A new football club has earned a leading place in the UEFA Champions League groups and starred in the headlines of worldwide football news yesterday. The Football Club Sheriff Tiraspol claimed a win with the score 2-1 against Real Madrid on the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. That made Sheriff Tiraspol the leader in Group D of the Champions League, including the football club in the groups of the most important European interclub competition for the first time ever.

International media outlets called it a miracle, a shock and a historic event, while strongly emphasizing the origin of the team and the existing political conflict between the two banks of the Dniester. “Football club from a pro-Russian separatist enclave in Moldova pulls off one of the greatest upsets in Champions League history,” claimed the news portals. “Sheriff crushed Real!” they said.

Moldovans made a big fuss out of it on social media, splitting into two groups: those who praised the team and the Republic of Moldova for making history and those who declared that the football club and their merits belong to Transnistria – a problematic breakaway region that claims to be a separate country.

Both groups are right and not right at the same time, as there is a bunch of ethical, political, social and practical matters that need to be considered.

Is it Moldova?

First of all, every Moldovan either from the right or left bank of Dniester (Transnistria) is free to identify himself with this achievement or not to do so, said Vitalie Spranceana, a sociologist, blogger, journalist and urban activist. According to him, boycotting the football club for being a separatist team is wrong.

At the same time, “it’s an illusion to think that territory matters when it comes to football clubs,” Spranceana claimed. “Big teams, the ones included in the Champions League, have long lost their connection both with the countries in which they operate, and with the cities in which they appeared and to which they linked their history. […] In the age of globalized commercial football, teams, including the so-called local ones, are nothing more than global traveling commercial circuses, incidentally linked to cities, but more closely linked to all sorts of dirty, semi-dirty and cleaner cash flows.”

What is more important in this case is the consistency, not so much of citizens, as of politicians from the government who have “no right to celebrate the success of separatism,” as they represent “the national interests, not the personal or collective pleasures of certain segments of the population,” believes the political expert Dionis Cenusa. The victory of FC Sheriff encourages Transnistrian separatism, which receives validation now, he also stated.

“I don’t know how it happens that the “proud Moldovans who chose democracy”, in their enthusiasm for Sheriff Tiraspol’s victory over Real Madrid, forget the need for total and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria!” declared the journalist Vitalie Ciobanu.

Nowadays, FC Sheriff Tiraspol has no other choice than to represent Moldova internationally. For many years, the team used the Moldovan Football Federation in order to be able to participate in championships, including international ones. That is because the region remains unrecognised by the international community. However, the club’s victory is presented as that of Transnistria within the region, without any reference to the Republic of Moldova, its separatist character being applied in this case especially.

Is it a victory?

In fact, FC Sheriff Tiraspol joining the Champions League is a huge image breakthrough for the Transnistrian region, as the journalist Madalin Necsutu claimed. It is the success of the Tiraspol Club oligarchic patrons. From the practical point of view, FC Sheriff Tiraspol is a sports entity that serves its own interests and the interests of its owners, being dependent on the money invested by Tiraspol (but not only) oligarchs.

Here comes the real dilemma: the Transnistrian team, which is generously funded by money received from corruption schemes and money laundering, is waging an unequal fight with the rest of the Moldovan football clubs, the journalist also declared. The Tiraspol team is about to raise 15.6 million euro for reaching the Champions League groups and the amounts increase depending on their future performance. According to Necsutu, these money will go directly on the account of the club, not to the Moldovan Football Federation, creating an even bigger gab between FC Sheriff and other football clubs from Moldova who have much more modest financial possibilities.

“I do not see anything useful for Moldovan football, not a single Moldovan player is part of FC Sheriff Tiraspol. I do not see anything beneficial for the Moldovan Football Federation or any national team.”

Is it only about football?

FC Sheriff Tiraspol, with a total estimated value of 12.8 million euros, is controlled by Victor Gusan and Ilya Kazmala, being part of Sheriff Holding – a company that controls the trade of wholesale, retail food, fuels and medicine by having monopolies on these markets in Transnistria. The holding carries out car trading activities, but also operates in the field of construction and real estate. Gusan’s people also hold all of the main leadership offices in the breakaway region, from Parliament to the Prime Minister’s seat or the Presidency.

The football club is supported by a holding alleged of smuggling, corruption, money laundering and organised crime. Moldovan media outlets published investigations about the signals regarding the Sheriff’s holding involvement in the vote mobilization and remuneration of citizens on the left bank of the Dniester who participated in the snap parliamentary elections this summer and who were eager to vote for the pro-Russian socialist-communist bloc.

Considering the above, there is a great probability that the Republic of Moldova will still be represented by a football club that is not identified as being Moldovan, being funded from obscure money, growing in power and promoting the Transnistrian conflict in the future as well.

Photo: unknown

Dear reader,

We know that you have been thinking about holidays and rest for a long time. It’s just the same to us! Still, before you say farewells to 2020 and meet the new 2021 year, we kindly ask you to answer a few questions.

The below survey won’t take more than 5 minutes, I promise!

Thanks a lot for your contribution!

For years, the Moldovan society has been struggling with sorting out highly polarized matters. Moldovans have big troubles when choosing the ‘correct’ language to speak, nationality to identify with, political (or geopolitical) position to take, holidays to celebrate, and a lot of other public concerns that have always caused collisions, determining people to use hate speech and violence against each other, separating them according to the best divide et impera practices.

That is exactly what corrupt politicians in power need in order to make the population forget about the real issues of the country – a continuously rising level of poverty, wages and pensions below the subsistence level, ubiquitous corruption, a precarious judiciary, emigration of labour force, a public budget deficit dependant on international financing, food crisis, hindered freedom of speech, the Transnistrian region with a foreign army on its territory, a pandemic that causes the death of thousands of people and determines the healthcare system to go beyond limits… The list can continue.

Of course, fake populism can divide a society and draw it’s attention to something less important or even insignificant. Still, is it for a long time? It won’t last forever and, bit by bit, the actions of such politicians risk to be discovered and denounced. Believing that throwing a bone to some ‘undereducated people’ could work every time is a big mistake.

After the presidential elections, the current (unconfirmed) government formed of socialists, the Sor Party members and some ex-democratic turncoats proposed for voting several highly controversial populist bills. One of them was related to the Russian language usage in the state institutions of the Republic of Moldova, another one was about the Gagauzia status, one more about whom the Republican Stadium site should belong to – the US Embassy or Ilan Sor. The latter has big plans to build a new amusement park there (see OrheiLand).

The last missile – a new legislative initiative brought up by socialists today, insisting on changing the date of Europe Day celebration from May 9 to May 8, as now Europe Day is celebrated on the same day as Victory Day.

See also: Two different ways of celebrating May 9: Victory Day vs Europe Day in the time of COVID-19

Some Moldovan politicians really seem disconnected from reality. There is a special saying for them – to fiddle while Rome is burning. This strategy is less and less effective though, if even Irina Vlah, Governor of UTA Gagauzia, a Socialist Party member and a fierce supporter of Igor Dodon, claimed, in a recent interview, that there has been too much controversy related to the official language in Moldova and that she learns “Romanian” as as a sign of respect for the country in which she lives.

For a part of the Moldovan society, activists, international officials it already became clear: the politicians from Parliament seek to throw dust in public’s eyes, give them reasons to hate and fight each other, while avoiding to take care of real problems.

Peter Michalko emphasised, during the 2020 Moldovan European Integration Forum, that hate speech and geopolitical matters do not influence people as much as in the past, while “fight against corruption, rising living standards and the future of children seem to matter more.”

“Regardless of ethnicity, people are beginning to understand that their goal is a better future and a country where they can feel free and prosperous, where they can rely on the judiciary. The positive aspects are stronger than the negative ones. The are tens of thousands of positive people and units of those who anchor the country in poverty and corruption. The stronger the voice of the former, the less the power of oligarchs and corrupt politicians,” said Head of the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova.

Therefore, positive changes are observed when it comes to Moldovans’ common mentality and beliefs. Is it because of the wind of change blowing after the presidential elections? Because of President-elect messages focused on integration, tolerance, acceptance and openness that are very different from what was heard before? It could be. But that is an incentive only. The real change lies in the people of Moldova.

Photo: unknown