Lokomotiv Ruse - History - Last Years

Last Years

The summer of 1995 was again time for changes. After the "Korabostroitel" era the new aim for the club not to be relegated and if possible - to play attractively in 'B' group. The name 'Locomotiv' was again restored, and the traditional colors of the team - red and black were restored, too. The new elected chairman of FC Lokomotiv (Ruse) was Orlin Tanov - businessman of dubious reputation, like most football bosses in Bulgaria. 1995/96 season was very successful for the railways team. Two managers - Remzi Nuriev and the famous former goalkeeper Georgi Velinov, who later took the charge at Lokomotiv (Ruse) not only saved the team from relegation, but also made it more impressive with victories at home over all strong teams in the league, including the new champion of 'B' group Maritsa (Plovdiv). The sweetest victory was over the city rivals Dunav (Ruse) - historical 1:0 in a real thriller. The referee tried to help Dunav and awarded a penalty kick and showed three (3) red cards to Lokomotiv players. Ultimately derby ended in victory for the railways team inspired by a late goal from a big distance in 86 minutes. The scorer was Viktor Nankov. Next season (1996/97) was the last for the team in "B" division and the team was relegated to "V" group (third tier). The next 5 years the team battled hard to survive in "V" group. All the players in the first three years have been youngsters from the academy of the team. The last two years of that period the experienced Blagovest Georgiev, Miroslav Enev, Samir Mastanov, Tzanko Serafimov and other former Lokomotiv players return to the club. In 2000/01 Lokomotiv finished 2nd. At the summer break it became clear that the team had fallen into serious financial crisis. In order to survive, Lokomotiv unified with another third tier team from Ruse - "Chicago". With that for the new 2001/02 season the name of the club is changed into "Lokomotiv - Chicago". But this step did not save the team from financial troubles as the team still had a lot of debts.Despite that fact that year the team became champions of "V" group and won promotion for "B" group On 5 july 2002 the owners of the club declared that the team had no money to start the season so that it could not afford to play in "B" group. Both presidents - Orlin Tanov and Ventsislav Angelov started negotiations with local businessmen but in vain. On 29 july 2002 Orlin Tanov declared, that he was abolishing the team. All the contracts with players and coaches were terminated. Soon after that (in 2004) the club base was given to a new club from Ruse - FC Ariston. This team renovated the base and started to play at "Lokomotiv" stadium. In 2012 Ariston declared plans to build a new stadium at the place of the former "Lokomotiv" stadium.