The National stadium of Ukraine is one of the biggest in Europe today, and when the country formed part of the Soviet empire, was the flagship of the country, and was even considered as the venue for the 1980 Summer Olympics before a decision was made to build the Luzhniki in Moscow.
The stadium was over 10 years in the planning, and even when opened in 1923, was not really used and in fact was completely rebuilt just 15 years after opening. In 1936 the stadium re-opened as the 50,000 capacity Red Stadium. Unfortunately the re-opening co-incided to the day of the German invasion of the city, and so the re-opening was postponed until 1948 – although the city’s council agreed to honour the tickets purchased some 7 years before!
In the 1960’s the stadium was expanded to accommodate over 100,000 – although facilities were very basic – simple wooden benches and no roof were the order of the day and renamed as the Kiev Central Stadium. More work was carried out in the late 1970’s in readiness for the 1980 Olympics, which saw the stadium host a number of the football matches.
Apart from a lick of paint, nothing really changed with the stadium during the period before and after the 1991 Ukrainian declaration of independence. In 1996 the stadium was renamed the Olimpiysky (The Olympic), although it has been also refered to as the Tsentralny (Central), Respublykanskyi (Republic) or even the Lobanovsky after Dynamo’s great manager.
A final redevelopment was completed in 1999 where the capacity was reduced to 83,450. The stadium today is a vast bowl – similar to stadiums in St Petersburg and even pre-Olympics in Athens. A running track does mean that you are quite a way from the action, but still views are good. The lack of a roof does leads to some wet and chilly nights, but if Ukraine and Poland are given the opportunity to host Euro2012 when the final decision is made in June 2007 then the much awaited roof will be added. On the rare occasion that the stadium has been full in the last 20 years the atmosphere is one of the best in eastern Europe.
Who plays there? The Olimpiyskiy is used for all Ukrainian national home matches, as well as high profile games features Dynamo Kiev. Dynamo’s home stadium, the Lobanovsky Dynamo is located around a 10 minute walk away from the stadium.
In the last decade the stadium has hosted some big European nights for Dynamo, none more so that the Shevchenko/Rebrov inspired run to the Champions League semi-final in 1999 when the team beat the likes of Panathinaikos, Arsenal and Real Madrid at home before losing 4-3 on aggregate to Bayern Munich in the last sell out at the stadium.
The history of Dynamo Kiev is remarkable as they rose from formation as an amateur team in 1927 to arguably the greatest Soviet team ever. Despite being part of the Soviet Police social society, the club never had the same level of paranoia about it as other such teams in Berlin and Moscow. In fact it wasn’t until just before the Second World War that the club began to rise in stature. During 1942, the team had earnt a reputation as the strongest in Russia, and so when the Nazi’s invaded, in a move to crush local moral, a series of match esagainst the famished and weakened team were arranged against the Nazi’s. Kiev beat allcomers, including the Luftwaffe team which resulted in many of the team being imprisoned in hard labour camps.
After the war the club continued to impress within the Soviet amateur leagues. When the newly formed Professional leagues started in the 1960’s, Kiev soon started making an impression. They won their first Soviet title in 1961, before capturing a hatrick of titles between 1966 and 1968. In total under the Soviet banner the club won 13 Championships, 9 Cups and 3 Super Cups. The club also became the first Soviet team to win a European trophy when they captured the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1975, repeating the feat in 1986.
When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991 Kiev became the strongest team within Ukraine. With little or no opposition in the newly formed Ukrainian league, Kiev won every title between 1993 and 2001. They subsequently won it again in 2003 and 2004 before having to be content to play second fiddle to Shatkar Donestk in 2005 and 2006.
Under inspirational coach Valery Lobanovsky who originally joined the club in 1973, a number of young stars were developed before moving on to prominence abroad. Not only was there Andry Shevchenko and Sergei Rebrov, but some of the stars of the early 1980’s including current national team coach Oleg Blokhin, Andrei Kanchelskis, Oleg Salenko and Oleg Mikhalichenko.
How to get there The Stadium has its own metro stop, called Respublikanski which is just two stops south on the blue metro line from Khreschatk. You can also get to the stadium within a ten minute walk of the metro stop on the green line at Palats Sportu.
Getting a ticket With Dynamo’s failure to make it into the Champions League in recent years, the number of games played at the stadium have been restricted to the national team’s, although these have also been played away from the capital in recent years. The recent games against Georgia and Scotland have sparked some interest when over 50,000 were in the stadium for both games.
Tickets for most games go on sale from the stadium concourse around a week before the game. They are also sold from a small kiosk close to the entrance of Palats Sportu metro station.
