FC Dynamo Moscow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 09/2014
Full name:
Football Club Dynamo Moscow
Nicknames:
Belo-golubye (White-blues)
Dinamiki (Louders)
Musora (Cops)
Great and Mighty
Founded:
18 April 1923
Ground:
Arena Khimki
Capacity:
18,636
Owner:
VTB Bank
Chairman:
Boris Rotenberg Sr.
Manager:
Stanislav Cherchesov
League:
Russian Premier League
2013-14:
4th
Dynamo Moscow is a Russian football club based in Moscow, currently playing in the Russian Premier League.
Dynamo's traditional kit colours are blue and white.
Their crest is of a blue letter "D", written in a traditional cursive style, on a white background with the name of their home town "Moscow" written in front of a football underneath.
Club's motto "Power in Motion" had been proposed by Maxim Gorky, the famous Russian/Soviet author who once was an active member of the Dynamo sports society.
Dynamo Moscow is the oldest Russian football club and the only one that has always played in the top tier of the Soviet (for the Soviet era - sharing this achievement jointly with Dynamo Kyiv) and the Russian football competitions, having never been relegated to the lower divisions. Despite this, it has never won today's Russian Premier League title.
During the Soviet era it was affiliated with the MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs - The Soviet Militia) & the KGB and was a part of Dynamo sports society.
Chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus (NKVD) Lavrentiy Beria was a patron of the club until his downfall.
On 10 April 2009, VTB Bank acquired 74% of the stock in the club.
Boris Rotenberg Sr. was appointed as a chairman, while he was listed by Forbes magazine (Russian edition) as the 100th wealthiest person in Russia in 2010, with a net worth of US $700m.
As for 2014 he is on 27th place of the list with a net worth of US $4bln.
He has been a friend of the Russian president Vladimir Putin since the 1960s, when they took judo lessons together.
Boris Rotenberg Sr. was put into sanctions list from the US and EU sides as the result of Russian military intervention in Ukraine.
The son of chairman Boris Rotenberg Jr. plays for Dynamo since 2011, previously playing for Zenit St. Petersburg - the club under the patronage of Alexey Miller who is another acquaintance of Vladimir Putin during the time of his duty at Saint Petersburg Mayor's Office.
HISTORY
Dynamo Moscow has its roots in the club Morozovtsi Orekhovo-Zuevo Moskva founded as a factory team in 1887. The team was renamed OKS Moskva in 1906 and won a series of Moscow league championships from 1910 to 1914.
After the Russian Revolution, the club eventually found itself under the authority of the Interior Ministry and its head Felix Dzerzhinsky, chief of the Soviet Union's first secret police force, the notorious Cheka.
The club was renamed Dynamo Moscow in 1923 and developed some infamy for its intimidating association with the Interior Ministry, often being referred to as Garbage, a Russian criminal slang term for police, by the supporters of other clubs.
Dynamo won the first two Soviet Championships in 1936 and 1937, a Soviet Cup in 1937, and another pair of national titles in 1940 and 1945.
They were also the first Soviet club to tour the West and put on an impressive display during a goodwill visit to the United Kingdom in 1945.
Complete unknowns, the Soviet players delivered a surprising performance, they drew 3:3 against Chelsea, before beating Cardiff City 10:1.
They also defeated an Arsenal side reinforced by the presence of Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen and Joe Bacuzzi by a score of 4:3, in a match played in thick fog at White Hart Lane, before a 2:2 draw against Rangers.
They continued to be a strong side (debatable) at home after the war, and enjoyed their greatest success through the 1950s.
Dynamo captured another five championships between 1949 and 1959, as well as their second Soviet Cup in 1953.
Honours were harder to come by after that time.
The club continued to enjoy some success in the Soviet Cup, but has not won a national championship since 1976.
Even so, Dynamo's 11 national titles make it the country's third most decorated side behind Dynamo Kiev (13 titles) and Spartak Moscow (12 titles).
Dynamo's greatest achievement in Europe to this day was in the 1971-72 European Cup Winners' Cup, where they reached the final at Camp Nou in Barcelona, losing 3:2 to Scottish side Rangers.
This was the first time a Russian side had reached a final in a European competition, until CSKA Moscow won the UEFA Cup in 2005.
At the end of the 2008 season, Dynamo finished third, and qualified for the 2009-10 Champions League preliminary round.
This was the first time that the club had taken part in the competition, since its re-branding from the European Cup in 1992.
On 29 July 2009, Dynamo Moscow recorded an 1:0 away win against Celtic at Celtic Park, which gave them a strong advantage going into the second leg.
However, Celtic comfortably defeated Dynamo 2:0 in Moscow to progress, and send them crashing into the Europa League play-off round, where Dynamo were eliminated by Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia after a 0:0 away draw in Sofia, and a 1:2 home defeat in Moscow.
RIVALRIES
Dynamo's historical rival is Spartak Moscow.
Originated in the late 30's, it was the most important game in the Soviet Union for more than three decades, attracting thousands of fans to every game.
Ironically on New Year's Day 1936, a combined Dynamo-Spartak team traveled to Paris to face Racing Club de France, then one of Europe's top teams.
Shortly after Dynamo clinched the first ever Soviet League by beating Spartak 1:0 in Kharkov, in front of 60.000 spectators.
Spartak responded by winning the next championship thus starting one of the biggest sporting and political rivalries in world football.
Following Dynamo's decline in the late 70's the heated rivalry has faded.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union CSKA Moscow has emerged as Spartak's nemesis.
Other rivalries are with Zenit St.Petersburg and Lokomotiv Moscow.
STADIUM
Their ground used to be the historic Dynamo Stadium in Petrovsky Park, which seats 36,540. In 2008, it was closed for demolition.
It is to be replaced by VTB Arena in 2016, which will have a capacity of 33,000 (adjustable up to 45,000).
In the meantime, Dynamo have been sharing Arena Khimki with rivals PFC CSKA Moscow since 2010, as they too are awaiting the completion of their own new stadium.
SEASONS 2012-2013 and 2013-2014
In 2012 after the bad start Dynamo Moscow suffered, losing 5 first league games, they sacked their managing team and signed the Romanian manager Dan Petrescu.
He managed to pull Dinamo Moscow out of the relegation spot to a place in the upper part of the table.
For some time, team even made into position to grant European competition next season, but failure to win in the last matchday left them 7th with 2 points less than last Europa League place.
On 8 April 2014, though, contract was terminated by mutual agreement after heavy loss to League outsiders FC Anzhi Makhachkala 0:4.
As Dynamo Moscow director of sports Guram Adzhoyev stated, "last year Dan drew the team from the complicated situation, lifted it to the certain level, but recently we have seen no progress".