Young Moldovan Lib Dems storm Moldova-1 for not broadcasting Ch. League matches featuring Romanian teams

The youth wing of the Moldovan Liberal Democratic Party on Wednesday staged a protest rally in front of the public broadcaster Moldova-1, condemning it for what they called “a tendency” to avoid airing Champions League matches featuring Romanian clubs. One of the organizers, Nighina Azizov argued the public broadcaster failed to air the quests of the Romanian teams for the Champions League trophy this year, although they play football as good as others. The protesters call for a polling instrument which would enable the general public to select the matches they would like to be shown on the public television. “Tonight we want to watch Steaua Bucuresti – Bayern Munich”, said Nicolae Loghin, one of the protesters. According to him, the Romanian teams should appear more often on TV, because they are closer to Moldova and because Moldova is home to more fans of Romanian clubs than of any other foreign teams. The public broadcasting company Teleradio-Moldova, which holds exclusive broadcast rights for the UEFA Champions League on Moldovan territory, said in a communique that, in selecting the match to be shown, Moldova-1 uses a televoting system on its official web-site. The method will be further used in scheduling the fixtures to be shown, the company added. “The party that staged this action aims to exploit nationalistic feelings to the detriment of a great sport; the real, narrow intentions of this party are concealed behind the football preferences of the so-called general public”, the communique states.