--1994 and 2006), Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz (1995--1996 and 2003--2006), Alania Vladikavkaz (1997--2003 and since 2007).

In season 2005 Alania was relegated from Russian Premier League after 15 seasons of top flight football.


On 14 February 2006 Alania and another First Division club, Lokomotiv Chita, were denied professional licences by Professional Football League and excluded from professional football for juridicial irregularities.[1] On 22 February PFL decided to replace Alania and Lokomotiv with Lada Togliatti and Mashuk-KMV Pyatigorsk, the runners-up in the Second Division.[2] The Russian Football Union did not endorse the exclusion and on 28 February decided to keep Alania and Lokomotiv in the First Division, giving them another chance to fulfill the league requirements.[3] Consequently, on 6 March PFL decided to extend the First Division from 22 to 24 clubs, including Alania, Lokomotiv, Lada, and Mashuk-KMV.[4]

However, on 20 March the Russian Football Union finally decided to exclude Alania and Lokomotiv from the league. This decision was announced by the Professional Football League on 21 March, five days before the start of the First Division.[5]

Alania underwent reorganization, were renamed Spartak Vladikavkaz and on 4 April were admitted into the Russian Second Division, South zone.

After finishing first in the South Zone of 2nd division in the 2006 the team was promoted to Russian First Division and again renamed to Alania.

In 2009, Alania achieved 3rd place in the Russian First Division, just below the nominal promotion places. However, due to FC Moscow being expelled from the Russian Premier League, Alania were chosen to take their place. Their season back in the top flight was not successful and only Sibir Novosibirsk finished below them, thus going back to the First Division; despite the subsequent withdrawal of Amkar Perm and Saturn Moscow Oblast, Alania was refused a reprieve by the RPL.

In the spring of 2011, Alania qualified for the final of the 2010--11 Russian Cup, where it will meet PFC CSKA Moscow. CSKA already qualified for the UEFA Champions League spot, and therefore Alania secured a spot in the 2011--12 UEFA Europa League regardless of the final result. That is the second occasion in Russian soccer history when a second-level division team qualified for European competition (the first one was FC Terek Grozny). Alania achieved a rare feat of reaching the cup final without scoring a single regular-time goal. On three occasions they won a penalty shootout after playing the game with a score of 0-0 and once they received a bye after their opponent team went bankrupt.

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