FC Dynamo Kyiv

Football Club Dynamo Kyiv, also known as Dynamo Kyiv, Dynamo Kiev, or simply Dynamo, (Ukrainian: Футбольний клуб «Динамо» Київ, romanized: Futbolnyy klub «Dynamo» Kyiv, [dɪˈnɑmo ˈkɪjiu̯]) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was officially formed only in 1989 and currently plays in the Ukrainian Premier League. The club has secured brand rights from the Ukrainian Dynamo society and has no direct relations with the sports society since 1989. The Ukrainian Dynamo society remains a minority shareholder of the company that owns the club. Their home is the 70,050-seat Olimpiyskiy National Sports Complex. Since 1936, Dynamo Kyiv has spent its entire history in the top league of Soviet and later Ukrainian football, having never been relegated to a lower division. During the Soviet era, the club was one of the main rivals, and often the only rival, to 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, making Dynamo a professional team of international importance. The club's most successful periods are associated with Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who coached the team during three stints, leading them to numerous domestic and European titles. In 1961, the club became first-ever in the history of Soviet football that managed to overcome the total hegemony of Moscow-based clubs in the Soviet Top League. The Spartak Moscow–Dynamo Kyiv rivalry that began in the mid-1970s, is widely considered to have been one of the most exciting football rivalries in the Soviet Union....