Radio România Internațional

Tag: National Arena stadium

  • Sport Club RRI – Monument to the Golden Generation of Romanian football

    Sport Club RRI – Monument to the Golden Generation of Romanian football

    The 1990s were the best in the history of the Romanian national football team. The Romanian footballers qualified to three World Cup final tournaments, namely in 1990, in Italy, in 1994, when the competition was held in the United States, and in 1998, when France was the host. The furthest Romania ever reached was the quarterfinals played against Sweden in 1994, an opportunity wasted at the penalty shootout. The players who represented Romania in these competitions are said to form the so-called Golden Generation of Romanian football. Athletes such as Gheorghe Hagi, Gheorghe Popescu, Ionuţ Lupescu, Ilie Dumitrescu or Dan Petrescu also found recognition in big European clubs, with which they won major trophies over the years.

     

    A few days ago, a monument devoted to the Golden Generation was inaugurated in Bucharest, located in the immediate vicinity of National Arena Stadium. The sculpture was unveiled by Gheorghe Hagi and Ilie Dumitrescu. Attending the event were Florin Răducioiu, Jean Vlădoiu, Emil Săndoi, Dorin Mateuţ or Bogdan Stelea. Gheorghe Popescu exclusively told our colleague Eugen Cojocariu what this moment meant for him:

     

    “It’s an event that honors us, I don’t know if the Golden Generation was the most valuable. We had before us the generation of Cornel Dinu, Mircea Lucescu, Florea Dumitrache, then the generation of Ilie Balaci, Costică Ştefănescu and all the others, Michael Klein, Ioan Andone… But we are the generation that proved it is possible, the generation that grabbed the most important performances with the national team, and we are glad that our results are thus recognized”.

     

    In turn, Ilie Dumitrescu told us the secret behind such a valuable generation:

     

    “There were competitions for children and juniors at the highest level. And I really believe that the competition was also very, very strong at senior level. That’s how many players developed. Later, the results came in European competitions, at club level, as well as at the national team”.

     

    The monument devoted to the Golden Generation reproduces an oversized football goal, 4 meters high and 10 meters wide, a size chosen in relation to the space in which it is placed, in a roundabout way. A team of 10 people worked on the construction of the monument for almost two months, while other teams helped complete the project. (VP)

     

  • EURO 2020 kicks off in Bucharest

    EURO 2020 kicks off in Bucharest

    Bucharest on June 13 joined the family of European capital cities that will be hosting matches in the EURO 2020 football championship.
    We spoke to some of the North Macedonian and Austrian fans who flooded the streets of Bucharest, eager for a much-anticipated victory.

  • Big league football comes to Bucharest

    Big league football comes to Bucharest

    The 2020 edition of the European Football Championship kicks off on Friday.
    Postponed a year ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will be held, for
    the first time, in several cities members of UEFA. Overall, 11 cities will be
    hosting matches, from Glasgow to Baku, from Saint Petersburg to Seville. The opening
    match, hosted by Rome, will be pitting Italy against Turkey in Group A. Sunday,
    June 13, will see the first match hosted by Bucharest. Austria will be playing
    North Macedonia in Group C, a group also including the Netherlands and Ukraine.
    In total, Bucharest will host 4 matches. Ukraine will play North Macedonia on
    June 17, then on June 21 Ukraine will take on Austria. The other matches in
    Group C will be played in Amsterdam. The last match hosted by Bucharest will be
    in the round of 16, to be played on June 28.

    All games will be played on
    National Arena Stadium, the largest in Romania, with a total capacity of 55,600
    seats, of which a maximum of 13,000 will be made available for the match. For EURO
    2020, the stadium has undergone certain changes. Several technical areas have
    been modernized and the playing field was changed. The authorities also rennovated
    three stadiums in Bucharest where teams will be carrying out their pre-match
    training sessions: Steaua stadium, a place of legend for Romanian football fans,
    Triumphal Arch Stadium, which usually hosts matches of the Romanian national rugby
    squad, and finally, Valentin Stănescu stadium, the home
    stadium of Rapid Bucharest, which is still undergoing modernization works. North
    Macedonia will train on Steaua Stadium, Austria on Triumphal Arch stadium and
    Ukraine will be training on Anghel Iordănescu Stadium in Voluntari, close to Bucharest.

    Let us further note that had
    it qualified to EURO 2020, Romania would have played at least two of its
    matches in front of its own fans. Romania failed to qualify after ranking 4th
    in preliminary Group F. They were outranked by Spain, Sweden and Norway, but
    finished ahead of the Faeroe Islands and Malta. Following the results our team
    obtained in Nations League, the new European inter-nation competition, Romania had
    another shot at securing qualification to EURO 2020 by playing a playoff match
    against Iceland. Our team lost 2-1. Big-league football will come to Bucharest,
    but unfortunately, Romanians will be watching from the stands or in front of
    their TVs. (VP)



  • February 23, 2021

    February 23, 2021

    COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – The anti-COVID-19
    vaccination campaign continues in Romania. According to the National Committee
    for Coordinating Vaccination Activities, some 820 thousand people have been
    immunized, the total number of dozes administered so far exceeding 1.4 million.
    Most people have received the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. Other vaccines being
    administered in Romania right now are those developed by Moderna and
    AstraZeneca. A new batch of 200,000 Pfizer shots reached Romania on Monday. On
    Tuesday, the Group for Strategic Communication announced another 3,382 COVID
    infections reported in the last 24 hours and 119 related fatalities. The total
    number of infections has exceeded 784 thousand since the start of the pandemic.
    Over 20,000 people have died to the virus in Romania.




    COVID-19 IN THE WORLD – The total number
    of COVID-related deaths has exceed 500 thousand in the United States. President
    Joe Biden ordered flags be flown at half-mast on federal buildings for five
    days as a tribute paid to all the people who’ve died since the start of the
    pandemic a year ago. According to the latest worldometers.info update, over 112
    million infections have been confirmed so far in the world, and 2.5 million
    people have died. Over 87 million people have recovered. Meanwhile, European
    states are stepping up efforts to prevent the new COVID strains from spreading.
    Germany currently fears a third wave of the pandemic amidst plans to ease some
    of the restrictions recently introduced. Italy has announced an extension of
    restrictions on travel between regions until March 27 due to an increase in the
    infection rate. In turn, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a
    timetable for lifting the hard lockdown in this country in an effort to restart
    the British economy.




    VIDEOCONFERENCE – Romania’s
    President, Klaus Iohannis, is today attending a videoconference with European
    Council President, Charles Michel, and other EU leaders, ahead of the European
    Council meeting of February 25-26. In two days, European Council members will
    meet online to discuss the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a common
    response to health, security and defense threats. EU leaders will review
    epidemiological developments. As regards security and defense, they will hold a
    strategic debate on European policies in these fields. High on the agenda are
    also actions to boost EU resilience, especially against cyber-attacks and
    hybrid threats. Participants will also approach EU relations with states in the
    southern vicinity. In December, 2020, EU leaders underlined that a democratic,
    more stable, greener and more prosperous southern vicinity is a strategic
    priority for the EU.




    BUDGET – The draft state
    and social security budgets for 2021 are due to arrive later today in
    Parliament, after the Government operated several last-minute changes on Monday.
    The timetable for debating and voting the laws will be accelerated, as the
    ruling coalition want the budgets to be adopted by early next week at the
    latest. Coalition leaders agreed not to table any amendments. The
    Social-Democratic Party in opposition, on the other hand, has accused the
    Government of proposing an austerity budget amidst an economic crisis generated
    by the pandemic and said it is preparing thousands of amendments.




    PROTESTS – Representatives of
    the Sanitas Federation of trade unions are today staging a protest before the
    Parliament in Bucharest, calling on Romanian MPs to modify the 2021 budget law
    so that both the beneficiaries of healthcare services, as well as health
    workers should have access to quality healthcare services of European
    standards. The Sanitas Federation announced it would continue its series of protest
    actions until its demands are met. Also today other protests are organized in
    Bucharest by representatives of the National Federation of Trade Unions in Law
    Enforcement, who are in turn criticizing the Government’s salary policies.




    SANCTIONS – The Russian
    Foreign Ministry believes the new sanctions the EU is considering to introduce
    against Russia are illegal and a source of disappointment. EU Foreign Ministers
    on Monday agreed to introduce sanctions against four high-ranking Russian
    officials close to president Vladimir Putin. The measure is tied to the arrest
    and investigation of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and follows Brussels’
    repeated pleas for the observance of human rights in Russia.




    FOOTBALL – Atletico Madrid is
    taking on Chelsea London tonight on National Arena stadium in Bucharest in the
    first leg of the Champions League round of 16. The match will be played in
    front of empty stands. With over 54,000 seating capacity, the stadium will be
    hosting matches counting towards EURO 2020, due to kick off in four months.
    National Arena will also be hosting matches in the U21 European Championship in
    2023. The stadium hosted the Europa League final in 2012, which Atletico Madrid
    won against Athletic Bilbao. (V.P.)