Tavria fans have been split along political lines since the 2014 invasion of the peninsula When Russia won the right to host this year’s World Cup in 2010, Tavria Simferopol were in Ukraine’s top division. The club’s “ultras” – hardcore fans – sang patriotic songs, and nursed fond memories of Tavria’s biggest triumph: when the club won independent Ukraine’s first Premier League title in 1992. Eight years later, as the World Cup gets under way, there are two teams called Tavria: one still plays in Simferopol, the capital of Russian-annexed Crimea, and one plays across the newly drawn border in mainland Ukraine. Continue reading... |