FC Dynamo Kyiv

Did You Know?

• Oleksandr Shovkovskyi holds Dynamo's official appearance record with 637 appearances over 17 seasons from 1993 to 2016.
• The three stars on the club's crest each signify 10 top-flight seasons Dynamo Kyiv won.
• German journalists from Der Spiegel published a book titled Football Leaks – 2, with a part describing Ihor and Hryhorii Surkis's activities and their relation to the 'Newport' offshore company that finances FC Dynamo.

History

FC Dynamo Kyiv traces its origins to the first squad of the Kyiv branch of the all-Union Dynamo sports society, along with its republican branch in the Ukrainian SSR, which was originally based in Kharkiv. This all-Union society functioned as the sports department of the Soviet state security apparatus, initially the Cheka-OGPU and later the KGB. During the Soviet era, Dynamo players, like those of all Dynamo clubs across the USSR, were officially uniformed servicemembers who received military rank, salary, and pension benefits for playing on the team of masters.

The Kyivan Proletarian Sport Society Dynamo had its statute officially registered on 13 May 1927 by a special commission handling public organizations and unions in the Kyiv district. The all-Union Dynamo society in Moscow had been formed earlier, in 1923, on the initiative of Felix Dzerzhinsky. The first Ukrainian branch cell of the Dynamo society appeared in Kharkiv a year later. The Kyiv Dynamo banner brought together members of the local GPU, the Soviet secret police, along with the best footballers who had previously represented the Trade Union club Sovtorgsluzhashchie, a portmanteau for Soviet retail servicemen. This followed a common early Soviet practice of forming sports societies from pre-revolutionary clubs that had existed before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

The Dynamo leadership chose not to reorganize the established club, which was a main title contender, in the middle of a playing season. As a result, the first mention of the football club Dynamo appeared on 5 April 1928 in the Russian-language newspaper Vecherniy Kiev. At that time, Semyon Zapadny, the chief of the Kyiv GPU, initiated the creation of the football team. His deputy, Sergei Barminsky, began assembling the squad not only from regular chekists, members of the secret police, but also from footballers of other city clubs, including the team Sovtorgsluzhashchie. All these players were either part of the consolidated city team or had been city champions. The newly formed team played its first official match on 1 July 1928, facing a local consolidated city team during a visit to Bila Tserkva. Dynamo scored in the fifth minute, but ultimately lost the game 1–2. On 15 July, the Bila Tserkva newspaper Radyanska Nyva reported on the match.

Honours

Dynamo Kyiv has participated in all of the USSR and Ukrainian championships to date, and has won both competitions more times than any other team. The club's best performances were in the 1970s and 1980s, a time in which the Soviet Union national football team was composed mostly of players from the club. Dynamo Kyiv tied the national record for winning three consecutive Soviet Premier League titles in 1966, 1967, and 1968. Dynamo Kyiv won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1975 and 1986 as well as the European Super Cup in 1975, after two games against Bayern Munich. In 1977, 1987, and 1999, the club reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. These victories are associated with the name of Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who played for the club in the 1960s and later became the club's long-term head coach. In 2009 the club reached the semi-final of the UEFA Cup. Dynamo striker Oleh Blokhin is the Soviet Premier League's all-time top scorer with 211 goals, and has also made more appearances than any other player in the championship's history with 432. Dynamo Kyiv is also one of the base clubs of the Soviet Union national football team and many players of the club represented the Soviet Union at international level. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Dynamo became the base club of the Ukraine national football team. Dynamo striker Oleh Blokhin is the Soviet Union national team all-time top scorer with 42 goals, and has also made more appearances than any other player for the team with 112. Two other Dynamo strikers – Oleh Protasov and Viktor Kolotov – are among the Soviet Union national football team top five best scorers with 29 and 22 goals respectively. Two other Dynamo players – Anatoliy Demyanenko and Volodymyr Bezsonov – are among the Soviet Union national football team top five players with most appearances 80 and 79 respectively. Four former Dynamo players were appointed as head coach of the Soviet Union national team, among which Valeriy Lobanovsky, Oleh Bazylevych, Vladimir Salkov and Anatoliy Byshovets. All head coaches of the Ukraine national team but two were at some time former players of Dynamo Kyiv. The club has won 17 Ukrainian Premier League titles (record), 13 Soviet top-flight league titles, 14 Ukrainian national cup competitions, and 9 Soviet national cup competitions.

Grounds

Dynamo Kyiv calls the Valeriy Lobanovskyi Dynamo Stadium home, a ground tucked inside a central city park near the Dnieper River. It has been the club’s base since 1934 and now seats 16,873. Originally built for 23,000, the stadium was destroyed in 1941 during World War II and rebuilt in 1954. By the late 1990s, it was renovated into an all-seater football venue, which cut capacity to its current size. The stadium was renamed in 2002 after Valeriy Lobanovskyi, a legendary player and coach for the club who died suddenly that year. When the larger Olympiyskiy closed for renovations in 2008, Dynamo started hosting its European matches at Lobanovskyi Stadium.

For most of its European history, though, the team played its big continental home games at Kyiv’s largest venue, the Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex, once called the Republican Stadium. That arena held 83,450 fans and served as the site for the Ukrainian Cup final from its first edition in 1992 through 2007. It shut down for a major overhaul in 2008 after Ukraine and Poland won the bid for UEFA Euro 2012. After the rebuild, Olympiyskiy became Kyiv’s main stadium, hosted the tournament final, and earned a UEFA Elite rating.

The club also runs a modern training base in the Kyiv suburb of Koncha-Zaspa. Its own youth academy, located in the city, feeds the system. The junior sides are known as Dynamo-2 and Dynamo-3, while the reserves team, called the “double” in both Ukrainian and Russian, plays in the national reserves competition alongside the doubles of all 16 top-league clubs. Many famous Dynamo players came up through this youth school, including Andriy Shevchenko.

Supporters and rivalries

The Dynamo fan movement is among the oldest in Ukraine, with organized support emerging in the 1980s while the country was part of the Soviet Union. During this period, the first graffiti featuring the team’s emblem appeared, and one of the largest brawls in the USSR took place in central Kyiv between Dynamo supporters and fans of Spartak Moscow. By the 1990s, English-style terrace culture had become popular in the stands. Over time, Dynamo’s ultras have regularly engaged in patriotic actions tied to Ukrainian nationalism and held strong anti-communist views. During Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency, relations with the government soured due to fan persecution and other political issues. The most widely known protest was the “Freedom Pavlichenko” campaign, which supported the imprisoned father and son Pavlichenko. The ultras also participate in Ukraine’s Independence Day and Heroes Day events. In their banner designs, Dynamo fans frequently use the image of Sviatoslav the Brave, and their printed magazine, Svyatoslav, is named after the same Kyiv prince.

The Ukrainian derby between Dynamo and Shakhtar Donetsk is widely regarded as the country’s most famous rivalry, known for its intense atmosphere. Another notable matchup is the Kyiv Derby against FC Arsenal Kyiv. This rivalry is heavily shaped by political differences: Arsenal fans are linked to anti-fascist and left-wing politics, while Dynamo supporters are known for strong nationalist and anti-communist stances. Dynamo maintains friendly ties with the fanbases of Karpaty Lviv, Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (known as “Braty po zbroyi” or “Band of Brothers”), Hutnik Kraków, Zalgiris Vilnius, GNK Dinamo Zagreb, Dinamo Tbilisi, and Stade Rennais F.C. On the other hand, the club has strained relations with Shakhtar Donetsk, Chornomorets Odesa, Metalist Kharkiv, Spartak Moscow, and Legia Warsaw. However, after the outbreak of war in Eastern Ukraine, all rival ultras groups agreed to a truce.