FC Nizhny Novgorod is a professional football club founded in 2015 and based in Nizhny Novgorod. Over the past decade, the club has gone from the lower divisions to the Russian Premier League and back again, becoming one of the notable participants in the country's second-tier football.[1]

History and the Path to the RPL

The club was founded in 2015. At the end of the 2020/2021 season, Nizhny Novgorod earned a place in the Russian Premier League, reaching the RPL from third place because FC Orenburg failed to pass the licensing procedure. The debut in the top division came in the 2021/2022 season: the first match brought a victory over FC Sochi (1:0), and the first Premier League goal for the Nizhny Novgorod side was scored by Igor Gorbunov. The club finished that championship in 11th place.[1]

On June 10, 2022, the club was renamed Pari Nizhny Novgorod under a sponsorship agreement with the bookmaker PARI. The 2022/2023 season proved difficult: in early April 2023, the team was teetering on the brink of relegation from the RPL.[1]

In the Premier League: The 2023–2026 Seasons

In spring 2023, the team was taken over by Sergey Yuran. The club finished the season in 13th place and, in the relegation playoff, beat Moscow's Rodina on aggregate over two legs (3:0 and 0:2), keeping its place in the RPL. In summer 2023, the post of general director passed from Ravil Izmaylov to David Melik-Guseynov. The team went into that season's winter break with the best result of any Nizhny Novgorod club in the 21st century — 24 points and 9th place in the table.[1]

Spring 2024 turned out to be hard going: the team collected only four points in eight matches, after which Sergey Yuran was replaced as head coach by Saša Ilić. In its first match under the Serbian coach, the club drew with Spartak (0:0), but then suffered the heaviest defeat in its history — 1:6 to Sochi. The season ended in 13th place, but in the playoff Pari NN proved stronger than Tula's Arsenal on aggregate over two legs (1:2 and 2:0).[1]

In the 2024/2025 season, after 11 rounds, Saša Ilić was replaced by Viktor Goncharenko. After strengthening the squad during the winter break, the Nizhny Novgorod side opened the spring part of the season with a victory over Akron (2:1), but a six-match winless streak and a thrashing of Krylya (5:2) two rounds before the finish did not save the club from 13th place. In the playoff, Pari NN lost to Sochi (2:1 and 1:3) and took the RPL place of Khimki, which had ceased to exist.[1]

The club spent the 2025/2026 season under a new general director, Vitaly Karasev, and head coach Aleksey Shpilevsky, who had won the Cypriot championship with Aris and the Kazakhstani championship with Kairat. At one point the team was in last place, but away victories over Akron (2:1) and Makhachkala's Dynamo (1:0) before the winter break kept the club in the fight for survival. In spring 2026, it proved impossible to keep the RPL place: three rounds before the finish, Shpilevsky was dismissed, and his successor Vadim Garanin could not turn the situation around — a draw with Rubin in Kazan (2:2) did not help, and the club, together with Sochi, left the top division.[1]

The Return of the Historic Name and a New Start

On July 11, 2026, the club announced the return of the name "Nizhny Novgorod" and a change of founder: subsidies from the Nizhny Novgorod Region budget had ended. The team, led by Vadim Garanin, began the 2026/2027 season in the PARI League with a win over Volgograd's Rotor (4–2) and played the autumn part of the championship confidently, topping the table with 43 points after 16 games. In the Russian Cup, the club advanced through several rounds and reached the quarterfinals, defeating, among others, Krasnoyarsk's Yenisey (2–1) in the sixth round of the Regions Path. In that match, played in Krasnoyarsk, the goals for Nizhny Novgorod were scored by Gleb Popolitov and Vladimir Ignatenko.[2][1]

Home Arena

The club plays its home matches at the Sovcombank Arena in Nizhny Novgorod.[3]

Chronicle of Events

Details of each event are in its own article; here are the dates and the gist.

Links

Sources

  1. fcnn.ru — History of FC "Nizhny Novgorod" — Official Website
  2. Otkrytyy Nizhny — In the winning sixth-round Russian Cup match over Krasnoyarsk's Yenisey (2:1), held in Krasnoyarsk, the goals for Nizhny Novgorod were scored by Gleb Popolitov
  3. fcnn.ru — Official Website of the Football Club "Nizhny Novgorod"
  4. mapy.com
  5. Vremya N — In the sixth-round Russian Cup match against Krasnoyarsk's Yenisey (November 4, 2026, Krasnoyarsk), the Nizhny Novgorod side came back after conceding a goal in the 9th minute: