Sheriff Tiraspol: The Champions League club without a country
Champions League debutants Sheriff Tiraspol from the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria face exiled Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday. Sheriff's name offers a clue to their murky but successful recent past. 15 Sep 2021 Deutsche Welle (English edition) The opening fixture of Champions League Group D notionally pits a team from Ukraine against – for the first time ever – one from neighbouring Moldova. But when the Champions League anthem booms out ahead of Sheriff Tiraspol vs. Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday night, it will simultaneously be drowning out two of Europe's ongoing but often forgotten conflicts. Shakhtar's plight will be familiar, the Ukrainian champions having been playing in exile in Lviv, Kharkiv and now the capital Kiev since the eastern city of Donetsk was overrun by Russian-backed separatists in 2014. Less well known are debutants Sheriff Tiraspol, the first ever representatives of the Republic of Moldova in the Champions League . But while UEFA, and inde