FK Dynamo Kyiv - last updated on 8 October 2008
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Club name: FK Dynamo Kyiv
(ФК Динамо Київ)
Foundation: 1927
City: Kyiv (Київ)
Colours: White and dark blue
Website: www.fcdynamo.kiev.ua
Honours:
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup - 2 (1975, 1986)
UEFA Super Cup - 1 (1975)
Vyshcha Liha - 12 (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007)
Ukrainian Cup - 9 (1993, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007)
Ukrainian Super Cup - 3 (2004, 2006, 2007)
Soviet League - 13 (1961, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1990)
Soviet Cup - 9 (1954, 1964, 1966, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1990)
Soviet Super Cup - 3 (1980, 1985, 1986)
CIS Cup - 4 (1996, 1997, 1998, 2002)
Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu - 1 (1986)
A bit of history:
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 1950s–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 often the only rival, to the football clubs from Moscow. Its ability to challenge the dominance of the Moscow clubs in Soviet football, 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.
The story is often told of how the Dynamo team, playing as "Start, City of Kiev 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, is considerably more complex. This match has subsequently become known as "The Death Match".
After the Nazi occupation of Ukraine began, the Dynamo 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 Dynamo (Mykola Trusevych, Mikhail Svyridovskiy, Mykola Korotkykh, Oleksiy Klimenko, Fedir Tyutchev, Mikhail Putistin, Ivan Kuzmenko, Makar Honcharenko) and three players from Lokomotiv Kiev (Vladimir Balakin, Vasil Sukharev and Mikhail Melnyk).
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 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 some of the players were arrested by the Gestapo, tortured – Mykola Korotkykh dying under torture – and sent to the nearby labour camp at Siretz. It is also conjectured that the players were arrested due to the intrigues of Georgy Shvetsov, founder and trainer of the "Rukh" team, as the arrests were made in a couple of days after "Start" defeated "Rukh".
In February 1943, following an attack by anti-German partisans or a conflict of the prisoners and administration, one-third of the prisoners at Siretz were killed in reprisal, including Ivan Kuzmenko, Oleksey Klymenko, and the goalkeeper Mykola Trusevich. Three of the other players, Makar Honcharenko, Fedir Tyutchev and Mikhail Sviridovskiy, who were in a work squad in the city that day, were arrested a few days later or, according to other sources, escaped and hid in the city until it was liberated.
The story inspired two films: 1961 Hungarian film drama "Két félidő a pokolban" and 1981 American film Escape to Victory.
In 1995, Dynamo qualified for the UEFA Champions League by defeating Danish-side AaB Aalborg in the qualification round.
A few weeks later, following Dynamo's first group stage match against Panathinaikos, which they won 1-0, Spanish referee Antonio López Nieto filed a complaint to UEFA that he and his linesmen had been approached by two officials from Dynamo and offered two fur coats and an unspecified amount of money. As a result, the club was immediately expelled from the competition, with Aalborg taking its place.
Despite an appeal to the UEFA following the incident, Dynamo Kiev was banned from UEFA competitions for the subsequent two years and club's officials Ihor Surkis (general manager) and Vasyliy Babiychuk (general secretary) were banned from football for life. These decisions were later reversed, with Dynamo resuming play in European competitions the following season and Ihor Surkis continuing his work at the club.
After the Soviet Union's collapse, the club, now using the Ukrainian name FC 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.
Dynamo regained the championship the following year, making it their 12th title out in 16 years. In 1996, the club changed their logo to the one that continues to be used today. Two gold stars were added to the top of the crest, representing ten Ukrainian championship titles and 10 USSR champion titles.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
FK Dynamo Kyiv
