Sheriff Tiraspol

Sheriff Tiraspol's fiercest fixture is against Zimbru Chișinău, the club from Moldova's capital. Meetings between the two are known as the Moldovan derby, and some in the country have taken to calling it Moldova's own El Clasico — a match that has doubled for two decades as the clearest measure of who leads the domestic game.

That lead has belonged to Sheriff for most of the time since. The club grew out of Tiras Tiraspol, a side playing since 1996, and was refounded on 4 April 1997 under the Sheriff holding company, with Victor Gushan as president. From its first title in 2000, the club went on to finish top of Moldova in all but two seasons through 2022 — 21 championships in total. The Cup has followed a similar pattern: the first came in 1998, the most recent in 2025, fourteen in all.

None of that matched what happened on 28 September 2021, when Sheriff became the only Moldovan club to reach a Champions League group stage — and beat Real Madrid 2-1 away, at the Santiago Bernabéu, Sébastien Thill scoring in the 89th minute. Wins over Shakhtar Donetsk and Dinamo Zagreb followed in the same group.

The academy Sheriff opened in 2003 has sent players on, among them Chidi Odiah, who later moved to CSKA Moscow. Wilfried Balima, signed in 2005, stayed until 2020, played close to 400 games and left with 13 championship medals. Home matches are played at Sheriff Arena, officially listed at 12,746 seats, though the sports complex's own website gives a design capacity of 13,300.

The fourteenth Cup arrived in 2025. The derby with Zimbru, and the chase for whatever comes next, has not paused since.