History of FC Baku

FC Baku has one of the longest and most successful histories in Azerbaijan football.].

History

As a part of Dinamo society

Although in the official club documents and club's official badge a foundation year is listed as 1997, in fact, FC Baku was founded 61 year before as a part of Soviet Dinamo Sport Clubs System. The "Dinamo" society was officially created on April 18, 1923 on Felix Dzerzhinsky's initiative and under the sponsorship of the State Political Directorate (GPU), the Soviet political police, the predecessor of other later created Soviet security structures such as KGB, NKVD and MVD. The name of the society also became well-known internationally through many clubs in various sports, initially created under the auspecies of the Soviet Dynamo society or just bore the name "Dynamo", with many such clubs attaining much international acclaim, such as Dinamo Baku, FC Dinamo Bucureşti, FC Dynamo Kyiv, FC Dynamo Moscow, FC Dinamo Tbilisi, FC Dinamo Minsk, FC Dinamo Brest and so on. Many clubs, as FC Baku, now transformed into the regular private clubs of their respective national leagues, still function under their original Dinamo or Dynamo name but their history is the only connection with the old Dynamo society.

Soviet era

During 30 years (1936-1966) the team appeared 5 times at Soviet First League and 9 times at Soviet Cup without any success. In 1944, Dinamo Baku reached the quarter-final stage of Soviet Cup, but was beaten by Zenit Leningrad 1:0. The latest game to be held by Dinamo Baku, was a 1/16 finals match in 1965 against Dinamo Kirovabad at 1965–66 Soviet Cup (1:3). Since then, Dinamo Baku has been dissolved and was re-established in 1997 under the name of Dinamo, as an unification between FC Polis Akademiyasi and Qartal-95, both clubs from Baku.

Dinamo and Dinamo Bakılı period

The first season became magnificent for the team. Led by Shamil Heydarov, Dinamo finished 2nd and entered UEFA Cup 1998-99 season but was eliminated by FC Argeş Piteşti, 1:7 on aggregate, in Preliminary round. Azerbaijan Premier League 1997-98 season Dinamo participated with new head coach. Under the manage of Ruslan Abdullayev, the team passed the first part of tournament distance well, although 3rd place and 52 points were not enough for medals or European cups, and Dinamo completed the season at 6th place. Two following season Dinamo also finished 6th, but since 2000, the team was managed by Ruslan Abdullayev's son Elkhan Abdullayev, and was renamed into Dinamo Bakılı. In Azerbaijan Premier League 2001-02 season, after a disastrous performance, Dinamo Bakılı relegated to Azerbaijan First Division, but due to conflict between clubs and the AFFA next championship was held just two years later, in which the team participated under the name of Dinamo, last time in its history.

First title

In 2004, club renamed to the FC Baku, after changes by the new chairman.

New management began from stuff changes. Elkhan Abdullayev was replaced by Asgar Abdullayev immediately after the first defeat on second week. Azerbaijan national football team former manager was able to establish the team playing style. FC Baku gained some important victories over the opponents and was helding a pole position until February 2005. At the end of the season Asgar Abdullayev concentrated on Azerbaijan Cup, where his team reached the Final game.

On 28 May 2005, at Tofik Bakhramov Stadium FC Baku met FC Inter Baku, another new ambitious project, and won 2-1 after extra time. The decisive goal scored by André Luiz Ladaga. 2004-05 Azerbaijan Premier League season FC Baku finished 5th.

But the returning to European cups proved unsuccessful. In UEFA Cup 2004-05 season first qualifying match, FC Baku was beaten by Slovakian side MŠK Žilina, 2-3 on aggregate, although they won a first leg in Baku, 1-0.

Fantastic 8 weeks and European Cups failure

The following season FC Baku was considered one of the favorites of the title race. For a long time, the team walked confidently to the title, but suddenly began losing points, and after the draw in Kazakh with FK Goyazan, Asgar Abdullayev was sacked and replaced by the teams director Boyukaga Hajiyev. And a miracle happened. Led by Hajiyev, FC Baku won latest 8 championship games consecutively and won the title. The next season FC Baku finished 3rd.

FC Baku twice involved in European club tournaments with Hajiyev. Both times the experiment turned out to be unsuccessful. Initially, the team failed 2006–07 UEFA Champions League, losing to Sioni Bolnisi, 1-2 on aggregate. For a next season, in UEFA Intertoto Cup 2007, FC Baku was stopped by FC Dacia Chisinau after 2-2 on aggregate and 1:3 on penalty kicks. Hajiyev left the team in 2007.

Second championship

In 2008, after a bad first season, the club celebrated their second title with Gjoko Hadžievski. Under his charge, FC Baku became the first Azerbaijani team to qualify to the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. The team passed FK Ekranas in the second qualifying round after 2–2 in Lithuania and 4–2 win in Tofik Bakhramov Stadium in the second leg.

In 2010, the club handed two-match suspension by UEFA for fielding Joël Epalle, who was ineligible player at the time despite winning both legs against FK Budućnost Podgorica.

A long period of decline followed the success of the 2008 to the end of the decade. Despite the appointment of famous names such as Bülent Korkmaz, Winfried Schäfer and Aleksandrs Starkovs, the club did not achieve any success and squandered large sums of money on unsuccessful signings.