Republican Stadium (Chisinau)

Construction

Chisinau Republican Stadium was built in 1952 . It was originally built in the version with two stands (there were no side stands). In 1956, the Burevestnik football club (as the current Zimbru team was called until 1957 ) entered the country's elite division, as a result of which the Council of Ministers of the MSSR issued an instruction to complete the stadium within two months: add side stands, reconstruct the already constructed ones, eliminate malfunctions. Construction was carried out in the winter. Nevertheless, the builders, instead of the deadline - April 1, 1956 - met the deadline until March 25. Work on the improvement of the territory, the construction of lighting masts and the installation of an electronic scoreboard were completed two months later ^[1] .

Reconstruction

In 1974, the Republican Stadium was reconstructed. After it, the largest sports complex of the republic, the Republican Chisinau Stadium, occupied an area of ​​10,000 square meters and included:

• Football field.
• Treadmills.
• Pavilion with gyms for wrestling and weightlifting classes.
• Inflatable gym (40x20 meters).
• Athletics Arena (80x8 meters).

In the tribune rooms of the Republican stadium were located:

• Republican Sports and Medical Center.
• Halls for general physical training.
• Locker rooms.
• Bicycle base.

The stands were designed for 21580 seats. An electronic scoreboard (10 x 20 meters) was installed at the stadium. Several lighting masts were installed ^[2] .

The stadium hosted many sporting events: matches of the USSR Football Championship, the opening of the MSSR Spartakiad , republican youth sports games, various sports events, USSR championships and championships in various sports, international meetings of national athletics teams and other sports ^[2] .

On the territory of the Republican stadium, many sports sections were organized: football , track and field athletics, weightlifting , tennis .

Stadium in the independent Republic of Moldova

Since 1991 , in the independent Republic of Moldova , the Republican Stadium has become the only one in which it was allowed to host home matches of the national team. Already at that time, it did not comply with European standards for stadiums of this level. The only thing that was done to repair the sports facility - instead of the old wooden benches, plastic seats were installed. In the course of the work, it turned out that the North and South (side) stands of the stadium were so unusable that they could not even withstand the replacement of seats. No money was allocated to repair the emergency stands, the stadium was in distress. Side stands were closed ^[3] . The stadium capacity dropped to 8084 spectators ^[4] .

In the 1990s, various football clubs held trainings and matches at the Republican Stadium, held rock concerts and meetings of religious sects . Nevertheless, it was not possible to raise funds for the full reconstruction of the stadium. The stands were in disrepair; the pitch was of extremely poor quality. Some of the facilities in the Republican stadium were privately owned by third parties. The Israeli cultural center was located in the southern part of the sports complex. In the eastern part of the stadium, a car repair shop was opened. The Kangaroo sports club was opened in the northeastern part, later these premises were transferred to the Squash Federation of the Republic of Moldova, as well as the Hvarang martial arts club. In the northwestern part, car parking and a private tennis club were opened ^[3] .

In 2003, the UEFA and FIFA Commissioners prohibited the Republican Stadium from holding competitions under the auspices of these organizations. The matches of the Moldavian national team had to be held at the Sheriff Tiraspol stadium (in the territory of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldavian Republic ). The question arose about the reconstruction of the Republican stadium. But the question of raising funds for the reconstruction (the project proposed by the Director General of the Department of Youth and Sports Sergey Kornetskiy, was estimated at between $ 10 and $ 20 million) was not resolved ^[5] . In 2006, FIFA and UEFA offered to pay for the reconstruction of the stadium, as stated by Michel Platini, member of the executive committee of FIFA and UEFA ^[6] . According to one version, why UEFA and FIFA did not finance the project of reconstruction of the stadium, this is a failure by the country's authorities to demand European officials to transfer the stadium to the balance of the Football Federation of Moldova ^[3] .

Stadium demolition

After an attempt to repair the stadium by the Zimbru team and the Football Federation of Moldova (the lawn was replaced in some parts of the field, the stands were replaced and the lighting was replaced), the stadium was again closed for international matches. The question arose again about the reconstruction of the stadium. In early 2007, the Football Federation of Moldova announced that a certain investor was ready to allocate funds for the reconstruction of the stadium. The Government of the Republic of Moldova decided to demolish all the buildings on the territory of the Republican Stadium and transfer its territory to the Football Federation.

On June 15, 2007, the demolition of the stadium began. On August 22, 2007, the wasteland, administrative building, and those buildings that were privately owned by third parties remained from the old stadium. However, the construction of a new arena has not been started. Moreover, it was announced that, by a decision of the Government of Moldova, the right to build a Republican stadium was transferred from the Football Federation to the national Sports Agency. According to the then head of the Moldovan Sports Agency, Andrei Cmil , at the time the demolition of the sports facility was completed, the Football Federation had neither a contract with an investor, nor funds for reconstruction, nor a project for the construction of a new building, and this was personally stated by the president of the Football Federation of Moldova in the presence of the prime ministers - Minister of the country. After that, the transfer of construction rights to the Sports Agency took place ^[3] . According to the president of the Football Federation of Moldova Petro Ciobanu, the investor did not invest until the entire territory of the sports complex, including buildings in private hands, was completely cleared ^[3] .

In March 2008, Andrei Chmil announced that the stadium would remain in place and would comply with all FIFA and UEFA standards. A year later, the reconstruction of the stadium was supposed to be completed ^[7] . Nevertheless, on September 17, 2008, Andrei Chmil was dismissed by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Moldova. The reason was the machinations of Chmil with the reconstruction of the Republican stadium. The construction of the new arena was to be undertaken by the Belgian company MGL Business, whose representatives were counting on a 50% stake. The other half of the shares was to go to the state. Nevertheless, the Belgians were offered other conditions under which the share of profits had to go to the office of Chmil. In addition, a new project promoted by the Sports Agency included the construction of a smaller stadium, and a hotel and residential complexes were to be built in the liberated territories. As a result, the reconstruction of the Republican stadium was transferred to Vladimir Baldovic, Minister of Construction and Development of the Territories of Moldova ^[8] .

As of July 2011 , the reconstruction of the Chisinau Republican Stadium has not been started.

On June 16, 2011, a group of investors from Turkey proposed to finance the construction of a new Republican stadium in place of the old one. The Turkish Housing Agency may be building a new sports arena in Chisinau ^[9] .

The Chisinau Republican stadium, despite being in a ruined state, could become a place for a kind of sporting event on May 13, 2011 . On this day, public debates of candidates for mayors of Chisinau were organized on television. The debate was ignored by the PML candidate Dorin Chirtoaca , they were addressed only by the PCRM candidate Igor Dodon , who asked Chirtoaca 13 questions that he did not solve during his first term as mayor. In response, Chirtoaca invited Igor Dodon and his Communist Party associates on the same day to a football match, which was supposed to take place at the place where the ruins of the Republican Stadium were located. The team of the Liberal Party of Moldova gathered the press and came to the ruined stadium in sports uniform and with the ball. For the press, Chirtoaca made a statement in which he accused the Party of Communists of destroying the stadium and added that "this is their [PCRM] style, therefore, it is impossible to allow the representative of the Communists to become mayor." PCRM representatives ignored the call and did not appear at the stadium, so the football match did not take place ^[10] .

• Stadium page on WorldStadiums.com