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Robson Sharuko Senior Sports Editor
THE Old Lady, the pioneer of the global Dynamo family is turning 100, in what will be a landmark year for the franchises whose shared identity has now become part of world football’s DNA.

Ironically, the grand milestone, in three years’ time, will also be marked in the very year Dynamos will turn 60.

From Moscow to Moldova, Georgia to Germany, Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan, Albania to Australia and Bulgaria, the Dynamo football family have been leaving their footprints in the game.

While Dynamo was initially considered a name for East European football clubs, this has changed and this identity has now been adopted even by those in the western world.

The United States have a number of such football franchises, including two-time champions, Houston Dynamo.

In Australia, they have the Melbourne Dynamo and Dynamo Victoria, who are largely amateur clubs.

The franchises are also found in England, Ireland, Wales and a number of African countries, including Benin (Dynamo Abomey), Ghana (Ho Dynamo) and the Seychelles (Northern Dynamo).

In Zimbabwe, it’s a football franchise synonymous with both greatness, and success stories.

In Zambia, it’s a name which represents the breaking of barriers, the coming of age, when a local club finally won a trophy on the continent.

Dynamos came very close, in 1998, but lost to Ivorian giants, ASEC Mimosa, in the Champions League final.

Their Zambian namesake, Power Dynamos, blazed a trail, in 1991, by becoming the first Southern African club, to win a CAF inter-club tournament, by capturing the Cup Winners Cup.

In South Africa, their Dynamos now languish in the lower leagues, while the country’s former national team’s coach, Stuart Baxter, is in charge of Indian top-flight club, Odisha.

Until their name changed, last year, Odisha were known as Dehli Dynamos.

Just like here in Zimbabwe, where Dynamos are the record league championship winners, the other Dynamo franchises have also dominated their landscapes.

Dynamo Kiev won a record 13 titles, back in the days of the Soviet top-flight league, and they have won another record 15 league championships, in the Ukraine top-flight league.

They have also flexed their muscles, in Europe, winning two UEFA Cup Winners’ Cups and one UEFA Super Cup.

The club were honoured as the East European Club of the 20th Century.

Dinamo Bucharest of Romania have 18 league championships, in their trophy cabinet, Dinamo Minsk have seven Belarusian titles and Dinamo Tirana have won the Albanian championship 18 times.

Dynamo Moscow, who won 11 league championships under the Soviet top-flight league banner, and finished as runners-up in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1972, are the Old Lady.

On April 18, 2023, the pioneer club will turn 100.

But, not everyone, of this global football family which the Moscow club influenced, proving them with a shared identity, will be smiling when the Russian side reach their century.

Berliner Fussball Club Dynamo, also known as BFC Dynamo, once used to be such a football powerhouse in the then Eastern Germany.

They won 10 straight league championships from 1979 to 1988.

Today, they are found in the fourth-tier Regionalliga Nordost league.

“It’s a significant fall from grace for BFC Dynamo, ten-time Oberliga champions, three-time East German Cup winners,’’ noted DW News, the global German English-language news and information channel.

“And yet, having lost their official state backing, and survived multiple relegations and insolvencies, it’s a miracle that the club still exists at all.

“East Germany’s top clubs all struggled to adapt to the free-market Bundesliga, after reunification, but BFC Dynamo, having profited most from the state-controlled football of the GDR, suffered the most when that backing disappeared.

“When the (Berlin Wall) fell, star players such as Andreas Thom and Thomas Doll upped sticks and headed westwards while new sponsors coming the other way avoided the detested ‘Stasi (former German secret police) club.’

“As the team plummeted down the leagues, the crowds disappeared. Soon, only a hardcore of a few hundred remained, many drawn from a right-leaning milieu, establishing a reputation which plagues the club to this day.’’

It is claimed that, after another East German side, Dynamo Dresden, had won five league championships in the ‘70s, authorities in that country decided it was time for BFC Dynamo.

“Between 1979 and 1988, the Berlin-based side won 10 titles in a row, often under controversial circumstances,’’ a report by journalist, Luci Kelemi, on thesefootballtimes.com website, claimed, two years ago.

“Apart from the doping, referees were also (forced) into helping out the Stasi-backed side, allowing blatantly offside goals – with one being so egregious that it was purposefully never shown on television – and giving out penalties for nothing.

“The most famous example was in 1986, when a BFC striker fell to the ground in the opponent’s box, for no reason, and he was immediately awarded a spot-kick (leading the radio commentator to shout, ‘this cannot be happening.’

“The event is now known as ‘The Penalty of Shame’ in German football folklore, and it was so extreme that the referee was actually banned in order to quell the public outcry.’’

Opponents hated them so much, they were nicknamed the “11 Pigs,’’ while the club’s ultras have been known to be hooligans, some of their members beat a French policeman into a coma in Lens, during the ’98 World Cup finals.

The BFC Dynamo hooligans are also said to have far right-wing political links.

But, even as the Old Lady staggers towards the 100-year mark, don’t be fooled that the Dynamo global football family now represents the past.

For, they can also point to other positive things, including the establishment of Houston Dynamo, in the Major League Soccer, in December 2005.

Owned by a coalition of businessmen, who include NBA star James Harden and boxing legend, Oscar De La Hoya, Houston Dynamos were MLS champions in 2006 and 2007.

They also became the first American club to snatch a point on Mexican soil in the CONCACAF Champions League.

With a valuation of US$220 million by Forbes, Houston are showing, even as the pioneer Old Lady moves closer to turning into a Centurion, that there will still be a future for the Dynamo football franchises.

And, they are not the only ones.

After all, only last year, FC Dynamos Brest won their first Belarusian Premier League title.