FC KošiceFC Košice are a club whose modern history began only in 2018, though it draws on a footballing tradition in the city stretching back to 1903, and which has already survived one dramatic collapse of its predecessor. The city's first football club, then the Hungarian-era Kassai AC, was founded in 1903, and after the Second World War, through the merger of three Košice clubs, evolved into a team later known as VSS Košice, and from the 1990s as 1. FC Košice.
It was this historic club that wrote the most important chapters of Košice football. In 1971, following a 2-1 home win and a goalless draw in Moscow, VSS Košice became the first side from Slovakia to reach the group stage of the European Cup, eliminating Spartak Moscow along the way. The club gained even greater recognition in the 1997/98 season, when, as 1. FC Košice and freshly crowned champions of an independent Slovakia, it made its debut in the UEFA Champions League group stage - the first ever for the country. The campaign ended painfully, however, as the team lost all six group matches, permanently entering the competition's record books as the first club to finish the Champions League group stage without earning a single point. Over its history, the club won the Slovak championship twice and the domestic cup five times.
Financial troubles eventually led to the club, by then operating as FC VSS Košice, ceasing operations on 27 July 2017. Less than a year later, on 12 May 2018, a new entity emerged through a merger with the local amateur side FK Košice-Barca - today's FC Košice, continuing the city's sporting heritage and yellow-and-blue colours, though not the direct legal successor of its predecessors. After rapid promotions through the lower leagues, the club returned to Slovakia's top division in the 2023/24 season, where it still competes today.
