By then, it was one of the oldest professional football clubs in the country, with its foundation being linked to the Soviet NKVD as Dynamo Krasnodar.
[1] It was resurrected by fans and former footballers on a local level a few months later and the team played its first official match in the Krasnodar Krai Regional League.
Football first appeared in Kuban during the early 20th century, when a number of sports clubs were created in Ekaterinodar.
Before there was a national championship, Dynamo played friendly matches with the best teams in Russia, Ukraine and the Caucasus.
In 1931 Dynamo moved into its own stadium, in the center of Krasnodar, which is now the city's oldest existing sports facility.
In 1948 the club played in the RSFSR championship, beginning with preliminary games in the North Caucasus (against teams from Stavropol, Rostov-on-Don, Grozny, Stalingrad, Nalchik, Makhachkala and the Krasnodar Lightning.
On 17 October 1948 Dynamo beat Molotov 4–0 in the final and became, for the first time in their history, RSFSR champions (winning a number of prizes).
It was in the top echelon for most of the 1958–59 season despite the loss of eight players (the team's core) to the army, where most represented FC SKVO.
They defeated Voronezh Trud (1–0), Army Novosibirsk (2–0) and Yaroslavl Shinnik (2–0), drawing (2–2) with Sverdlovsk Uralmash in the third match.
In 1973 Kuban finished third in the final tournament, earning a return to the First League and winning their third RSFSR zone championship.
In 1983 Kuban played unevenly, defeating the leading clubs but losing points to lesser teams.
Ivan Panenko, general director of OAO Rosneft-Krasnodarneftegaz, became the new president of the club and over the next two years laid the foundation for the future team.
Kuban's revival began in 1999, with the appointment of head coach Soferbi Yeshugov and the recruiting of local players.
Despite a coaching change (to Irhin Alexandr), the club finished first in the Second Division southern zone and won two matches on aggregate against an evolving FC Saransk Lighting.
The club's new president was governor Aleksander Tkachyov, who recruited Oleg Dolmatov as head coach to win promotion to the Russian Premier League.
Kuban then won 11 consecutive matches (a record at the time for the First Division), finishing second and winning promotion to the Russian Premier League.
The 2007 season began badly; the team did not win any games, and Yakovenko was replaced by Leonid Nazarenko.
When Kuban did not improve, Nazarenko resigned as coach (ostensibly for family reasons) but remained with the club.
After two rounds of poor play, Tarkhanov resigned (ostensibly for health reasons) and was replaced by Sergey Pavlov.
Their stay was short-lived, however, since the club was relegated again to First Division after a 15th-place finish the following year (losing 3–0 at home to two-time champions Rubin Kazan) and the sacking of head coach Sergei Ovchinnikov.
Improving, the club qualified for the playoffs after finishing sixth and were guaranteed a position in the Premier League the following season.
Despite the replacement of Yuri Krasnozhan by Belarusian coach Leonid Kuchuk, the club remained in the top half of the league and set a home attendance record with 313,997 spectators in 15 matches.
[6] On 30 May 2018, the Russian Football National League announced that Kuban failed in the appeal to obtain the FNL license for the 2018–19 season.
When Nikezić refused, he was beaten at the club office by two armed assailants with alleged ties to the Russian Mafia.
[10] The forward filed a complaint with FIFA president Sepp Blatter days after the incident, providing photos of injuries he sustained during the beating.
[13] Kuban's reserve squad FC Kuban-2 Krasnodar entered the third-tier Russian Professional Football League for the 2016–17 season.