Scotland game overshadowed by Moldovan political tensions

Published on Wednesday 13 October 2004 01:11

ARMED riot police will be deployed for Scotland’s World Cup qualifying match in Moldova tonight, amid heightened tensions between ethnic Russians and Romanians in the former Soviet state.

Police are not expecting trouble from the Tartan Army, but they are on alert for an outbreak of fighting between home fans who were on opposite sides of a 1992 civil war that ended only in an uneasy ceasefire between the republic and the breakaway province of Trans-Dniester.

After the failure of re-unification talks, the separatist leader Igor Smirnov hit out at the Moldovan government yesterday as he announced a referendum on whether the region should push its claims for independence or accept autonomy within the country.

"Moldova is intensifying its political and economic pressure ... [and] insulting the people of Trans-Dniester and its leaders," he added.

Moldova’s government, dominated by ethnic Romanians, says that it cannot "guarantee security" for Scottish fans attending the game.

The location of the match, which was switched by football’s international governing body, FIFA, from the modern Tiraspol stadium in Trans-Dniester to the capital city, Chisinau, because of security concerns, is already a source of contention between the two sides.

The ethnic Russians of Trans-Dniester were outraged by the perceived slight, the latest incident in a simmering "football war" that has raged for several years.

It began in the late 1990s when a wealthy ethnic-Russian businessman, Victor Gusan, founded Sheriff FC in Tiraspol. He has lavished huge sums on players that the rest of the teams in Moldova - Europe’s poorest country where average incomes are less than 280 a year - cannot match.

Opponents claimed Sheriff has indulged in match-fixing, with lesser ethnic Russian teams happy to throw games, a charge denied by Sheriff. In this atmosphere, cross-border visits by Sheriff and the top ethnic-Romanian team, Zimbru, have sparked fan violence.

Victor Daghi, of Moldova’s Sport Plus newspaper, said: "A lot of Sheriff buses would arrive home without any glass in the windows, and a lot of Zimbru buses would come back to Kishinev in the same condition."

Fans crossing the border travelling over the River Dniester have also found themselves trapped in "enemy" territory by the roadblocks.

Tensions between the two sides rose sharply in July, when Trans-Dniester closed two Moldovan-language schools. Hundreds of pupils protested, blockading themselves inside the schools and Trans-Dniester’s militia units were mobilised, but eventually decided against storming the schools.

Moldova retaliated by blocking exports from the enclave, which then cut off electricity to central and southern Moldova and closed railway lines.

Despite the political strife, the Moldova national team contains several players from Trans-Dniester and it attracts fans from both communities.

Vasile Vatamanu, of the Moldovan Football Federation, said: "We are very sorry it is happening like this. It is all so sad; politics is interfering with football and that should not happen.

"We are disappointed, but I think the Scottish will still have a good time. We cannot control big political issues - but Moldovans are hospitable and our wine and champagne are good and very cheap."

Andy Mitchell, the spokesman for the Scottish Football Association, said he felt "pretty secure" in Chisinau yesterday.

"We’re staying in a very nice hotel. It’s a nice sunny afternoon in Chisinau. I don’t see how you can ask me about security concerns when there aren’t any. Far from it," he said.

Tartan Army member Simon Collins, an Edinburgh lawyer, echoed those sentiments. "It’s great. We’ve checked into a lovely hotel and we’re getting a lot of people looking at us, smiling and laughing," he said.