However, Lada Togliatti and Dinamo Makhachkala were denied licences for the First Division and thus also relegated.

This, alongside the bankruptcy of Angusht Nazran, pushed Metallurg up alongside other second-place finishers SKA Rostov-na-Donu and Mordovia Saransk.

In 2012/13 season, playing as FC Metallurg-Kuzbass Novokuznetsk in the second level (Russian National Football League), it dropped out of the competition due to financial difficulties.

It won its zone in the Amateur Football League in the 2013/14 season and advanced to the third-tier Russian Professional Football League for the 2014/15 season.

[1] During the winter break of the 2015/16 season, it dropped out of the PFL and moved to the amateur competitions due to lack of financing.