Cup, where has lost to "Sudostroitel" Nikolaev at the extra-time. In 1970 the structure of the football tournament was modified. United First League was made, and 22 best-of-1969 teams were included. On a legal ground "Rubin" took his place among them. The debut was April, 11 in Krasnodar (0–1). After that an outdoor draw followed in Kharkov with "Metallist" – 1–1, Viktor Kolotov scored the first goal in the First league. Later followed several wins. In the season-1970 "Rubin" resulted at the 8th position. Hard times came. The season of 1971 the team finished at the last 22nd position and has left the First league. White line, black line (1972–1977) In 1972 "Rubin" has been participating in the 5th zone of the Second League, which included mainly clubs of Povolzhye and Middle Asia. During the whole season the kazanners experienced serious problems in the attack. Frankly speaking, after the 21nd matchday the team had only 14 goals scored (5 of them were annulled because 2 teams has left the tournament). In the last game of the year "Rubin" has beat "Torpedo" from Togliatii 1–0 and took the 7th place and left the opponent on the 8th one. The season of 1973 was to be more successful. After a year's interval Murad Zadikashvili has returned from Kutaisi. Three clubs has started to change each other in the top of the league in the struggle for the only ticket to the Semifinal tournament. These teams were "Uralmash" (Sverdlovsk), "Rubin" and "Kord" from Balakovo. Kazanners were the second ones at the final lap. "Uralmash" had just 3 points more. In RSFSR Cup, which was held as an alternative to USSR Cup, "Rubin" reached Semi-final (the club's best result in this tournament), where lost 0–1 to "Vulkan" (Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky) in an outdoor game. That year (1973) on May, 1 a 24-year-old masseur Eugeny Golov started to work in "Rubin". From that moment "Rubin" has become an integral part of his life. He had passed all steps of a club hierarchy: masseur – doctor – administrator – first president (since 1990) – director (1995–99 and since 2005). Before the season of 1974 "Rubin" has practically lost no players of a senior squad. In the final table "Rubin" was the 2nd. In a stubborn struggle kazanners could stand up for this position in a semi-final pellet in Frunze and in a final in Sochi. As a result