"Not Dynamo": who was the first football champion of Kyiv

Kyiv is considered the capital of Ukrainian football. The people of Kyiv were introduced to the soccer ball in the spring of 1900. On the initiative of Vaclav Kaszpar, a Czech engineer at the Hreter and Kryvanek plant (the future Bolshevik), a demonstration football match was held at the Syretsky Hippodrome, which gathered several hundred spectators. Later, Kashpar and his compatriot Volodymyr Kozhukh organized the Pivden football team at the Sokil sports club. In addition to the factory workers, Kyiv gymnasium students also played on the team.

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The first champion of Kyiv is Polytechnic

Kyiv residents loved football, especially students. In 1906, professors of the Polytechnic Institute Mykola Tananaev, Mykola Delone, and Volodymyr Plotnikov created the Polytechnic team. This team became the locomotive of football in Kyiv, and the students had their own field of almost standard size.

In 1911, 15 teams formed the Kyiv Football League. The first match took place on October 11, with teams from the Imperial Alexander and Fourth Gymnasiums playing. As expected, Polytechnic became the first champion of Kyiv.

In 1923, the Kyiv League consisted of 900 players. The participants of the city championship had to be divided into five groups. The strongest was the team of railroad workers, Zhelldor (later Lokomotiv).

Dynamo's star rose

Kyiv received its visiting team on May 13, 1927. The star of Dynamo, the team that will celebrate its glorious centenary on May 13, 2027, was born.

I won't list all the successes of the club, which participated in all 54 championships of the former USSR. You know them well enough: "Dynamo is a 13-time champion (a record), 11-time silver medalist, and three-time bronze medalist. In the fall of 1961, the Kyiv team was the first to break the 25-year hegemony of Moscow teams in the championships of the vast country. Dynamo are also nine-time winners of the USSR Cup and three-time winners of the Season Cup. The Kyiv-based club has won the Ukrainian championship 16 times, the National Cup 13 times, and the National Super Cup 9 times. The capital's team has three European Cups in its collection - two Cups in 1975 and 1986, as well as the 1975 UEFA Super Cup. There are also many trophies won at representative international tournaments in Spain, the USA, Italy, and Hungary.

The club from the banks of the Dnipro River has always had great players. Oleh Blokhin (1975), Ihor Belanov (1986), Andriy Shevchenko (2004) won the Golden Ball, Volodymyr Muntyan and Oleh Blokhin were seven-time USSR champions, Viktor Bannikov, Yevhen Rudakov (three times) and Viktor Chanov were named the best goalkeepers in the country. Oleksandr Shovkovskyi played 636 matches in official tournaments for Dynamo in 26 Ukrainian championships. The designer of many of Dynamo's victories in the domestic and international arenas was the outstanding coach Valeriy Lobanovsky, the Hero of Ukraine, winner of the UEFA Ruby Order of Merit, one of the top 5 coaches in Europe and one of the top 10 best coaches in the history of football.

Football life does not stop

Football Kyiv is not just about Dynamo. It includes the once popular CSKA and Arsenal clubs, Obolon and Levy Bereg, and teams from physical education clubs that have won Ukrainian amateur championships.

Despite the difficult times provoked by the damnable war with Russia, football life in Kyiv is not dying down, even if it is not as active as it used to be. The capital's championships are held among teams of physical education groups, amateur clubs, championships in different age categories, football schools operate, tournaments in memory of famous players such as Oleg Makarov and Viktor Chanov, and competitions among young players for the prizes of Vladimir Muntyan, Alexander Shovkovsky, and Andrey Biba have been held and will undoubtedly be held in the future.

The capital of Ukraine has excellent stadiums where football matches are held. I have visited Wembley in London, Parc des Princes in Paris, Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid, and Olimpico in Rome. And, in my opinion, our 70,000-seat NSC Olimpiyskiy is on par with these top European arenas. "The Olimpiyskiy hosted matches of the 1980 Olympics, Euro 2012, games of the Ukrainian national team, European Cups, and the national championship. In the center of Kyiv, there is a cozy stadium named after Valeriy Lobanovsky, which is surrounded by greenery. There are also Obolon, Left Bank, and Viktor Bannikov stadiums, and other Kyiv stadiums host city championship matches and various tournaments.

Not only players, but also referees

In 2011, the city football federation celebrated its centenary. Kyiv has always been famous not only for its good football players, but also for its professional referees: Oleg Raevsky, Nikolay Balakin, Leonid Aranovsky, Alexander Mugurdumov, Nikolay Kirsanov, Vladimir Greenberg, Konstantin Vikhrov, Boris Shmigelsky, Sergey Tatulyan, Sergey Dzyuba, Igor Yarmenchuk, Sergey Shebek, Anatoly Aranovsky, Alexander Shevchenko, Alexander Shamich, and Oleg Orekhov. Today, Kyiv referees Klym Zabroda and Volodymyr Novokhatnyi officiate matches of the top Ukrainian division. The Football Federation of the capital of Ukraine is headed by Igor Kochetov, who has been doing a lot to develop and popularize the most popular game in the world, which has been so loved in his hometown for more than a century.