FC Dinamo Minsk or FKDynama Minsk (Belarusian: ФК Дынама Мінск; Russian: ФК Динамо Минск) is a Belarusian professional football club based in the capital city of Minsk.
Dinamo Minsk was founded in 1927 as a part of the Soviet Dinamo Sports Society. They spent some of their history in the lower leagues of the Soviet Union, but in 1940, they were promoted to the Soviet Top League, becoming the first and only Belarusian team to compete in the Soviet top division. They were relegated to the second level in 1952, but returned to the top level the next year. In 1954, they finished in the third place, their best performance in the top flight to date, and were dissolved, being re-founded as Spartak Minsk, only to be renamed as Belarus Minsk in 1959, in honor of the Soviet republic in the national championship. However, in 1962, they returned to the original name of Dinamo Minsk. They were relegated again from the top level in 1955 and in 1957. They played in the top level again in the 1960 season. They were relegated again in 1973 and returned to the top level in the 1975 season. But they relegated immediately in 1976. They returned to the top level after 2 years.
Dinamo Minsk also participated in Belarusian SSR league. Since the mid-50s, their appearances were only sporadic and they were represented by youth teams in later seasons. They have won the championship 7 times.
Belarus
Dinamo Minsk won the inaugural season of the Belarusian Premier League in 1992. They won 5 league titles until 1995, making only one appearance in the UEFA Champions League, in 1993. However, after a title in 1997, Dinamo Minsk last won the championship in 2004. The 2000s saw Dinamo Minsk failing to secure any league title in the battle against BATE Borisov, thus finishing in lower places.
In 2014, Dinamo Minsk beat MYPA, CFR Cluj and Nacional to be drawn in Group K of UEFA Europa League, along with Italian side Fiorentina, French team Guingamp and Greek side PAOK, becoming the second team, after BATE Borisov, to reach group stages of Europa League. Dinamo finished at the bottom with four points, after a draw with Guingamp and a historical 2–1 victory over Fiorentina.
Name history
1927, club founded as Dinamo Minsk as part of Dynamo sports society
1954, renamed to Spartak Minsk being transferred to Spartak volunteer sports society
1959, renamed to Belarus Minsk
1962, renamed to Dinamo Minsk being transferred back to Dynamo sports society
Supporters and Rivalries
The ultras of Dinamo Minsk are famous for their right-wing political orientation and there have been several riots, clashes with the police forces and chants against the Belarusian authoritarian regime, led by long-time President Alexander Lukashenko.
Their political views as well as geographic proximity and contest for dominance of the city make them rivals with neighbours Partizan Minsk, whose fans tend to be strongly left-wing.[1] Dinamo Minsk also has a big rivalry with BATE Borisov from the city of Barysaw.[2]
There has been several teams that served as Dinamo Minsk official reserve or farm clubs.
Dinamo-d Minsk was the club's reserve team which competed in the Soviet Top League (or First League) Reserves championship. In 1992 this reserve team was transformed into Dinamo-2 Minsk, which eventually got promoted to Belarusian Premier League and split into new club Belarus Minsk (later renamed to more commonly known Dinamo-93 Minsk). This club disbanded in 1998.
New Dinamo-2 Minsk was formed 2000. They were active in the Second League during 2000–2002 and again in 2011–2012.
Bereza-2010 was originally an independent club, which since 2010 formed a partnership with Dinamo, serving as their farm club until the dissolution in late 2015.