FC Sheriff Tiraspol

Sheriff Tiraspol

Full name	Fotbal Club Sheriff
Founded	1997
Ground	Sheriff (Capacity: 14,300)
Chairman	Victor Gusan
Manager	Vitali Rashkevich
League	Divizia Naţională
2010–11	2nd
Home colours Away colours

FC Sheriff Tiraspol (Russian: ФК Шериф Тирасполь) is a football club based in Tiraspol, Moldova. They play in the Divizia Naţională, the top division in Moldovan football. The team is sometimes referred to as simply FC Sheriff and should not be confused with FC Tiraspol, a rival team based in the same city.

History

The club was founded in 1997 by the Sheriff company, which in 2002 constructed the Sheriff Stadium in Tiraspol to serve as the team's home ground. They have dominated Moldovan football since 2001, winning all the championship titles in the Divizia Naţională since then. The team have won the Moldavian Cup six times – in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2008, and 2009. The team won the Commonwealth of Independent States Cup in 2003 and 2009, becoming the first team from Moldova to win an international title. FC Sheriff were the first club in Moldova to sign contract players from Brazil and Africa.

Sheriff In Europe

From 2001/2002 to 2008/2009, the club tried to reach the group stage in the UEFA Champions League every year, but failed in the second qualifying round every time.

In the 2009/10 season Sheriff finally reached the third qualifying round when they defeated Inter Turku. In the next round, Sheriff defeated Slavia Prague with an aggregate score of 1–1 over two legs, progressing via the away goal rule due to José Nadson Ferreira's 94th minute strike in the 2nd leg. They were then eliminated from the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League by Greek club Olympiacos in the new Play-off Round, which is the last stage before the Group Stage proper. They lost 2–0 in the first leg at home, and 1–0 in the second leg in Piraeus, Athens.

Sheriff then progressed to the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League group stage, and were faced with tough opponents. In their first game in the Europa League, Sheriff managed to snatch a 0–0 away draw from Steaua Bucureşti. In the first home game Sheriff lost 1–0 to Fenerbahçe Istanbul. On 22 October, Sheriff produced a stunning 2–0 victory over Twente in Tiraspol, ending Twente's 17-match unbeaten run.

In the 2010–11 UEFA Champions League season, Sheriff defeated Dinamo Tirana in the second qualifying round and then overcame Dinamo Zagreb on penalties to reach the play-off round, the final stage before the lucrative Champions League Group stage. In the play-off round, Sheriff lost the first match in Switzerland with a still encouraging scoreline of 1–0, before succumbing to a 3–0 defeat at home against Basel.

Sheriff stadium

Sheriff Stadium during UEFA Europa League match

Main article: Sheriff Stadium

Sheriff Stadium is the home of Sheriff Tiraspol and is owned by the local Sheriff corporation. It has a seating capacity for 14,300 spectators. It is eligible for international events, like the matches of the Moldova national football team.

Rivalries

The team has a large fan base across Transnistria and has friendly relations with all of the teams from this region. It has a natural rivalry with FC Tiraspol, as they are both rather large clubs located in the same city. With the Moldovan non-Transnistrian teams, Sheriff has many rivals. In those matches, many Sheriff fans display banners calling for the independence of Transnistria from Moldova.

European record

UEFA Champions League

Season	Round	Opponents	Home leg	Away leg	Aggregate
2001–02	1	Araks Ararat	1–0	2–0	3–0
	2	Anderlecht	1–2	0–4	1–6
2002–03	1	Astana	2–1	2–3	4–4
	2	Grazer AK	0–2	1–4	1–6
2003–04	1	Flora Tallinn	1–0	1–1	2–1
	2	Shakhtar Donetsk	0–0	0–2	0–2
2004–05	1	Jeunesse Esch	2–0	0–1	2–1
	2	Rosenborg	0–2	1–2	1–4
2005–06	1	Sliema Wanderers	2–0	4–1	6–1
	2	Partizan Belgrade	0–1	0–1	0–2
2006–07	1	Pyunik Yerevan	2–0	0–0	2–0
	2	Spartak Moscow	1–1	0–0	1–1
2007–08	1	Ranger's	2–0	3–0	5–0
	2	Besiktas	0–1	0–3	0–4
2008–09	1	Aktobe	4–0	0–1	4–1
	2	Sparta Prague	0–1	0–2	0–3
2009–10	2	Inter Turku	1–0	1–0	2–0
	3	Slavia Prague	0–0	1–1	1–1
	Play-off	Olympiacos	0–2	0–1	0–3
2010–11	2	Dinamo Tirana	3–1	0–1	3–2
	3	Dinamo Zagreb	1–1	1–1 (a.e.t.)	2–2 (6–5 p)
	Play-off	FC Basel	0–1	0–3	0–4

UEFA Cup

Season	Round	Opponents	Home leg	Away leg	Aggregate
1999–00	1	Sigma Olomouc	1–1	0–0	1–1
2000–01	1	Olimpjia Ljubljana	0–0	0–3	0–3

UEFA Europa League

Season	Round	Opponents	Home	Away	Aggregate
2009–10	Group H	Steaua Bucureşti	1–1	0–0	1–1
		Fenerbahce	0–1	0–1	0–2
		Twente	2–0	1–2	3–2
2010–11	Group E	AZ Alkmaar	1–1	1–2	2–3
		Dynamo Kyiv	2–0	0–0	2–0
		BATE	0–1	1–3	1–4
2011–12	Q2	Željezničar	0–0	0–1	0–1

Current squad

As of 1st of August

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Alexandr Zvyagintsev 3 FW Iurie Mîrza 4 DF Vadim Costandachi 5 DF Vazha Tarkhnishvili 6 DF Alexandr Skripchenko 7 MF Vitaly Bulat 8 MF Serghei Gheorghiev 10 FW Aleksandar Pešić 14 MF Wilfried Balima 15 DF Marcel Metoua 16 MF Artyom Khachaturov 17 MF Florent Rouamba

No. Position Player 18 MF Igor Dima 22 MF Tommy Abu 23 FW Jhonatan 25 GK Vladislav Stoyanov 26 DF Miral Samardžić 27 FW Rafael Sosa 28 MF Vadim Raţa 33 MF Nail Zamaliyev 77 MF Anatolii Cheptine 90 DF Henrique Luvannor FW Darwin Ríos DF João Pereira FW Alexandru Dedov MF Alexandru Onica

Reserves

For the reserve squad, see FC Sheriff-2 Tiraspol.

Coaching staff

• Main trainer: Vitali Raskevich
• Assistant trainer: Milan Milanovic
• Team manager : Oleg Turcanu
• Goalkeeper coach: Uladzimir Selkin
• Fitness trainer: Alexei Scorpan
• Doctor: Vladimir Vremes
• Masseur: Vyacheslav Alekseev
• Masseur: Oleksandr Karamanov
• Team Administrator: Vladimir Muntean

Notable former players

Simeon Bulgaru Alexandru Epureanu Stanislav Ivanov Serghei Rogaciov Alexandr Suvorov Ion Testemitanu Import Nicolas Eduardo Demalde Aliaksei Kuchuk Sergey Ravina Razak Omotoyossi Saša Kajkut Dú Pereira Fred Igor

Leandro Thiago Wallace Ben Idriss Derme Ibrahim Gnanou Soumaila Tassembedo Mikheil Khutsishvili Davit Mujiri Samuel Yeboah Deimantas Bička Igoris Stukalinas Joshua Izuchukwu Chidi Odiah Isaac Okoronkwo Alberto Blanco

Roberto Brown Ubaldo Guardia Marian Aliuţă Răzvan Cociş Gheorghe Florescu Florian Dan Lăcustă Cristian Tudor Alexandr Erokhin Vladimir Volkov Peter Kiška Alexander Frank Abdoul-Gafar Mamah Yuriy Bukel Serhiy Perkhun Serhiy Shmatovalenko

Achievements

• Divizia Naţională: 10

2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10

• Moldovan "A" Division (Second tier): 1

1998

• Moldovan Cup: 7

1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010

• Moldovan Super Cup: 4

2003, 2004, 2005, 2007

• CIS Cup: 2

2003, 2009

External links

• Official website
• The Europa League: There's a New Sheriff in Town