| Full name | Football Club Dinamo Sokhumi | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Dinamo Sokhumi | ||
| Founded | 1927 | ||
| Ground | Avaza stadium,Tbilisi | ||
| Capacity | 500 | ||
| Manager | Vasil Cheishvili | ||
FC Dinamo Sokhumi (Georgian:სკ სოხუმის დინამო) is a Georgianassociation football club fromSokhumi, Georgia, temporarily based inTbilisi.
The most successful club ofAbkhazian ASSR currently competes inRegionuli Liga, the fifth tier of Georgian championship.
Founded in 1925, Dinamo Sokhumi took part in the Soviet football league system since 1936. The club long played in theSoviet Second League and brought up several well-known Soviet football players. Among them wereNikita Simonyan,Valter Sanaya,Daur Akhvlediani,Avtandil Gogoberidze,Akhrik Tsveiba,Gennadi Bondaruk,Georgy Grammatikopulo,Temur Ketsbaia andRuslan Ajinjal who all started their professional career at Dinamo Sokhumi or spent significant amount of time at the club.
In 1960s Dinamo spent several seasons in Class B of the Soviet third division. From 1971 to 1990, apart from three seasons (1974–76), they competed in different zones of theSoviet Second league. Inthe Soviet Cup competition Dinamo achieved their biggest success in 1987 when they reached 1/8 finals, having eliminatedSpartak Ordzhonikidze from theFirst league andDinamo Minsk,the Supreme League club.[1]
In1989 the club clinched the title, won a subsequent play-off tournament and for the first time in their history got promoted to theFirst League.[2]
Overall results achieved by Dinamo Sokhumi in II league are the following:
| M | W | D | L | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 848 | 349 | 199 | 300 | 1179–1002 |
Meanwhile, in early 1990,Georgian Football Federation established newUmaglesi Liga. An absolute majority of Georgian football clubs, includingDinamo Tbilisi andTorpedo Kutaisi, withdrew from the Soviet league. In contrast, Dinamo Sokhumi chose to remain in the Soviet football system where they played in theFirst League two more seasons up until 1991. This political issue divided Dinamo Sokhumi. While ten players decided to remain in the club, most players and members of the staff opted for participation in the Georgian top league. For this purpose they formed new clubFC Tskhumi Sokhumi.[3]
With the formal collapse ofUSSR in the dying days of 1991 all Soviet leagues were abolished. As a result, there was no tournament left where Dinamo could participate in 1992. In August thewar in Abkhazia, Georgia, broke out and all Abkhazian football clubs were temporarily dissolved.
In early 2000s the club resumed functioning in Tbilisi, formed byIDP fromAbkhazia, asDinamo Sokhumi. The club played in the 2005-06 season in thetop division of the Georgian championship.[4][5] For a short time around 2006 it was also known asASMC Sokhumi. Due to financial problems the club was gradually relegated to lowerRegionuli Liga.
Since 2013 Dinamo has been competing again in theRegionuli Liga.
| Season | League | Pos. | Pl. | W | D | L | GF | GA | P | Cup | Notes | Manager |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 3 | 12 | 38 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 55 | 42 | 43 | 1/8 | ||
| 1989 | 3 | 1 | 42 | 29 | 7 | 6 | 92 | 35 | 65 | 1/64 | play-off won, promoted | |
| 1990 | 2 | 12 | 38 | 14 | 8 | 16 | 36 | 41 | 36 | 1/64 | ||
| 1991 | 2 | 10 | 42 | 16 | 11 | 15 | 50 | 50 | 43 | 1/64 | ||
| 2000–01 | Regionuli Liga West | |||||||||||
| 2001–02 | Regionuli Liga West | |||||||||||
| 2002–03 | Regionuli Liga West | |||||||||||
| 2003–04 | Regionuli Liga East | |||||||||||
| 2004–05 | Regionuli Liga East | |||||||||||
| 2005–06 | Umaglesi Liga | 15 | 30 | 5 | 3 | 22 | 26 | 70 | 18 | Round of 16 | ||
| 2006–07 | Regionuli Liga East | |||||||||||
Dinamo Sokhumi also has junior and women's teams.[6] The latter currently taking part in division 1 of Georgian women's league secured the bronze medals in the 2022 season.[7] Their reserve team is represented in the second tier.[8]
In late December 2020 head coach Davit Tavartkiladze and team captain Tamar Akhlobadze were awarded a special governmental prize for their contribution to the development of Abkhazian football. Dinamo Sokhumi is the first club in theSouth Caucasus to have formed a football academy for women.[9]
Dinamo's traditional kit colors were blue and white. Their crest was of a blue letter "D", written in a traditionalcursive style, on a white background with the name of their home town "Sokhumi" written in front of a football underneath.
