OREANDA-NEWS. On 08 April 2009 was announced, that Nizhni Novgorod hosted an award ceremony for the players and coaches of Nizhni Novgorod-based Football Club (FC) Volga for winning the Russian Soccer Championship’s Second Division. The awards were given by Valery Shantsev, Governor of the Nizhni Novgorod Region, and Nikolay Tolstykh, President of the Professional Football League (PFL). The general sponsor of FC Volga is United Metallurgical Company (OMK).

In the 2008 season, FC Volga became the winner of the Second Division of the Ural-Volga zone and won the PFL Cup – a tournament among the Second Division winners of the five zones. Therefore, FC Volga reached to the Russia’s Soccer Championship in the First Division and the 2009/2010 Cup of Russia. During the championship, FC Volga did not lose a single match on its field, had a record-breaking winning streak of 25 matches, and conceded the least number of goals in the zone tournament.

Based of last season’s result, FC Volga’s chief coach Sergey Petrenko was dubbed the Ural-Volga zone’s best coach, goalkeeper and team captain of FC Volga Vitaly Astakhov was named the Nizhni Novgorod Region’s top goalkeeper and soccer player, and Dmitry Andreyev became the best defenseman.

FC Volga’s general sponsor, United Metallurgical Company, places special emphasis on the development of professional and mass sports, promotion of healthy lifestyles among its employees and their family members. The company holds annual corporate summer and winter Olympics for the employees of its entities, the All-Russian Sambo Wrestling Tournament named after founders of Vyksa Steel Works (VSW) Ivan and Andrey Batashevs, and many other sports events.