Dirk Kuijt had probably not expected. The former Liverpool striker is today TV expert and said about the play-offs in Dutch television: The Champions League is a tournament for Champions. There are no clubs like Sheriff Tiraspol. Immediately afterwards, only a small shitstorm of the apparently not so few Sheriff fans over Kuijt brayed in, before Dinamo Zagreb had already received the 3-0 in the Play-Off First Game Saures on the court.
The Republic of Moldova is the country with the lowest gross national product in Europe, the poverty rate is high, for a long time one took a long time one of the front places in various corruption rank lists. All the more amazing, for the first time a club from the small country to the group stage of the Champions League managed. But that’s just true on the paper, reality is more complicated: Tiraspol is located in Transnistria, an area with around 500 000 inhabitants in the East Moldaus on the border with Ukraine. The region has declared independently in 1990, but which is not recognized abroad, it has its own currency and its own authorities.
Sheriff is more than a football club
But nothing is bigger and known in Transnistria as sheriff. The name sounds like that, and really the company was founded in 1993 by former members of a special unit from the Soviet Union. From the security company became a mixed group, today belong to the Empire including petrol stations, a bank, a TV station, a construction company, a supermarket chain, a Mercedes branch, a mobile network, two bread factories – and the FC Sheriff. The arm of the company is also ranging far into the regional government. The party Renewal has 29 of the 33 seats in Parliament of Transnistria and is de facto the political wing of sheriff.
Chef and patrons of the association is Viktor Gushan, once one of the founders of Sheriff. He stated the club a jewelery, 14,000 spectators, which is a top-modern training center on a 64-hectare area, which is based in Puncto facilities in all Eastern Europe. Founded in 1996, which, in the first few months, later acquired Tiras Tiraspol, won 19 championships in the 25 years of its existence and took ten national trophies. After all, four times the FC Sheriff managed to the group stage of the Europa League, most recently in the 2017/18 season. The royal class is now, of course, the coronation and ensures even more revenue for the already unrivaled club anyway.
There is an Eastern European duel for the kick-off
We finally want to be with the best trade fairs, said Midfielmann Sebastien Thill after the march through the qualification with six wins in eight games, among other things against Red Star Belgrade and last Zagreb. Thill comes from Luxembourg and comes like almost the complete team from outside. The well-equipped academy of the association clearly helps. At the 0-0 in the second leg against Dinamo, born professionals were born for Sheriff elf abroad, but constant change in Tiraspol has long been part of the tradition. Almost the complete team is only in the club since this year, many players came in winter, some as the Macedonian international Boban Nikolov and the Brazilian Bruno Felipe shortly before transfer in summer.
Trained from the Ukrainian Jurij Vernydub, who played in the 1990s for Chemnitz in the 2nd league. All in the club burn to the journey through Europe, which will start next Wednesday (18.45, live! At Champions) in the home game against Schachtar Donetsk.
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