With 24 years of history, the Sheriff FC is a modest and quirky soccer team based in Transnistria, a state not recognized within the borders of Moldova and Ukraine that was created in the territory of the former Soviet Union, and that never before has been so close to playing a Group stage on the Champions League.
The Sheriff won 3-0 at Dynamo Zagreb last week in Ida’s game of the final qualifying round prior to the Group stage. Thus, the team of the Moldavian First Division It may even lose by two goals this Wednesday to enter Europe’s most important continental competition for the first time.
Beyond getting his ticket and playing his first group stage, the story behind the Sheriff FC It has several peculiarities, as it is a team that was born thanks to a company that bears the same name and that has managed to make a corporate monopoly Transnistria, In addition, he has been singled out for actively participating in the politics of this state, which has a population of just over 518 thousand inhabitants.
Sheriff Ltd was established in 1990 by Viktor Gushan and Ilya Kazmaly, Former agents of the KGB, the U’s main intelligence and security agencyUnion of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), between 1957 and 1991, the year in which the dissolution of the USSR was decreed and it was divided into 15 nations and four unrecognized states, one of them Transnistria.
The company started with gas stations, However, little by little and with political and economic contacts, it expanded its services until it became supermarkets, concessionaires of luxury cars, a television channel, a publisher, an advertising agency, a construction company, a network of mobile telephony, bread factories and two liquor factories.
Seven years after the constitution of the Sheriff Ltd, Sheriff FC was born, that a year after its foundation, it achieved promotion to the highest category of soccer in Moldova, soccer that it dominated, winning 10 consecutive championships from 2001 to 2010, in addition to seven cup tournament titles.
It currently has 19 league championships, 10 Moldavian Cups and seven Super Cups. Internationally, the most he has achieved is to enter the UEFA Europa League Group Stage, in which it has not been able to qualify for the Final phase.
Now it is nowhere to sneak between the 32 most relevant teams in Europe, to forget his local Clásico against Tiraspol FC and instead get excited about facing the Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Manchester United, among many other giants.