Crimean soccer in limbo after Russia’s land grab

SIMFEROPOL: In the heyday of his favourite Crimea club Tavriya Simferopol, supporter Gennady Malakhov went all over Ukraine, watched home games at a packed stadium and even saw the team compete in the Champions League in the early 1990s.

But annexation of the peninsula by Moscow in 2014 has “destroyed, broken, and buried our club,” said the 42-year-old railroad worker.Dressed in a scarf and sweater in the club’s red and green colours, Malakhov was one of just barely 250 attending a recent game held at Simferopol’s 20,000-seat Lokomotiv stadium.

Since 2014, “nobody needs us,” he told AFP standing on the terraces under overcast skies as a couple dozen other fans waved a flag and chanted in support. “The club have practically ceased to exist.”

Nine months after Crimea’s takeover by Russia in March 2014, UEFA declared the region a “special zone” and banned local clubs from participating in Russia’s national tournaments until further notice. Tavriya Simferopol was re-established by the Football Federation of Ukraine in 2016 and is playing in the third tier this season. Meanwhile, Simferopol’s club, supported by Malakhov, launched under a new name TSK-Tavriya. Two football clubs with the same name, Tavriya, — one in mainland Ukraine, another in Crimea — embody the problems of football in the Russian-occupied peninsula. The club now plays in a new Crimean Premier League established by the new Russian authorities which also includes six amateur teams and one other club that previously played in the Ukrainian top flight, FC Sevastopol.