FK Vėtra was a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team from the capital city of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

History

The club was founded in 1997 and was initially based in

Rūdiškės Rūdiškės (; pl, Rudziszki; be, Рудзішкі) is a city in the Trakai district municipality, Lithuania about 15 km south of Trakai. During the interwar period it was part of the Second Polish Republic. Until 2003 FK Vėtra was ...

, a settlement in Trakai district, and moved in 2003 to

city with the purchase of its own stadium. In 2004, Vėtra played in the

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

and reached the 3rd round with 3 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss, including the elimination of Scottish side

Hibernian FC Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional association football, football club based in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The club plays in the Scottish Premiership, the top tier of the Scottish Professional Fo ...

. Their results in the 2005 tournament were not as successful, being eliminated in the early stages by losing both first round matches to future finalists

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ), is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vas ...

. In 2006, Vėtra played

Shelbourne F.C. Shelbourne Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Shíol Bhroin) is an Irish association football club based in Drumcondra, Dublin, who play in the League of Ireland Premier Division. Shelbourne were founded in Dublin in 1895. In 1904 the club join ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, but lost 0–1 at home, and 0–4 in Ireland. In the 2007 Intertoto Cup, Vėtra's second-round game with

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning record 15 Ekstraklasa champions titles, a ...

was called off when Legia fans rioted. The scoreline was 2–0 to Vėtra at the time, and on July 11,

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

decided to award the tie 3–0 to Vėtra, and expel Legia from the competition. Vėtra lost to English side

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

in the third round

In the 2008 edition of the UEFA Cup Vėtra lost to Viking FK, Viking Stavanger despite winning the first leg thanks to a bizarre goal. In July 2009 Vėtra became the first Lithuanian club to progress in a European knock-out match after losing its first game at home. In the second qualifying round of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

Vėtra lost 0–1 to

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki, or simply as HJK, is a professional football club based in Helsinki, Finland. The club competes in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. Founded in 1907, the club has spent most of its history ...

but defeated their opponents 3–1 to earn a tie against

Fulham FC Fulham Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, London, which compete in the . They have played home games at Craven Cottage since 1896, other than a two-year period spent at Loftus Road whilst Craven Cottage unde ...

. Vetra lost 3–0 at home and the same away, which means they were knocked out by Fulham. The team played in the Lithuanian Premier division

A Lyga The A Lyga is the top division of professional football in Lithuania. The A Lyga is an abbreviation of Aukščiausia lyga meaning Highest League. It is organized by Lithuanian Football Federation LFF ( lt, Lietuvos Futbolo Federacija). The Aukš� ...

but in summer of 2010 was expelled by Lithuanian Football Federation for financial troubles and debts to players, coaches and other club staff.

Achievements

2nd placed: 2009 *

LFF Cup The Lithuanian Football Federation Cup ( lt, Lietuvos futbolo federacijos taurė), also known as Hegelmann LFF Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a Lithuanian football cup competition contested in a knockout tournament format. The winner of the cup ...

runners-up: 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010 (finalist)

Notable players

Players who have either appeared for their respective national team at any time or received an individual award while at the club. * Darvydas Šernas *

Andrius Skerla Andrius Skerla (born 29 April 1977) is a Lithuanian former professional footballer who played as a defender. He began his career in Lithuania with Žalgiris Vilnius, where his performances drew the attention of Dutch club PSV. After making on ...

* Mindaugas Panka * Artūras Rimkevičius *

Georgas Freidgeimas Georgas Freidgeimas (born 10 August 1987) is a retired Lithuanian Association football, footballer who played as a centre-back. Career Club Defender joined FK Žalgiris, Žalgiris before 2011 season and spent 7 seasons in the club. On 8 February ...

* Valdemar Borovskij * Artūras Žulpa * Tomas Mikuckis * Artjom Dmitrijev *

Tomas Ražanauskas Tomas Ražanauskas (born 7 January 1976) is a Lithuanian professional football coach and a former player. He is an assistant coach with the Lithuania national team. He played in the position of midfielder and was also a member of the Lithuan ...

* Donatas Vencevičius * Serhiy Kuznetsov * Igoris Kirilovas *

Vidas Alunderis Vidas Alunderis (born 27 March 1979 in Klaipėda, Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union) is a Lithuanian footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are ...

Participation in Lithuanian Championships

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

– 3rd *

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

– 5th *

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

– 4th *

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

– 3rd * 2007 – 5th * 2008 – 3rd * 2009 – 2nd * 2010 – ''expelled from league after the round 17''"Vėtra" šalinama iš A lygos pirmenybių

Participation in European tournaments

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vetra Defunct football clubs in Lithuania Association football clubs disestablished in 2010

FK Vėtra FK Vėtra was a Lithuanian football team from the capital city of Vilnius. History The club was founded in 1997 and was initially based in Rūdiškės, a settlement in Trakai district, and moved in 2003 to Vilnius city with the purchase of ...

1997 establishments in Lithuania