FC Dynamo Kyiv

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History overview

The club was founded in 1927 as an amateur team, part of Dinamo, a nation-wide Soviet sport society. This society later became officially funded and patronized by the NKVD (a KGB predecessor), and later by the interior ministry (MVD). In the 1950sâ€"1980s, team players were even officially ranked as police or interior armed forces officers. However, thousands of ordinary Soviet citizens paid symbolic membership fees for the "sport society".

During the Soviet era, the club was one of the main rivals, and oftentimes the only rival, to the football clubs from Moscow. Its ability to challenge the dominance of the Moscow clubs in Soviet soccer, and frequently defeat them to win the Soviet championship, was a matter of national pride for Ukraine. Leaders of the Ukrainian SSR unofficially regarded the club as their national team and provided it with generous support. Thus, Dinamo became a de-facto professional team of international importance.

After the Soviet Union's collapse, the club, now using the Ukrainian name Dynamo Kyiv, became a member of the new football league of Ukraine. Dynamo's status as the country's principal club did not alter as they went on to dominate domestic cups. This dominance has recently been challenged by FC Shakhtar Donetsk from the eastern region of Donbass, which won the national championship in 2002, 2005, and 2006, leaving Dynamo in the second place.

Since 1993, the team has been owned by Hryhoriy Surkis, a Ukrainian businessmen and oligarch, one of the richest tycoons in Eastern Europe (with interests in electricity, oil trade, and allegedly in organized crime). The Ukrainian opposition has accused the government of setting too low a price and other irregularities during the privatization of the club. Surkis is closely linked to former President Leonid Kuchma, being a member of the so-called "Kiev holding", or "Dynamo group", an influential business and political clan, formally organized as the SDPU(o) political party. The team's symbols and players, formerly including Andriy Shevchenko, have been used in political advertisements for pro-Kuchma politicians in recent elections.

The "Death Match"

Poster of the return match

The story is often told of how the Dinamo team, playing as "Start, City of Kyiv All-Stars", was executed by firing squad in the summer of 1942 for defeating an All-Star team from the German armed forces by 5 goals to 1. The actual story, as recounted by Y. Kuznetsov ([1]), is considerably more complex.

After the Nazi occupation of Ukraine began, the Dinamo team found employment in the city's Bakery No. 3, and played football on wasteland, where they were spotted by Germans and invited to play against an army team as "Start". "Start" comprised eight players from Dinamo (Nikolai Trusevich, Mikhail Sviridovskiy, Nikolai Korotkykh, Aleksey Klimenko, Fedor Tyutchev, Mikhail Putistin, Ivan Kuzmenko, Makar Goncharenko) and three players from Lokomotiv Kyiv (Vladimir Balakin, Vasiliy Sukharev and Mikhail Melnik).

In July and August 1942 "Start" played a series of matches against German and allied sides. On July 12 a German army team was defeated. A stronger army team was selected for the next match on July 17, which "Start" defeated 6-0. On July 19 "Start" defeated the Hungarian team MSG Wal by 5-1. The Hungarians proposed a return match, held on July 26, but were defeated by 3-2.

At this stage it appeared that "Start" were ready to be beaten, and a match was announced for August 6 against a "most powerful" "undefeated" German Luftwaffe Flakelf team, but despite the game being talked up by the newspapers, they failed to report the 5-1 result. On August 9 "Start" played a "friendly" against Flakelf and again defeated them. The team defeated Rukh 8-0 on August 16, and after this the players were arrested by the Gestapo, tortured – Nikolai Korotkykh dying under torture – and sent to the nearby labour camp at Siretz.

In February 1943, following an attack by anti-German partisans, one-third of the prisoners at Siretz were killed in reprisal, including Ivan Kuzmenko, Aleksey Klimenko, and the goalkeeper Nikolai Trusevich. Three of the other players, Makar Goncharenko, Fedor Tyutchev and Mikhail Sviridovskiy, who were in a work squad in the city that day, escaped and hid in the city until it was liberated.

Bribery scandal

In 1995, Dynamo qualified to the Champions League by defeating AaB Aalborg in the qualification round. After their first match against Panathinaikos, however, Spanish referee Antonio López Nieto stated in the press that he was approached by two officials of Dynamo and was offered two fur coats and an amount of money. The club was immediately expelled from the competition, with Aalborg taking its place, though officials stated that in reality, the referee wanted to buy the coats, but refused to pay full price.

According to news reports UEFA, European soccer's ruling body, had banned club's officials Igor Surkis (general manager) and Vasyliy Babiychuk (general secretary) from football for life. Apparently this decision was later reversed as Igor Surkis continued working in the club and when his brother Hryhoriy was elected president of FFU became majority owner and chairman of Dynamo Kiyv.

Achievements

Dynamo Kyiv have participated in all the USSR and Ukrainian championships, and won both tournaments more times than any other team. The club's best perfomances were in the 1970s and 1980s, it was at this time that the USSR national football team was mostly comprised of players from the club. Dinamo Kiev won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986 as well as the European Super Cup in 1975, after two games against Bayern Munich. In 1977, 1986, and 1999, the club reached the semifinals of UEFA Champions League. These victories are associated with the name of Valeriy Lobanovs'kyi, who played for the club in the 1960s and later became the club's long-term head coach; he was also the coach of the USSR national football team in various championships. He died in 2002 after a stroke that occurred during a game. Dynamo's striker Oleg Blokhin is the USSR national champion's all-time leader scorer with 211 goals, and has also made more appearances than any other player in the championship's history with 432 appearances.

Honors

*UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 2:: 1975, 1986
*UEFA Super Cup: 1:: 1975
*Ukrainian Championship: 11 (record):: 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004
*Ukrainian Cup: 8 (record):: 1993, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006
*Ukrainian Super Cup: 2 (record):: 2004, 2006
*USSR Championship: 13 (record):: 1961, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1990
*USSR Cup: 9:: 1954, 1964, 1966, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1990
*USSR Super Cup: 3 (record):: 1980, 1985, 1986Runners-Up
*UEFA Super Cup: 1:: 1987
*Ukrainian Championship: 4:: 1992, 2002, 2005, 2006
*Ukrainian Cup: 1:: 2002
*Ukrainian Super Cup: 1:: 2005
*USSR Championship: 11 (record):: 1936 (spring), 1952, 1960, 1965, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1976 (fall), 1978, 1982, 1988
*USSR Cup: 1:: 1973
*USSR Super Cup: 1:: 1977Other Notable Achievements
*UEFA Champions League Semifinalist 1977, 1987, 1999; Quarterfinalist 1973, 1976, 1982, 1983, 1992, 1998
*UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Quarterfinalist 1966, 1991
*CIS Cup Winner 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002; Runners-up 1999

Structure

The club's home ground, Lobanovsky Dynamo Stadium, is situated in a picturesque park located in the center of the city, close to the Dnieper River bank. The team also has a modern-equipped training base in the Kiev suburb of Koncha-Zaspa. Highly-attended games are held on the 83,160-capacity stadium of the city-owned National Olympic Complex traditionally dubbed "The Republican Stadium".

The club maintains its own football school for children and youths, also situated in Kiev. Junior Dynamo teams are colloquially known as Dynamo-2 and Dynamo-3. Many notable Dynamo Kyiv players progressed through the club's youth system, among them is Andriy Shevchenko, one of the graduates of the school.

Squad

Squad is given according to the club's official website [2], as of August 10, 2006.

Out on loan

* Kahaber Aladashvili (on loan to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk)
* Andriy Bashlay (TBD - not registered for 06-07)
* Denis Glavina (on loan to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk)
* Oleh Herasimyuk (on loan to FC Arsenal Kyiv)
* Anatoly Kitsuta (on loan to FC Kharkiv)
* Denys Onyschenko (on loan to FC Tom' Tomsk)
* Oleksandr Romanchuk (on loan to FC Arsenal Kyiv)
* Andriy Sytnik (on loan to FC Kharkiv)
* Grigoriy Yarmash (on loan to FC Vorskla Poltava)
* Oleksandr Yatsenko (on loan to FC Kharkiv)

2006/2007 transfers

Note: these transfers will not be effective until the opening of the transfer market.

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