Chechnya's sporting chance

By Sapiet Dakhshukaeva BBC, Pyatigorsk, northern Caucasus

Terek football club is that rare thing - a Chechen success story.

The war killed off sport in Chechnya along with the rest of normal life - many footballers were forced to leave and some joined other clubs.

Terek has set its sights on the premier league

From the end of 1994, when the bombing started, up until 2000, Terek did not play a match.

But in three seasons the Grozny club have gone from the second division to near the top of the first and have their sights set on Russia's premier league.

And they have achieved this despite the fact that their "home" ground is currently 300 kilometres (185 miles) away from the Chechen capital, in a neighbouring Russian region.

Things actually started to go wrong for Terek even before the conflict began.

Intimidating environment

Visiting clubs could not get used to the way the fans celebrated a goal by shooting in the air with automatic rifles - even though their attitude to players and referees remained perfectly correct.

We need football now more than ever before Terek fans

In those years Grozny had already become a different world.

Now it is Terek and their fans who have to put up with travelling into what may seem to be an intimidating environment.

As long as the conflict continues, travelling to games in Russian cities exposes them to considerable risks.

It was precisely for this reason that the club were refused permission to use a larger stadium in the popular resort of Kislovodsk - the regional governor was concerned that possible incidents would keep tourists away.

Managers say that police who stop the Terek team bus on its way to matches always ask: "Who in Chechnya needs football, at a time like this?"

They just reply: "We need football now more than ever before."

'Our own team'

Even to get to a home match, at their adopted ground in Lermontov, near Pyatigorsk, fans have to travel through military checkpoints in Chechnya, and cross the borders of three North Caucasian republics - Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

The club has also developed a following among young local boys

About 100 of them make the journey on average. Fortunately, a group of young boys in Lermontov have also become loyal supporters, and help to cheer the team on.

"Everyone here supports Terek," said one. "They've become almost like our own team."

The club are supported with funds from Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, despite the fact that people in Chechnya are struggling to survive.

To some people it seems an inappropriate luxury.

But Terek have ambitions. As well as Chechens, they already has Russians, Ukrainians, Dagestanis, Ingush and Abkhaz and a Bulgarian in the squad, and it is waiting for a new cash injection to buy new players.

As well as hoping to get into the premier league, it is also planning, one day, to return to Grozny.

The city's mayor, Oleg Zhidkov, says this could happen as early as next year.