Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian Football Federation

  • December 9, 2020

    December 9, 2020

    COVID-19 IN ROMANIA – On Wednesday another 7,365 new COVID-19 infections and 161 related
    deaths were announced. 1,271 people are in intensive care. Most new cases were
    reported in the capital-city Bucharest, where the infection rate has reached
    6.5 per thousand inhabitants. The total number of infections has exceeded 532
    thousand. Nearly 80% of people infected have recovered. The national death toll
    has reached 12,821. Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis said the first batch of
    the 3 million COVID-19 ordered tests will be arriving within the week. Days
    from now the authorities are also expecting the delivery of the 300 ventilators
    for intensive care units.




    COVID-19 IN THE WORLD – The global number of infections has exceeded 68.5
    million while over 1.5 million people have died to the virus since the start of
    the outbreak, the latest worldometers.info update reveals. Over 47 million
    people around the world have recovered. The United States is the most affected
    country, with over 15.5 million infections and at least 293 thousand people dead.
    On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive decree, ensuring that
    American citizens will be the first to be administered anti-COVID-19 vaccines
    developed by American pharmaceutical companies. American health experts have
    accused the President’s unethical decision, according to which the rest of the
    world will have to mainly rely on European-based drug manufacturers. Meanwhile,
    the anti-COVID-19 vaccination campaign started in Great Britain, which is the
    first country in the world to approve the vaccine developed by Pfizer. People
    over 80 years old and health workers will be the first to receive the vaccine,
    which experts say has a 95% efficiency. Over 62 thousand people have died in
    Great Britain to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.




    NEGOTIATION
    – As the vote count for Sunday’s parliamentary election is drawing to a close,
    negotiations are starting over the structure of the new Government. The
    center-right political parties are trying to reach consensus over forming a
    majority in Parliament, ahead of consultations with President Klaus Iohannis.
    The Liberal Party, currently in power, the party that grabbed the second
    highest number of votes on December 6, claims they can make up a Parliament
    majority with the Save Romania Union – PLUS Alliance and the Democratic Union
    of Ethnic Hungarians. Party officials estimate they can rely on a comfortable
    majority of 244 MPs, adding to which will be representatives of national
    minorities. The three center-right parties must now agree on a governing
    program and distribute the 16 Ministries among themselves. On the other hand,
    the Social-Democratic Party has also expressed its willingness to govern,
    considering it grabbed the highest number of votes in the election. The
    Social-Democrats said they are entitled to nominate the Prime Minister, based
    on the result in the election, and thus will not be voting for a Liberal
    Cabinet. The Social-Democrats will be proposing Dr. Alexandru Rafila, a WHO
    expert, for the position of Prime Minister. The Social-Democratic Party is
    willing to accept two options: either a minority Government led by the
    Social-Democratic Party, or a technocratic Government led by a Social-Democrat
    Prime Minister. For the first time in the history of Romania, Parliament will
    also include the Alliance for the Union of Romanians, a recently founded
    far-right party, which grabbed the fourth-highest number of votes in the
    parliamentary election.




    BREXIT -
    Over 670 thousand Romanians have filed for residence rights in the United
    Kingdom, considering immigration rules will change for European citizens
    arriving in this country starting January 2021. According to data provided by
    an association defending the interests of European citizens in the UK, citizens
    from Poland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and France also filed a large number of
    such applications. Over 3.9 million applications were filed until September,
    59% of applicants having received the status of permanent resident. This status
    is granted to people who can provide proof of 5 years’ continuous residence on
    British territory, allowing them to continue to work and receive social welfare
    after Brexit.




    FOOTBALL -
    The Romanian Football Federation has taken note of the incident reported in the
    Champions League match pitting PSG of France against Istanbul Basaksehir. The
    match was suspended after Romanian Sebastian Colţescu, the fourth official
    delegated for that match, used a racist term to describe the assistant manager
    of the Turkish club, Cameroonian Pierre Achille Webo, whom the central referee,
    Romanian Ovidiu Haţegan, showed a red booking. Right after the incident the
    technical staff of the Turkish club and all its players walked off the pitch on
    minute 16. The Union of European Football Association announced it will launch
    a comprehensive investigation, while the match, counting towards Champions
    League Group H, will be resumed tonight with new referees. In a post on its
    website, the Romanian Football Federation firmly distanced itself from any
    racist or xenophobic action or statement. (V. Palcu)

  • Football falls victim to COVID-19

    Football falls victim to COVID-19

    EURO
    2020, originally scheduled to kick off in 3 months, has been postponed for June
    11 – July 11, 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, UEFA has announced. 24
    teams are competing in the event, and matches will be played in 12 cities in 12
    countries, including the capital city Bucharest, which will play host to 4
    matches. To qualify Romania must compete in the playoffs, first playing Iceland
    in June. If it emerges victorious, Romania will next take on the winner of the
    match pitting Bulgaria against Hungary. Postponing EURO 2020 will provide domestic
    championships and inter-club competitions such as Champions League and Europa
    League the opportunity to reach the end of the season by June 30, by relaxing
    the competition schedule.

    The measure however entails huge costs for UEFA, as
    its president Aleksander Ceferin has said. The UEFA official pointed out that
    the well-being of fans, technical staff and players should be the top priority.
    A number of friendly matches have been cancelled as well, including the one
    pitting Romania against England on June 7. Meanwhile the Romanian championship
    has been postponed pending an official decision to lift the state of emergency
    in mid-April, the president of the Romanian Football Federation, Razvan
    Burleanu, has announced. President Burleanu also pointed out that the measure
    will generate scores of financial and logistical problems to all parties
    involved. The Federation is looking into various options to finalize all the 53
    national football competitions. At global level, Copa America, the most
    important South-American inter-state competition, has also been postponed for
    2021.


    (Translated
    by V. Palcu)



  • Same leader at the helm of the Romanian Football Federation

    Same leader at the helm of the Romanian Football Federation

    Răzvan Burleanu will continue to be the president of the Romanian Football Federation in the following four years. The current president of the federation, who took office in 2014, Burleanu got a new mandate on Wednesday. He won the votes of 168 of the 254 affiliated members. His main contender, former football player Ionuţ Lupescu, got only 78 of the cast votes. Marcel Puşcaş, former president of FC Steaua Bucureşti, got 8 votes, whereas the fourth candidate, Ilie Drăgan, former lecturer at the Federal Coach Training School didn’t get any vote.



    Răzvan Burleanu’s decisive victory came as a big surprise to many. Ionuţ Lupescu, a former football player of Romania’s Golden Generation in the 1990s, seemed to be the favourite in the competition. He enjoyed the support of many successful football personalities, such as Romania’s most famous coach, Mircea Lucescu or outstanding footballers like Cristian Chivu.



    Burleanu counted however only on those with the right to vote, namely the clubs’ representatives, whom he convinced with his activity report: “The Romanian Football Federation is, as of today, a football management institution and not a simple administrator of competitions, resources, or a simple collector of taxes, subscriptions and contributions. We have a vision, we have a plan and a very good team, to carry on.”



    Răzvan Burleanu secured victory thanks to the support of representatives of smaller, lower league clubs, of Romanian women’s football or indoor football. According to the media, only two First League clubs endorsed Burleanu: CFR Cluj and FC Botoşani, the rest choosing to support Lupescu.



    It mattered more that all throughout his term in office, since 2014 onward, Burleanu has clearly committed himself to supporting lower league clubs: “We are responsible for the thousands of children, boys and girls, who are playing football today in the competitions we have initiated. We owe them a future, the future of Romanian football. We should also show responsibility towards the second and third leagues, competitions that we try to build and promote, competitions that others would throw into the darkness of anonymity, because they do not bring in much money. The Romanian Football Federation, as its name suggests it, should federate, that is to join in a federation, the will and interests of each echelon”.



    The poor results at international level, such as the national football team’s failing to qualify for the World Cup, a competition that Romania last participated in in 1998 didn’t matter most in the elections, but Burleanu touched upon this issue, without however making any promises: “We can’t guarantee that we will qualify for final tours and tournaments. We all want to achieve this, but nobody can guarantee such a thing. Neither the players and coaches, nor those in the administration can make such a promise… But I guarantee, together with my team, that the implementation of all these projects will create the best framework to secure future qualifications”.


    Răzvan Burleanu’s new mandate as president of the Romanian Football Federation expires in 2022.


  • April 18, 2018

    April 18, 2018

    B 9 – Romanias President, Klaus Iohannis, has today opened the first summit of the Bucharest Format, B9, a parliamentary diplomacy meeting attended by representatives of nine European countries and NATO high officials. The Romanian president has said the national parliaments of the B9 member states play a key role in fairly sharing responsibilities within NATO, particularly by approving budgets meant to support a more daring NATO joint security and defence approach. On this occasion, president Iohannis has underlined that since as early as 2017 Romania allots 2% of the GDP for defence, every year. The conference is aimed at consolidating the role of national parliaments relative to security and defence issues. Some of the issues on the agenda of talks are strengthening NATOs eastern flank, preparations for the NATO summit due in Brussels in July and fighting terrorism. The event will come to a close on Thursday.



    REVOLUTION CASE – The Prosecutor General has today announced that Teodor Brateş, the main TVq presenter and anchor of the Public Television Company between December 22 and 24 1989, during the events which led to the fall of communism in Romania is being indicted for having been the main factor of disseminating fake, diversionist news, thus inducing a general psychosis regarding terrorists which deeply affected the whole population. On Tuesday, in the same case, army prosecutors announced the extension of the interval for the criminal prosecution of the former president of the country Ion Iliescu to December 27-31. Last week, the current president Klaus Iohannis endorsed the start of the criminal prosecution of Ion Iliescu, of the former Prime Minister Petre Roman and of the former deputy Prime Minister Gelu Voican Voculescu, who can be sent to court for crimes against humanity. According to prosecutors, the armed incidents that occurred after December 22, in several towns and cities across Romania, are indicative of the fact that everything occurred as the result of a pre-established plan, aimed at helping the new leaders take over power and gain legitimacy. According to official statistics, in December 1989 over 1,100 people were killed and more than 3,000 were wounded.



    ID CARDS– Identity cards held by EU citizens above the age of 12 will be required
    to include biometric data, fingerprints and facial images, the European
    Commission proposed on Tuesday. Thus,
    the European Commission wants that common security standards be introduced at
    community level. However, around 80 million Europeans currently have ID cards
    without biometric identifiers, so these documents cannot be scanned. The move
    taken by the EC is part of a crackdown on the criminal use of ID cards, by terrorists and criminals who want to enter the EU,
    coming from countries outside the community bloc.



    ANTI-CORRUPTION – The National Anti-corruption Directorate, DNA, has called on the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, to endorse the start of prosecution against former finance minister Sebastian Vlădescu. He is suspected of two bribe taking offences while he was a member of the government. In the same case, prosecution started against former MP Cristian Boureanu. The corruption offences were allegedly related to the signing and implementation of the contracts for the rehabilitation of the Bucharest- Constanta railway, as well as the recovery of the remaining VAT, for rehabilitation works on another railway, between 2005 and 2014.



    FOOTBALL – The General Assembly of the Romanian Football Federation (FRF) is today electing the future president of this forum for the following four years. The main candidates are the current president, Răzvan Burleanu, and former Romanian football player Ionuţ Lupescu, who had been the director of UEFAs Development and Technical Assistance Committee until February. 257 affiliated members have the right to vote in the elections for the leadership of the Romanian Football Federation. The campaign for the presidency of the Federation has been given wide coverage by the media, against the backdrop of mutual accusations being levelled by Burleanu and Lupescu.

  • Football Flash

    Football Flash


    Italys AS Rome, currently the club of Romanian defender Stefan Radu, on Wednesday lost 4-1 to FC Barcelona, on home turf. The match counted towards the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals. Radu was unavailable due to an injury. Barcelona had luck on its side throughout the game, as the first two goals were actually own goals, scored by Daniele de Rossi and Kostas Manolas. Scoring for Barcelona were Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez, while Romes only goal was scored by Edin Dzeko.



    Three candidates have enrolled in the race for the presidency of the Romanian Football Federation: the current president Razvan Burleanu, the former football legend and director of UEFAs Technical Committee Ionut Lupescu, as well as Marcel Puscas, a former footballer, coach, club president and agent. On April 18, 2018 the Federations General Assembly is due to vote the next president, who will stay in office for the next 4 years. 257 affiliated members will cast their vote in the election.



    Gheorghe Multescu was appointed coach at Astra Giurgiu. This will be Multescus third spell at the helm of Astra, after previously coaching the team in the 2001-2002 and 2012-2013 seasons. Dan Petrescu, currently the head coach of CFR Cluj, the team in runner-up position in League 1, has extended his contract with the team for another two seasons. CFR signed Dan Petrescu in June, 2017.



    The fourth round in the group phase of the 2017-2018 football season will be played this weekend. In Group 1, on Friday, CSMS Iasi will play Viitorul Constanta. CFR Cluj will take on Astra Giurgiu, while FCSB will play Universitatea Craiova in the rounds highlight match. FCSB tops the league tables with 35 points, followed by CFR Cluj with the same number of points but a lower goal average, and Universitatea Craiova with 31 points. In Group 2, on Saturday, FC Botosani will play FC Voluntari while Dinamo Bucharest will play the visiting side Concordia Chiajna. On Monday, Gaz Metan Medias will face Poli Timisoara at home, while Juventus Bucharest will play Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe.


  • Football Flash

    Football Flash


    Italys AS Rome, currently the club of Romanian defender Stefan Radu, on Wednesday lost 4-1 to FC Barcelona, on home turf. The match counted towards the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals. Radu was unavailable due to an injury. Barcelona had luck on its side throughout the game, as the first two goals were actually own goals, scored by Daniele de Rossi and Kostas Manolas. Scoring for Barcelona were Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez, while Romes only goal was scored by Edin Dzeko.



    Three candidates have enrolled in the race for the presidency of the Romanian Football Federation: the current president Razvan Burleanu, the former football legend and director of UEFAs Technical Committee Ionut Lupescu, as well as Marcel Puscas, a former footballer, coach, club president and agent. On April 18, 2018 the Federations General Assembly is due to vote the next president, who will stay in office for the next 4 years. 257 affiliated members will cast their vote in the election.



    Gheorghe Multescu was appointed coach at Astra Giurgiu. This will be Multescus third spell at the helm of Astra, after previously coaching the team in the 2001-2002 and 2012-2013 seasons. Dan Petrescu, currently the head coach of CFR Cluj, the team in runner-up position in League 1, has extended his contract with the team for another two seasons. CFR signed Dan Petrescu in June, 2017.



    The fourth round in the group phase of the 2017-2018 football season will be played this weekend. In Group 1, on Friday, CSMS Iasi will play Viitorul Constanta. CFR Cluj will take on Astra Giurgiu, while FCSB will play Universitatea Craiova in the rounds highlight match. FCSB tops the league tables with 35 points, followed by CFR Cluj with the same number of points but a lower goal average, and Universitatea Craiova with 31 points. In Group 2, on Saturday, FC Botosani will play FC Voluntari while Dinamo Bucharest will play the visiting side Concordia Chiajna. On Monday, Gaz Metan Medias will face Poli Timisoara at home, while Juventus Bucharest will play Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe.


  • May 26, 2017 UPDATE

    May 26, 2017 UPDATE

    GHITA MAKES BAIL — The Supreme Court in Serbia on Friday agreed to release former Romanian MP Sebastian Ghita on bail. Ghita paid the 200-thousand-euro bail and is forbidden to leave Belgrade without court approval. Sebastian Ghita must also check in with the local police twice every month. Wanted in a corruption investigation, Ghita fled Romania at the end of 2016, one day before his parliamentary immunity expired as he was supposed to be deposed by anti-corruption investigators. After an international arrest warrant was issued in his name, Ghita was last month arrested in Belgrade after presenting a fake Slovenian ID, an offense punishable by up to three years in prison in Serbia, a non-EU member state.



    CAIRO ATTACK — The Romanian Foreign Ministry has condemned Friday’s terrorist attack close to Minya, Egypt, expressing regret and solidarity with the Egyptian people and the Coptic Christian community, also reiterating our country’s full support to international efforts to combat all forms of terrorism. At least 28 people were killed after masked individuals opened fire on a bus carrying members of the Coptic Christian minority. The Islamic State has recently claimed the suicide bomb attacks targeting Coptic churches. Coptic Christians account for the largest Christian community in the Middle East and the oldest in Egypt, considered a beacon of Sunni Islam.



    DRILL 4 thousand troops from Romania and other NATO countries are participating until June 16th in ‘Noble Jump 2017’, the biggest multinational NATO exercise this year on the territories of Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. The Romanian troops will be joining their counterparts from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Norway, Albania and Bulgaria and will make use of 500 technical means, the Romanian Defence Ministry informs. The drill will culminate with the artillery fire in the shooting range of Cincu, in central Romania. ‘Noble Jump 2017’ is aimed at testing the operational capabilities of the elements of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force and the level of implementing the action plan for increasing the Alliance’s Response in Bulgaria and Romania.



    SUMMIT Heads of government from the world’s most industrialized countries have convened in Sicily for a G7 summit. This is the first G7 summit attended by the president of the United States, Donald Trump. The summit will be the most difficult of recent years, European Council president Donald Tusk has said, calling for solidarity among G7 states, saying that without determination and unity, things might get out of control at global level. According to the BBC, agreements on fighting extremist violence and talks with the Japanese Prime Minister on threats posed by North Korea are high on the agenda. The summit is also expected to see divergent opinions regarding the climate change or trade. The crisis in Ukraine, the sanctions on Moscow and migration will also be tackled during talks.



    MEASLES — Romanian Health Minister Florian Bodog on Friday said that 110 thousand shots of MMR vaccine have been delivered to county healthcare authorities. The Romanian official added that the vaccination law will be debated by Parliament, saying that vaccination is the only way to prevent measles. Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu has called into attention the fact that the vaccination rate in Romania stays around 60% instead of a desired 95% and in order to stop these outbreaks the country might need compulsory vaccination. On Friday a four-month girl died of measles complications, a disease she got from her underage mother in Romania’s rural area. This is the sixth death caused by the disease in the county of Dolj, southwestern Romania and the 27th around Romania in the past months. Since 2016 Romania has seen a series of measles outbreaks mainly in children under fifteen; 6 thousand cases of infection have been reported so far.



    MAYOR The mayor general of Chisinau, the capital of the neighboring Republic of Moldova, an ex-soviet Romanian-speaking country, the pro-Western Liberal Dorin Chirtoaca was placed under 30-day house arrest on Friday by anti-corruption prosecutors for influence peddling. Deputy mayor Nistor Grozavu, a head of department and several other persons had been arrested in the same file. Upon Chirtoaca’s direction they had allegedly forged a public bid for paid parking lots around the capital. Chirtoaca got elected in 2007 to become at the age of 39, the youngest mayor of a European capital city. Chirtoaca is one of the most prominent leaders of the Liberal Party supporting the country’s EU and NATO accession and the union with Romania at the same time categorically opposing the pro-Russia direction promoted by socialist president Igor Dodon. As a sign of protest against Chirtoaca’s arrest, representatives of the Liberal Party have withdrawn from power, claiming that the investigations targeting several members of their party are politically instrumented, favouring pro-Russian parties.



    MEDIA Mass-media in Romania cannot accomplish its main responsibility, namely to inform the public and is repeatedly acting as a mouthpiece for various political and trade interests violating journalistic norms of unbiased, balanced and complete information. This is the main conclusion of the report Media Pluralism Monitor 2016, an instrument monitoring the risks of the media pluralism in the EU and outside set up by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom with EU support. According to the report, although legislative provisions in Romania are offering a solid framework, the inconsistent implementation of these provisions and practices are leading to these risks. The report also says that the development of Romania’s mass-media market is dominated by televison; the Internet use is on the rise and the printed press users are diminishing. Rapid Internet development and the availability of free content is making the survival of traditional publications very difficult in a country where people aren’t used to reading and paying for the news, the report also says.



    FOOTBALL — The Romanian Football Federation’s Board of Directors on Friday voted against a request filed by the Professional Football League to ratify the rankings of the First Football League before the end of the football season. The decision gives little chances to FSCB, the former Steaua Bucharest, to challenge the title won by FC Viitorul at the Lausanne Court of Arbitration for Sport. The First League standings for the 2016-2017 football season will be ratified in a board meeting scheduled for June 5. FCSB ended the season with the same number of points as Viitorul and claims it should have been the winner, given it has favourable results in the last 4 direct encounters with Viitorul. In another development, Dinamo Bucharest won the League Cup, while the Romanian Cup final is pitting FC Voluntari against Astra Giurgiu on Saturday.



    TENNIS — Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea, 67 WTA, on Friday lost to Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic. On the same day Cirstea defeated Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, 28 WTA. The match was interrupted on Thursday, with Cirstea leading 2-1 in sets and 4-all in games. In another development, Marius Copil has qualified to the Roland Garros main graw after defeating Peter Gojowczyk of Germany. This is the first time Marius Copil qualifies to the Roland Garros main draw. (Translated by D. Bilt & V. Palcu)


  • Romanian Football is Facing a Major Crisis

    Romanian Football is Facing a Major Crisis






    Nothing sparks
    off more heated debates in Romania save for politics and football. If in
    politics, likes and dislikes are shared between the left and the right, between
    those in power and the opposition, between one politician or another, the
    national football side is believed to represent all the Romanians. And everyone
    seems to share the belief of a former football star, Sorin Cartu, according to
    whom, we’ve had the most lackluster national team since the 70s, after the
    Romanian eleven came a cropper in their attempt to qualify for the round of 16 at
    EURO 2016 in France.

    After conceding a one-nil defeat to Albania on June 19th,
    an unprecedented result since 1948, our footballers ended up in the last
    position of Group A with only one point out of three games. In the first two
    matches, Romania had been outperformed by the host country 1-2, holding
    Switzerland to a one-all draw in their second game. Before calling for the
    resignation of the headcoach and the bosses at the Federation, Romanian sports
    daily Gazeta Sporturilor wrote: ‘with
    outmoded headcoach Anghel Iordanescu at the helm, our team proved to be in dire
    need of a working attack strategy, putting up a show with a lot of mistakes in
    the defence line and by its goalie.’


    A week after
    Romania’s failure at Euro 2016, the Romanian Football Federation chief, Razvan
    Burleanu, has announced that the national team’s coach will not have his
    contract prolonged; Iordanescu’s contract is due to expire this summer. His
    replacement is to be announced by the end of EURO 2016, Burleanu has also told
    a news conference in which he blamed the recent failure on the disastrous
    situation inherited from his predecessor, Mircea Sandu, who withdrew in 2014
    after almost half a century of discretionary rule of the federation. Burleanu
    has described the situation as a ‘desert’ or a ‘swamp’, and to a certain
    extent, pundits agree with him, pointing the finger at the endemic corruption
    in the Romanian football, which is on the brink of bankruptcy and at the bottom
    end of competitive sports.


    Both Sandu and
    the former head of the Professional Football League, Dumitru Dragomir are
    facing corruption charges in several legal investigations. Numerous former
    agents, club chairs and owners have already been placed behind bars.
    Debt-burdened football clubs are struggling with insolvency and some are already
    in the red. If their predecessors in the 90s were in the lineups of famous
    sides such as Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan or Ajax Amsterdam, Romanian
    international players are today substitutes of teams in the Balkans or the Persian
    Gulf. However, all these are nothing but poor excuses for the lack of
    professionalism of the incumbent Federation bosses, who seem to have come out
    of the blue, and are being held in place with support from the political class
    and the intelligence services, as newspapers speculate. Preliminaries for the
    World Cup 2018 in Russia are due to begin on September 4th, and
    being part of a group, which also includes Denmark, Montenegro, Armenia and
    Kazahstan, Romania stands poor chances to qualify.