Russian Football Club in Moscow Dynamo Moscow

 Logo of Dynamo Moscow

Dynamo Moscow is a Russian football club based in Moscow, currently playing in the Russian Premier League. The team's home ground is Dynamo Stadium. Dynamo's traditional kit colours are blue and white. Their crest is of a blue letter "D", written in a traditional Cyrillic 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 which has always played in the top tiers of the Soviet (for the Soviet era - sharing this achievement jointly with Dynamo Kyiv) and the Russian football competitions never being 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. On 10 April 2009, VTB Bank acquired 74% of the stock in the club. The club was founded in 1923 by Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Dynamo Moscow has its roots in the club Morozovtsi Orekhovo-Zuevo Moskva founded as a factory team in 1887. The team was re-named OKS Moskva in 1906 and won a series of Moscow league championships from 1910 to 1914.

Stadium of Dynamo Moscow

After the Russian revolution of 1917 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 re-named Dinamo Moskva 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.

They continued to be a strong side at home after the war and enjoyed their greatest success through the 50's. Dinamo 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, Dinamo'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 1972 UEFA Cup Winners Cup. They got to the final at the Nou Camp in Barcelona where they lost to Scottish side Rangers 3-2. This was a Russian side's greatest achievement in Europe until CSKA Moscow won the 2005 UEFA Cup. At the end of the 2008 season of the Russian Premier League Dynamo finished the season in 3rd position, therefore gaining access to the 3rd qualification round for non-champions of the 2009/10 edition of the UEFA Champions League. 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, Moscow beat Celtic 1-0 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 Dinamo were eliminated by CSKA Sofia after 0-0 draw in Sofia and 1-2 loss in Moscow.