FC Dinamo Tbilisi was founded in 1925 under the auspices of the Dinamo sports society, at a time when football was still establishing itself as Georgia's leading game. Along with Dynamo Kyiv and Dynamo Moscow, Tbilisi's Dinamo was one of only a handful of clubs never relegated from the Soviet Top League, twice becoming champions of the USSR — in 1964, when Georgian fans nicknamed the squad the "Golden Guys" after an extra-time play-off win over Torpedo Moscow, and again in 1978 under coach Nodar Akhalkatsi.
Dinamo's greatest triumph came under Akhalkatsi in 1981, when the club won the European Cup Winners' Cup, defeating East Germany's Carl Zeiss Jena 2–1 in the final in Düsseldorf. It remains the only European trophy ever won by a club based in Georgia. The same golden generation, built around players such as David Kipiani and Ramaz Shengelia, had already announced itself on the continental stage two years earlier by eliminating Liverpool, the reigning European champions, in the first round of the 1979–80 European Cup, losing the away leg 1–2 before winning 3–0 in Tbilisi.
After Georgian independence, Dinamo Tbilisi quickly re-established its dominance domestically. The club holds the Erovnuli Liga record with 19 Georgian league titles, most recently in 2022, and has also won the Georgian Cup more times than any other side. Its academy has for decades been one of the most important sources of talent for the Georgian national team.
Known for its blue-and-white colours, closely associated with Georgian football tradition, Dinamo plays its home matches at the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena, named after one of the club's earliest stars and one of the largest stadiums in the country. More than four decades after its European triumph, Dinamo Tbilisi remains the standard-bearer of Georgian football and a symbol of the country's sporting identity.