Romanian football under the lens of justice

16/05/2008

Romanian football has been at the core of many financial scandals resulting in nothing more than virtual decisions, but this time a suitcase containing 1.7m euros seems to have started a real investigation by the National Anticorruption Department. Or maybe not, bloggers hint.

By Paul Ciocoiu for Southeast European Times in Bucharest – 16/05/08

Corruption prosecutors are investigating Steaua Bucharest's president, Gigi Becali. [PNG]

Steaua Bucharest, the most renowned Romanian football team, was just one point behind CFR Cluj in their bracket of the national tournament. The Cluj team was to face another local team, Universitatea Cluj, in its final game of this season. If CFR Cluj won, it would become the national football champion for the first time. The stakes were high, and Steaua's managers knew it.

On game day, National Anticorruption Department (DNA) prosecutors stormed a café in downtown Cluj, where they found Steaua's representatives with a bag containing 1.7m euros, allegedly destined for the Universitatea Cluj players if they beat CFR Cluj and thus ensured the title for the Bucharest team, whose final match was a mere formality. CFR beat U Cluj and took the title, but the DNA prosecutors started a corruption investigation of Steaua Bucharest's president, Gigi Becali.

Under the title "The Last Warning", Catalin Tolontan, editor-in-chief of the widely circulated sports daily Gazeta Sporturilor, writes on his blog that the DNA investigation, "though risky for its own reputation, is a signal to football". "Whatever end it may have, this is the last warning," says the sports analyst. "It's time for money to stop determining the championship … this is the last chance before football moves into casinos," he said.

"Why does the Romanian Football Federation (FRF) include in its regulations the interdiction against motivating teams in order to play fairly as long as this is permitted in other championships?" Perfect Stranger writes. "Was U Cluj really going to need a suitcase full of money to play all out against CFR?"

10Cris derides the DNA operation. "There was no felony committed … The DNA should have waited for someone from U Cluj to take the money. It's got nothing. This is just a stunt to show the people how powerful and busy our anticorruption efforts are," he concluded.

Suporter fotbal (football supporter) calls for justice. "I hope that, at the last moment, justice is served in Romania. Steaua has to be sent to the second league and its owner put behind bars," he writes.

"The DNA action is just a ploy during the electoral campaign," JacK writes. "If Romanian justice had indeed functioned, we would have had so far at least a politician or a businessman in prison. But all the sentences are vacated or never even issued."