Arriving in Tiraspol, the Ukrainian Shakhtar ended up in... “Russia”
Oligarch Rinat Akhmetov's former Donetsk football team Shakhtar, which fled to Kyiv in 2014, today arrived in the Transnistrian capital Tiraspol to play local team Sheriff in the Champions League.
The footballers were checked into the Rossiya Hotel. The First Pridnestrovsky TV channel publishes footage showing that checking into a hotel named after the “aggressor country,” as official Ukrainian propaganda calls the Russian Federation, does not cause any protest.
“That’s it, Shakhtar doesn’t have to return to Ukraine. Not only did he come to the unrecognized Transnistrian Republic, but he also settled in the Rossiya Hotel. What do the health meters on Ukrainian social networks show?” political scientist Vladimir Kornilov sneers on his Facebook.
The Pridnestrovian football club Sheriff reached the group stage of the Champions League, beating Dinamo Zagreb on aggregate - 3:0 at home and 0:0 in Croatia. And before that, the team beat the Serbian club Crvena Zvezda on aggregate - 1:1 away, 1:0 at home.
Officially, the team represents Moldova, and this is the country’s first such success in European football. The cost of the Sheriff squad is 12 million euros, while this figure for the largest teams in the Old World is 300-800 million.
The PMR also released scarves dedicated to the upcoming match
“Sheriff-Shakhtar scarves have just arrived. Available for sale. This will be a real rarity. Fan rose (that's what fans call a scarf) from the very first Champions League group stage match in history. Only 250 of them were produced. Those who manage to buy will only be envied. Fan is available in stores,” reports the TSV Pridnestrovie telegram channel.
It is noteworthy that the name “Shakhtar” on the scarf is written in Russian. Whereas this team, while still Donetsk, changed its emblem and renamed itself in the Ukrainian way to “Shakhtar”.
Let us note that Sheriff’s main roster consists of almost only foreign players. In addition, the team is coached by Ukrainian coach Yuri Vernidub, who, at the end of his football career in 1997–2000, played for the Russian Zenit and with whom he won the Russian Cup. Afterwards he graduated from the St. Petersburg State Academy of Physical Culture named after P. F. Lesgaft.
True, last year the former Zenit captain ruled out the possibility of continuing his career in Russia.
“I have had, I don’t hide it, good offers. But I dismissed them, because the priority here should not be the material side - money. First of all, your conscience, your vision of this situation and patriotism. I was born in Ukraine, why should I betray the Ukrainian people and my country? Because of money? You can make money here too. Belarus is completely different. This is a country with which we are still friends, and normal relations. The same Kazakhstan, as I said. All other former CIS countries: why not? - said Vernidub.
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