The crest history of FC Chernihiv reflects the club’s identity as “The Tigers”, with the tiger becoming the dominant symbol of the team. The club’s traditional black and yellow colours give the badge a particularly distinctive appearance within Ukrainian football.
Between 2020 and 2025, FC Chernihiv used a black hexagonal crest outlined in yellow. The words “FC CHERNIGIV” appeared across the top, while the founding year 2003 was positioned at the bottom. At the centre was a large yellow roaring tiger, combined with a football, directly representing the club’s nickname and footballing identity.
The use of the tiger symbol represents strength, courage, determination and aggression, characteristics the club seeks to express on the pitch. The combination of bright yellow against a black background created a bold and easily recognisable visual identity.
In 2025, FC Chernihiv introduced a dramatically simplified crest. The surrounding hexagonal shield, club name, founding year and football were all removed, leaving only the stylised head of a roaring tiger.
The new tiger is rendered entirely in yellow and black, preserving the traditional colours while creating a cleaner and more contemporary identity. Enlarging the tiger's head also places much greater emphasis on the symbol that has become most closely associated with FC Chernihiv.
FC Chernihiv Club History
Founded in 2003, FC Chernihiv is a Ukrainian football club from the historic northern city of Chernihiv. The club developed from local amateur football before gradually progressing into the Ukrainian professional league system. With its distinctive black and yellow colours, FC Chernihiv is known as “Tyhry” (The Tigers), an identity prominently represented by the tiger on the club's crest.
For much of its early history, FC Chernihiv competed at amateur and regional level. Rather than immediately entering Ukraine's professional competitions, the club spent many years developing its organisation and squad while competing against teams from Chernihiv and the surrounding region.
An important breakthrough came in 2020, when FC Chernihiv was admitted to the Ukrainian Second League, the third tier of the country's professional football structure. This marked the beginning of the club's professional era and brought FC Chernihiv onto the national football stage.
The club made rapid progress. After establishing itself in the Second League, FC Chernihiv earned promotion to the Ukrainian First League, Ukraine's second tier, for the 2022–23 season. This represented the highest level reached by the club and was a significant achievement for an organisation that had only entered professional football two years earlier.
FC Chernihiv's development has taken place under exceptionally difficult circumstances. The city of Chernihiv was heavily affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with fighting and bombardment causing extensive damage throughout the area. Ukrainian football competitions were suspended following the invasion before eventually restarting under extraordinary conditions.
Despite these challenges, FC Chernihiv continued competing and became part of the wider return of professional football in Ukraine. The club's survival and continued participation carried particular significance for a city that had experienced some of the most intense fighting during the early stages of the war.
The club should not be confused with Desna Chernihiv, historically the city's best-known football club. Desna competed in the Ukrainian Premier League and European competition before its activities were severely affected by the war. FC Chernihiv is a separate club with its own history dating from 2003.
