Boris Paichadze Stadium

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Boris Paichadze National Stadium

Full name	Boris Paichadze National Stadium of Georgia
Nickname	Dinamo Stadium
Built	1976
Opened	29 September 1976
Capacity	58,000
Home of	FC Dinamo Tbilisi

The Boris Paichadze National Stadium (Georgian: ბორის პაიჭაძის სახელობის ეროვნული სტადიონი), also known as the Dinamo Stadium, is a football stadium in Tbilisi, Georgia. It is the home stadium of FC Dinamo Tbilisi . The stadium was built in 1976 by Georgian architect Gia Kurdiani. Before then Dinamo's stadium was a smaller ground with a maximum capacity of 35 000. The demand for a new, bigger stadium was increased because of the successful performance of Dinamo Tbilisi. When the new stadium was built, it had the third largest capacity in the Soviet Union. It could hold 78,000 supporters and fulfill all standards and requirements of Soviet Football Federation as well as UEFA.

The first official match played was on September 29th, 1976. This was a UEFA cups last 32 match between FC Dinamo Tbilisi and Cardiff City FC, Wales. The opening game ended successfully for Dinamo, with the score 3:0.

The stadium hosted many glorious days during Dynamo's 1978 and 1979 triumphs. Holding lighted torches, 80,000 fans came in 1981 just to congratulate the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winning team FC Dinamo Tbilisi.

The National Stadium is now one of the best in Eastern Europe. Most of the seats in the second tier are covered by the roof. The USSR national football team played several international matches in Tbilisi "Dinamo" Stadium. Also football clubs FC Spartak Moscow,Russia and FC Dynamo Kiev,Ukraine often played their autumn international matches at the stadium.

100 000 fans attended on the opening game of the First Georgian Championship, match between FC Dinamo Tbilisi and FC Kolkheti-1913 Poti. The record attendance was in 1979, The stadium hosted 110,000 people and their support played an important role in winning. Dinamo beat Liverpool FC 3:0 and went through in the UEFA Champions League quarter final. In the Soviet Union Dinamo stadium had the record for the highest average attendance at 45 000. The record attendance was repeated in 1995 for Georgia vs. Germany when the attendance was 110,000 again.

In 1995 the stadium was renamed to Boris Paichadze National Stadium. Paichadze was a legendary former Georgian football player. The National Stadium was the home ground of the Georgian National Football Team for several years. Georgia achieved memorable wins against Wales (5-0), and Poland (3-0).

The stadium was most recently refurbished in 2006 when it became an all-seater stadium. This reduced the capacity to 58,000.