FC Sheriff Tiraspol

Sheriff Tiraspol
	Logo
Full name	Fotbal Club Sheriff
Founded	1997
Ground	Sheriff
Capacity	14,300
Chairman	Victor Gusan
Manager	Mihai Stoichiță
League	Divizia Naţională
2011–12	Divizia Naţională, 1st (champions)
Home colours	Away colours

FC Sheriff Tiraspol ([ФК Шериф Тирасполь] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help)) is a football club based in Tiraspol, Moldova, that plays in the Divizia Naţională, the top division in Moldovan football. Viktor Gushan, a former K.G.B. officer formed the club in 1997.^[1]

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. Despite the team hailing from Transnistria, a breakaway territory that has political links with Russia, they play in the Divizia Naţională, the top division in Moldovan football.^[1]

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.^[2]

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.^[3]^{[dead link]} On 22 October, Sheriff produced a stunning 2–0 victory over Twente in Tiraspol, ending Twente's 17-match unbeaten run.^[4]^{[dead link]}

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 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
2001–02	2	Anderlecht	1–2	0–4	1–6
2002–03	1	Astana	2–1	2–3	4–4
2002–03	2	Grazer AK	0–2	1–4	1–6
2003–04	1	Flora Tallinn	1–0	1–1	2–1
2003–04	2	Shakhtar Donetsk	0–0	0–2	0–2
2004–05	1	Jeunesse Esch	2–0	0–1	2–1
2004–05	2	Rosenborg	0–2	1–2	1–4
2005–06	1	Sliema Wanderers	2–0	4–1	6–1
2005–06	2	Partizan Belgrade	0–1	0–1	0–2
2006–07	1	Pyunik Yerevan	2–0	0–0	2–0
2006–07	2	Spartak Moscow	1–1	0–0	1–1
2007–08	1	Ranger's	2–0	3–0	5–0
2007–08	2	Besiktas	0–1	0–3	0–4
2008–09	1	Aktobe	4–0	0–1	4–1
2008–09	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
2012–13	2	Ulisses F.C.	1–0	1–0	2–0
	3	Dinamo Zagreb	0–1	0–4	0–5

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
		Fenerbahçe	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
2012–13	Play-off	Olympique de Marseille	1-2

Current squad

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	MDA	Alexandru Zveaghințev
3	DF	POR	João Pereira
7	DF	MDA	Alexandru Onica
8	MF	MDA	Serghei Gheorghiev
9	FW	BOL	Darwin Ríos
10	FW	SRB	Aleksandar Pešić
11	FW	MDA	Alexandru Dedov
12	GK	MDA	Dmitri Stajila
13	MF	SRB	Saša Marjanović
14	MF	BFA	Wilfried Balima
15	DF	CIV	Marcel Metoua
16	DF	BOL	Leonel Morales
17	MF	BFA	Florent Rouamba
18	MF	MDA	Artem Khachaturov
20	MF	MDA	Igor Dima


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
21	DF	SVN	Tadej Apatič
23	DF	SRB	Tomislav Pajović
24	MF	MDA	Veaceslav Lisa
25	GK	BUL	Vladislav Stoyanov
26	DF	SVN	Miral Samardžić
28	MF	MDA	Vadim Rață
33	MF	RUS	Nail Zamaliyev
73	MF	MDA	Stanislav Ivanov
77	MF	MDA	Anatolii Cheptine
88	MF	SRB	Marko Stanojević
89	MF	MDA	Alexandru Pașcenco
90	DF	BRA	Luvannor
99	FW	PAN	Boris Alfaro
—	FW	POR	Jose Coehlo
—	FW	MDA	Serghei Dadu