FC VSS Košice was a Slovak football club based in Košice which played in the Slovak 2. Liga during the 2016–17 season. The club officially ceased operations on 27 July 2017. The club, founded in 1903, has won the Slovak League twice, the Slovak Cup five times and the Czechoslovak Cup once. The most successful eras of the club were in the 1970s and 1990s which they spent mostly in the top tier of Czechoslovak and Slovak Football. Two of the UEFA Euro 1976 champions namely Dušan Galis and Jaroslav Pollák played for Košice. History Early history The club was founded in 1903 as Kassai AC (; ). The club's colours were blue and yellow. In the 1910s, the club competed in the Hungarian championship. In 1909 Kassai AC won the Kingdom of Hungary Championship. Later they played in eastern group in Slovak-Subcarpathian division between 1935–38. In 1939–40 the club played Hungarian League I. Among the most successful Kassai AC players were Szaniszló, Šiňovský, the Drotár brothers, Klein, Lebenský, Dráb, and Pásztor. For many years, the club was based at the stadium on Sokoljevova Street with a capacity of 16,000 spectators. The stadium was often full. After the end of World War II the city's three clubs Kassai AC, Kassai Törekvés and ČsŠK were merged into one club named Jednota Košice. Jednota began playing in the Czechoslovak League in 1945. In the first season, they ended the league as fourth in Group B, which considered as a nice success at the time. VSS Kassai AC and Jednota became VSS in 1952. The team got the name from the Slovak word Strojári (Engineers, in English), due to the main sponsor being VSS (East-Slovakian Engineering). VSS became a stable member of the Czechoslovak First League and their best placing was second in 1970–71. In 1971 and 1973 VSS qualified for the UEFA Cup. In 1971 they won 2–1 against Spartak Moscow in the home leg and they drew 0–0 in Moscow, so that as the first team from Slovakia they progressed to the group stage of the Champions League. Two years later, VSS qualified for the UEFA Cup. Against Honvéd FC they won 1–0 at home and lost 2–5 away. The most successful VSS players include Andrej Kvašňák, Titus Buberník, Jaroslav Pollák, Dušan Galis (Euro 1976 Champions both), Anton Švajlen, Ján Pivarník, Jozef Bomba, and Jozef Desiatnik. VSS was renamed ZŤS in