Terek Grozny

[Grizzly]

Interesting story on last weekend's victory of 2nd division Terek Grozny over 1st division Soviet Wings Samara in the Russian Cup. For security reasons Terek plays their games in another southern Russian city outside of the Chechnya region. Terek narrowly missed promotion to the 1st division last year.

Team from war-torn

Chechnya wins soccer cup

A Chechen football team that never plays at home because it is too dangerous won Russia's cup final on Saturday, giving the war-torn region something to cheer about – and a place in Europe's UEFA Cup.

"I dedicate this win to all the Chechen people," said match winner Andrei Fedkov, who chipped the ball over the goalkeeper in the final moments to give the underdogs the only goal.

His team, Terek Grozny, play their home matches hundreds of miles (km) from the Chechen capital because it is too dangerous in their own city. They defied all expectations by beating Krylya Sovietov, a team from Samara, in the final.

Within half a minute, the tense calm in Grozny's empty streets was shattered by the sound of Terek supporters shooting into the air, while fans in Moscow made do with kazoos and a rare chance to wave Chechnya's green, white and red flag.

The unique moment of happiness for Chechnya, plagued by war for more than a decade, came three weeks after fragile hopes for stability in the region were snuffed out by the assassination of Akhmad Kadyrov, president of both Chechnya and Terek Grozny.

The Terek players unfurled a huge poster of Kadyrov before making a lap of honour and hoisting Kadyrov's son Ramzan – the club's vice president – into the air in celebration.

It remains to be seen whether the euphoria of the unexpected victory will catapult Ramzan – a tracksuit-wearing 27-year-old who controls thousands of militia fighters in the region – into power in place of his father.

But Chechen separatists will not be mollified by what they see as Moscow trying to buy their loyalty with a nominally Chechen soccer team. In a statement published on rebel Web site kavkazcenter.com last September, Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev – Russia's most wanted man – vowed the war would go on.

"The Russians can use all the voting and money they like to try to buy citizens who have been scared and oppressed by this war, they can put Terek into the top division... and try to dupe our people with public relations, but by Allah our jihad will not slacken and we will fight until victory," he said.

But Terek fans in Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia said they were just keen to forget about violence and squeezed into the few places with satellite television to watch the match.

"Glory to Allah! We won!," shouted an old man in military clothing, one of around 250 supporters crushed into a cafe built for 40 in Nazran, Ingushetia's largest city.

"I never had a happier moment in the last four years," he said above yells of delight in the cafe, whose owners brought in a generator to stop the usual power cuts from ruining the day.

Terek's general director Lom-Ali Ibragimov said the match was a chance to show Chechens in a positive light. "Our task is to show that in Chechnya there are not just bandits and terrorists, but also normal people," Ibragimov told Reuters before the game. "At last everyone will know Chechens are peaceful people who know how to play football."

Local media said up to 8,000 Chechens made the journey to Moscow for the match and around 1,600 police and soldiers were drafted in for the day. There were no reports of violence.

But violence continued in Grozny, where Russia's Interfax news agency said two people died in a gunfight on Saturday.

[Grizzly]

Terek Grozny captures Cup of Russia

MOSCOW (AP) -- Chechen soccer team Terek Grozny upset Kryliya Sovetov from Russia's premier league 1-0 on Saturday to become the first first-division team in 35 years to capture the Cup of Russia.

Andrei Fedkov, the division scoring leader with 13 goals in 10 games, scored two minutes into second-half injury time of the final, off a pass from Alexander Lipko.

Victory earned undefeated Terek a berth in next season's UEFA Cup, the first by a non-premier league side. But without a home ground, Terek will have to decide where to play its games.

"We did not expect we would go so far," Terek coach Vait Talgayev said.

The only other non-premier league side to win the Cup was Ukraine's Karpaty Lviv in 1969.

"We were lucky today, though our opponents were not that active in the end of the match," Talgayev said.

Terek's victory was a stunning achievement for a team that was broken up a decade ago when its home turf was engulfed by war. It doesn't have a home and its fans must take long bus rides through numerous military and police checkpoints to cheer on their favorite players. About 500 were among the 17,000 crowd.

Terek leads Russia's first division from a perfect 10 wins in 10 matches, in which it has scored 24 goals and conceded just one. It beat three premier clubs to reach the Cup final.

Kryliya Sovetov of Samara, leading Russia's premier league, controlled much of the final but was stymied by a defense-minded Terek, which placed only Fedkov in attack.

Andrei Karyaka, the Russian league's leading scorer and one of Russia's main hopes in the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal next month, almost put the Samara side on the scoreboard in the 69th minute. But his powerful free kick from 23 meters hit the right upper corner of the woodwork. Three minutes later, Moura Moises' header of a corner kick found the opposite corner.

"We were close to the victory, but Terek won," said Samara coach Gadzhi Gadzhiyev. "I cannot say their victory was accidental."

Terek was disbanded in 1994 amid the first Chechen war. The team's 22,900-capacity stadium in the Zavodskoy district of Grozny, with one of the best pitches in the former Soviet Union, was completely destroyed.

In 2001, as the second Chechen war was still raging, the Moscow-backed Chechen government decided to revive the team as a sign that stability was returning to the region. It's been an uphill battle all the way.

A minute of silence was held before Saturday's match in memory of Akhmad Kadyrov, the late president of Chechnya, who contributed much to Terek's revival. One of the sectors in the stands was covered with a big portrait of Kadyrov, who was killed in an bomb explosion on May 9 at a ceremony in the Chechen capital.

[Grizzly]

Before and after pictures of Terek's stadium in Grozny.

[Grizzly]

Up and coming soccer team reborn out of ashes of Chechen war

BY YURI BAGROV

Associated Press

May. 27, 2004 8:49 p.m.

PYATIGORSK, Russia (AP)— A Chechen soccer team which broke up a decade ago when its home turf was engulfed by war, has surprisingly surged to the top of its Russian division and stands poised to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Terek Grozny leads Russia's first division from a perfect 10 wins in 10 matches. It has scored 24 goals and conceded just one.

The team beat three clubs from the premier league this season to become the first team from the first division in Russia's modern history to reach the final of the Cup of Russia.

Ukraine's Karpaty Lviv was the only non-premier league team to win the Cup of the Soviet Union in 1969.

Despite its record, Terek will be the underdog against Russian premier side Krylia Sovetov Samara in the Cup final on Saturday in Moscow.

"Of course, the Samara team has better mastery," Terek coach Vait Talgayev was quoted as saying in the Novye Izvestia newspaper on Thursday. "I think our advantage is in strength of spirit."

It's a sweet turn of events for a club which doesn't have a home, and whose fans have to take long bus rides through numerous military and police checkpoints, to cheer on their favorite players.

"Chechnya used to come up only in military summaries: How many sweeps troops have conducted for rebels, how many bombings have there been," Talgayev said. "Now it's 'Chechens can play soccer!"'

Terek was founded in the Chechen capital Grozny in 1946 as Dinamo. Two years later the team was renamed Neftyanik or Oil-Worker, and it carried that name until 1958, when it took on the name of the river that runs through northern Chechnya.

As Chechnya descended into chaos in the early 1990s, rival teams refused to travel to Grozny to play - there was even shooting into the air from the stands when the Chechens would score goals - and the players went their separate ways in 1994.

The team's 22,900-capacity stadium in the Zavodskoy district of Grozny, with one of the best pitches in the former Soviet Union, was completely destroyed during the first war.

In 2001, as the second Chechen war was still raging, the Moscow-backed Chechen government decided to revive the team as a sign that stability was returning to the region. It's been an uphill battle all the way.

"Some people ridiculed me: 'What soccer? There's a war going on!"' said Khaydar Alkhanov, the Chechen sports minister who was entrusted with carrying out negotiations with government and sports federation officials in Moscow.

"We couldn't for the life of us get through the licensing procedure because we didn't have a home stadium where we could play, and no one wanted to give us one."

The team has wandered from stadium to stadium in the Caucasus Mountains region. These days, it trains outside the mountain resort town of Kislovodsk, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) northwest of Grozny, and plays matches in nearby Pyatigorsk.

After winning the second division championship in 2002, Terek was close to its main goal - the Russian premier league - last season, but missed it by just one point, finishing fourth in the first division.

With no big money at hand - the club is financed by the war-shattered republic's budget - Terek signed up former experienced players who had quit big clubs due to their age. The tactic paid off.

Talgayev, a Chechen, was named Terek's coach in 2003, after he led Kazakhstan club Atyrau to two titles.

Striker Andrei Fedkov, 32, is the division leading scorer with 13 goals in 10 games, while goalkeeper Vladimir Savchenko, 31, set another record, keeping his goal untouched in 674 minutes. Team captain Deni Gaisumov, 34, one of only four Chechens in the main squad, was named the division's best defender last season.

Striker Oleg Terekhin, 33, has scored more then 100 goals in his career.

Much of Chechnya cheers for Terek - even those who grumble that the republic's budget money could be put to better use, like reconstruction and providing housing for refugees - but few can afford to travel to Pyatigorsk, where local residents are the team's main supporters.

Sometimes the club will arrange buses to deliver fans, but most people follow their team's fortunes by listening to the radio, reading local papers or browsing the Internet.

In a strange move, for the first time in many years, Russia's main TV broadcasters are not planning a live broadcast of the Cup final. The match will be live on the NTV Plus commercial satellite channel - hardly a possibility for fans inside Chechnya.

Talgayev told Novye Izvestia that he expected about 7,000 supporters to cheer for Terek at Moscow's Lokomotiv Stadium. He said 50 buses carrying fans had left Grozny on Wednesday.

"True, I think 90 percent of the fans won't make it as far as Moscow," he said. "They're checked at every (military and police) block post.

"We hope the Russian fans will relate sympathetically. In any case, we wouldn't want to hear insults from the stands that 'bandits' and 'terrorists' have come."

[bettermirror]

that stadium is so sad, not to mention the war-torn region and what those people have to face. god i'm glad i live here.

[Grizzly]

A bit of an update on Terek Grozny who have since the start of the Russian season been playing in Grozny again. They have a new stadium of 10 000 and are planning to build a 30 000 seat stadium. Here are some links to articles and pictures of their current stadium:

http://en.rian.ru/sports/20080306/100842834.html

http://www.uefa.com/magazine/news/kind=16384/newsid=671977.html

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/07

[Desigol]

Kinda like Cliftonville doing well in the Irish League.

Wonder if Checneya, or even South Ossetia, would form their own National sides? Jersey and Guernsey have teams up to U-21; played NI's U-19s 2 Years ago.

[Grizzly]

quote:Originally posted by Sigma

Around a month ago, I saw that Grozny had to play one of its home games at a different venue. Why was this (if you know)?

They played Zenit in Makhachkala. This was because in their previous home match some fans attacked the ref so the league didn't let them play at home for one game as a penalty. They actually had 13 000 fans for that game which is 3000 more than their stadium capacity in Grozny. Zenit won 4-1.

[snake]

any updates?

[Grizzly]

Terek is in 11th place near the end of the season. They are not in contention for a European Cup spot but also out of danger as far as relegation goes. For the second year in a row a non-Moscow team wins the Russian title and this time not a big team from the 2nd largest city (last year's Champion Zenit St. Petersburg) but a team from far away that has never won the title and in fact only promoted to the first division for the first time in 2003, Rubin Kazan. They had a dominant season and clinched the Championship with 3 games left to play.

[Grizzly]

No Jazic played for Kuban Krasnodar who are in the second tier first division but will promote to the Premiership next year. I like them because they are a team with good fan support. I think it is good for the league that a real outsider team has won this year albeit an outsider team with a lot of money (though also very well run and with less money than some of the Moscow teams and Zenit). The Russian league is quite balanced throughout the table and the Champion changes regularly but since 1995 when Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz won the Championship the winning team has always been from Moscow or St. Petersburg.

I support Shinnik Yaroslavl who unfortunately look like they will relegate next year to the 1st division. I think their history really shows how much and rapidly the Russian league has improved. Shinnik used to be a steady mid-table team in the RPL with a combination of young Russian players (some their own, some on loan from the Moscow teams), top national team players from smaller Eastern European countries and a few good Czech or Serb players. That got them relegated two years ago but they promoted again last year. Then they decided to supplement their best players from the promotion team with players from the Portugese and Turkish league. Not necessarily star players but steady starters on good teams in those leagues and bigger name players than they ever had before. When I saw who they signed in the offseason I was pretty hopeful but these players didn't seem to be good enough for the current RPL and Shinnik has been last most of the season.

[jpg75]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

Terek is in 11th place near the end of the season. They are not in contention for a European Cup spot but also out of danger as far as relegation goes. For the second year in a row a non-Moscow team wins the Russian title and this time not a big team from the 2nd largest city (last year's Champion Zenit St. Petersburg) but a team from far away that has never won the title and in fact only promoted to the first division for the first time in 2003, Rubin Kazan. They had a dominant season and clinched the Championship with 3 games left to play.

Rubin Kazan also have a pretty good KHL team...

Kazan is not a big city, but it's not that far away from Moscow. It's actually roughly the same distance to Moscow as St. Petersburg. (I recommend watching "Icons of Power" on Discovery, chronicling the conquest of Kazan by Ivan and his fledgling Russian empire)

[Grizzly]

It may not be huge like Moscow or st. Petersburg but Kazan is actually a big city with a population of 1.1 million. It is about 720 km from Moscow while St. Petersburg is about 630 km. Yet Petersburg is north-west of Moscow while Kazan is almost straight east. It is the last major city before the Ural region that divides Europe from Asia. It is pretty far from what is considered central (politically not geographically) Russia and on the edge of Europe so this is what I mean by saying it is far away. Of course given that Russia is so huge, especially the Asian part, one can certainly go much further east than Kazan. Kazan is also culturally far from Moscow in that it is primarily Muslim and the dominant ethnicity is Tatar not Russian. Tatarstan is one of the most industrial, wealthy and politically powerful of the non-Russian regions of the country and this is one of the reasons why it has a good soccer and hockey team. The Tatars consider themselves semi-independent and beating Moscow/Central Russia at anything is a source of big pride in the region.