Phillip Buckley

 

 

Ask any football fan, especially one over 20, to name a club from the Ukraine, and the name you will always be greeted with is Dynamo Kyiv. Dynamo stands as a truly great Ukrainian institution that powers over the game in this cold unremitting land like a behemoth. The white shirts, with that diagonal blue line running across them, are, even now, recognisable in Eastern Europe in the same way Real Madrid’s legendary white strip is in the West.

Even as part of the Soviet Union’s national football championship, Kyiv stood their ground amongst the big boys from Moscow and St Petersburg. In a country that was so dominated by the Russian identity at the expense of all others, the Ukrainians achievements are all the more impressive. 13 Soviet titles, a record, which will, baring unlikely political events, never be equalled, stand alongside other such honours as 3 USSR Super Cups and a record 11 Runners Up places.

When Ukraine became independent and set up its own national championship in 1992, Dynamo dominated this too, winning 9 consecutive titles between 1993 and 2001. Yet the landscape in the Ukrainian Vyscha Liga is changing and Dynamo, some would argue, are no longer the dominant force. At the very least they face challenges to their supremacy on several fronts.

Kyiv are still the reigning Ukrainian Champions, yet this year’s race is wide open. The field led by unfashionable Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, with the ‘Eastern Chelsea’ Shakhtar Donestk (so called because billionaire businessman Rinat Akhmetov has transformed them with countless millions lavished on imported players and a soon to be completed 5 star Uefa stadium) lying in 2nd place.

The biggest source of embarrassment for Dynamo though has been their constant inability to even compete at European level. Finishing bottom of their Champions League group without even a single point to their name was even worse than the previous years’ showing. Then, 2 points from 6 games, shipping 16 goals to prop up the table, was considered insulting to such a grand institution, yet compared to this season’s performances, it was at least something.
Whilst it’s true that Dynamo have never won the Champions League, even in recent times they’ve garnered respect. Richer opponents from the West have always known that to play Dynamo was to be in a game and until Liverpool triumphed in the Ukrainian capital in 2001, no English team had ever beaten Dynamo on home soil. The rest of Ukrainian football, whether they hated Kyiv’s domestic monopoly or not, have still seen them as the country’s standard bearers in Europe. In 1995 Dynamo were actually banned from European competition by Uefa when they were found guilty of trying to bribe Spanish referee Lopez Nieto before a Champions League tie against Greek side Panathinaikos. Amazingly however, the ban was lifted but a year later when Uefa decided that the absence of Dynamo from European football was harming the development of the Ukrainian game. That gives an indication of how dominant an institution Dynamo were.

A recent golden period even by their own high standards for the men from Kyiv came in 1999, when a side boasting the likes of the homegrown Shevchenko, Rebrov and Luzhny reached the last 4 of the Champions League. On that occasion Kyiv won their group with ease and met Real Madrid in the quarter finals, who they dispatched 3-1 on aggregate. In truth, it should have been Dynamo who met Manchester United in that epic Barcelona final and not Bayern Munich. There really was no excuse for allowing the Germans to score three times in Kyiv, as the game ended 3-3. A single goal from Munich in the return meant the Ukrainians’ European season was over. But now, runs like that are just a memory.

Dynamo are now in the hands of another Ukrainian oligarch, Igor Surkis, not having the wealth of Shakhtar’s Rinat Akhmetov, but able to fund Dynamo with a $30M budget for the past several years at a large personal loss. Surkis has seen Dynamo try to match Shakhtar in the recruitment stakes, bringing in Brazilian and Latin American talent, who time and time haven’t lived up to expectation. Unsurprisingly, the President isn’t happy, “I am sick and tired of spending money, and then more money, and not getting results” bemoaned Surkis earlier this month.

Coaches have come and gone at Kyiv and not since the days of the legendary Valeri Lobanovskyi who managed the club for 20 years in 2 spells from 1974 to his death in 2002, has the club had real faith in the occupant of the dugout. Those who have tried to emulate the great man have all failed. Surkis has understood quicker than most owners that changing coaches doesn’t solve anything. And his answer? No one at the club is safe, “We need to move beyond Lobanovskyi (and) things are going to change, this time there will be no sacred cows”.

It’s perhaps surprising then that the new man on the Dynamo bench for the second half of this season is in fact an old man. The 60 year old Yuri Semin, a Russian who numbers Dynamo and Lokomotiv Moscow amongst his former clubs has been promised time by Surkis. An internal revolution is also taking place, the President having brought in AC Milan’s former chief Eastern European scout Rezo Chokhonelidze as General Manager and Italian Vincenzo Pincolini as Sporting Director.

Certainly Surkis is breaking with tradition as Dynamo have never previously had foreign coaches or directors on their payroll. Also, in typical tycoon fashion, he has personally transfer listed a number of players and told others their contracts will not be renewed.

Dynamo Kyiv has always been a huge institution, rooted in tradition, every internal facet managed by staff who would dedicate their lives to the club. Surkis would do well to remember this before ripping up the whole organisation. The President understands that change will not be popular: “Some of my employees may not like the changes that will be coming, but they are coming”.

Casting away such experience has been proven time and time again to be the wrong move, ask Graeme Souness about his spell at Anfield. Surely also, the President should be letting the coach coach and decide which players stay and go.

Dynamo have increasingly looked to foreign players in a bid to restore them to their former glories, but here a further problem arises. Yes, they can afford foreign players that can keep them in at least the top two places in Ukraine’s top division, but these players at the same time are not good enough to dazzle the best clubs in Europe in the Champions League.

Question marks also remain over their suitability for Ukrainian football and their commitment to the cause. Many South Americans arrive in Kyiv because that is the best move to Europe they could get. They would certainly end up in Spain or Italy if courted by clubs from those countries. The squad currently has 4 Brazilians and not one of them has even a solitary international cap, quite something when we know the shady practice of capping players in meaningless friendlies to raise their value that goes on in Brazil. Africans too have been recruited from mid-table sides in the French Ligue 1. Are these the type of players to take Dynamo back to the top?

Unsurprisingly, many of these players have yet to convince the supporters of their commitment to the cause. Playing in the bitter cold of Ukraine can be difficult for Eastern Europeans. For South Americans and Africans to whom gloves are something of a novelty, it can be decidedly off putting. Whilst it would be unfair to label all such foreign players in this way, many do speak of relief when they finally complete moves to warmer and western climes.

The current changes in personnel represent a last throw of the dice for Surkis, the billionaire even stating “It is better to practice in the Uefa Cup than to be humiliated in the Champions League again”. If Igor Surkis isn’t careful, then humiliation may well await them in Europe’s 2nd tier competition too.

In a world where traditions and trusted methods are so often trampled over, it’s sad to see that great Eastern European giant Dynamo Kyiv lose its way. Perhaps they must move with the times and revolution is what’s needed. But I can’t help think that they don’t have the money to do things the Western way and back to basics is what this grand old club needs.

The next generation of Shevchenkos and Rebrovs need to be nurtured and if Surkis doesn’t mind the Uefa Cup for a few seasons there really is no reason why it cannot be done. Let Shakhtar have their expensive imports, Dynamo should and can be the heartbeat of Eastern European football once again.