Radio România Internațional

Tag: UEFA Nations League

  • Sports Flash

    Sports Flash

    The Romanian national football team was awarded a 3-0 win by default from UEFA in the match against Kosovo. The announcement came on Wednesday after Friday’s Nations League game ended before the final whistle, the visiting side walking off the field. At the same time, the Football Federation of Kosovo was fined 6,000 EUR for what UEFA has called “inappropriate behavior”. The Romanian Football Federation was also severely sanctioned, found guilty of several violations and fined a total of 128,000 EUR. The Federation received a 50,000 EUR-fine and the team will play the next home match in front of empty stands after football fans shouted anti-Hungarian chants. The Romanian Federation will have to pay another 30,000 EUR after fans conveyed “provocative political messages, inappropriate for a sporting event”. Other smaller fines were given for throwing objects from the stands onto the field, for lighting torches, for using lasers, for disturbing the national anthems and for blocking access routes. At the same time, the Federation was warned against the inappropriate behavior of the national team.

     

    The Romanian team thus finished first in the group and will leave League C, being promoted to League B. At the same time, the footballers will have an additional chance to qualify to the 2026 World Cup, hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. The best four group winners in Nations League, excluding the teams finishing in the top two positions in preliminary groups, will take part in play-off matches for the World Cup. They will join the 12 runner-up teams from the main qualifying phase. There will be four play-off groups, each with four teams that will compete in a final tournament system, which will determine the final four teams that will qualify to the World Cup. The draw for the European qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup will take place on December 13, in Zurich. (VP)

  • Romania’s U-21 team has gone through to the UEFA 2021 European Under-21 Championship.

    Romania’s U-21 team has gone through to the UEFA 2021 European Under-21 Championship.


    Romania this past Tuesday held Denmark to a 1-all draw on home turf. The repeated performance earned Romanias U-21 team the qualification to a European championship. The game against Denmark was quite tense, with unpardonable refereeing mistakes, of which at least one could have deprived the Romanian team of qualification. However, the goal scored by the young Valentin Costache saved a game which was compromised, apparently. At the end of Romanias game against Denmark, the head-coach of Romanias U-21 team, former international footballer Adrian Mutu, said it would have been a pity for his team not to grab the win, because of the concocted penalties. Mutu went on to heap praise on his players, saying they were exceptional footballers who in the future will be part of the seniors team. Adrian Mutu did not fail to extend his thanks to his predecessor who was at the helm of the seniors team, Mirel Radoi, who contributed to the success of the team.



    According to the groups final rankings, Denmark came at the top of the table. Following in descending order were Romania, Ukraine, Finland, Northern Ireland and Malta. The nine teams that came at the top of the table in the preliminary groups as well as the best five teams in the runner-up position will join host teams Hungary and Slovenia for UEFA 2021 European Under-21 Championship. Matches as part of the four groups of the final tournament are scheduled for March 2021. The teams that will go though from the group stage, the first two teams in descending order will fight for the European title in the eliminatory stages scheduled in Hungary and Slovenia, over May 31 and June 6, 2021.



    The footballer who scored the goal in the match against Denmark, Valentin Costache, voiced his hope that at the 2021 edition of the European Under-21 Championship Romanias U-21 teams performance would be on a par with the remarkable feat the team succeeded in the previous edition of the championship, jointly held in Italy and San Marino. Back them the team reached as far as the semifinals. We recall defending champion team Germany eliminated Romania, a team that had the upper hand for the first half of the game. It was an auspicious tournament for Romanian footballers.The team qualified for the semifinals from the top position in a strong group which included Croatia and England, teams Romania outclassed, as well as France, a team Romania held to a blank draw. In 2019, Romanias qualification was tantamount to booking the tickets for the Tokyo Olympics, delayed until 2021 because of the pandemic. Everybody spoke highly of Romanias U-21 team, yet that cannot avoid the mediocrity the seniors team has indulged in so far. Pundits also ask what happens with the U-21 footballers when they grow mature. Former international footballer Mirel Radois remarkable feats with the U-21 team earned him the position of head-coach for the seniors team. However, with Radoi at the helm, the seniors team failed to qualify for the European championship. At the moment, the only thing the national team can do is fight for a better position in the recently-invented UEFA Nations League. Such a position might create a better chance ahead of the drawing of lots for the next edition of the World Championship.



    Romanias last participation in a world championship occurred in 1998, in France.


    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)




  • September 8, 2018

    September 8, 2018

    Trump — Iohannis — The American President Donald Trump expressed regret for having cancelled the meeting with his Romanian counterpart Klaus Iohannis at the June NATO summit hosted by Brussels. Mr. Trump had to cancel all of his bilateral meetings at the June summit due to the prolonged heated debates about the money each member state is allotting to defense. In a letter quoted by news agencies, the White House leader also writes that he hopes to meet the Romanian president again some time soon. This month, the two officials are set to participate in New York in a UN meeting.



    Reaction — The US Embassy in Bucharest announced it shared the concerns of the German diplomatic mission in Romania related to the social network posts of one of the advisors to the PM Viorica Dancila, Darius Valcov, who suggested that the anti-government movement ‘#rezist’ and the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania are Nazi organizations. ‘We firmly condemn any form of discrimination, defamation and hatred towards the German minority and any other minority in Romania. Such accusations that we have seen lately are ungrounded and unjustifiable’ wrote the representatives of the German Embassy in a post also shared by the American Embassy. Considered an adversary of the leftist government of Romania, president Klaus Iohannis headed the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania between 2002 and 2013. A former mayor of Slatina, in the south of Romania, and a former Social Democratic senator and minister Valcov was sentenced in February to 8 years in prison in a corruption case. The decision is not definitive and can be appealed.



    Brussels — Romania alongside Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Hungary has reported progress in relation to the number of projects selected for EU funding- says the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu. According to a communiqué of the EC’s Open Data Portal, the total volume of investments allotted to development projects in the EU countries stands, in the first half of 2018, at more than 300 billion Euros, higher by 42 billion. The EU Commissioner also added that the amount of money allotted for specific projects out of the total cohesion budget for Romania for the period 2014-2020 stands, at present, at 62% as compared to 54% at the end of 2017.



    Football — On Friday evening Romania’s national football team drew 0-0 (nil all) with Montenegro, on home ground, in the southern city of Ploiesti, in its debut match in the newly created UEFA Nations League. Given a sanction imposed by UEFA, the match took place behind closed doors, which is a first for a matched played on home ground by the Romanians. In the same Group 4 of UEFA Nations League C, Lithuania was defeated by Serbia 0-1. On Monday, Romania will be up against Serbia, and in October, also in an away match, the Romanian footballers will play against Lithuania. The results obtained in the Nations League count for the preliminaries of the 2020 European Championship. Also on Friday, Romania’s Under 21 team defeated Portugal 2-1 in an away match in Group 8 of the European Championship preliminaries. After 7 matches, Romania is ranked 2nd in the classification with 15 points. Leading the rankings is Bosnia with 18 points from 8 matches. The first ranking team after the preliminaries will qualify directly to the final tournament and the best 4 out of the 9 2nd-ranked teams will go to the playoffs, to select two teams that will go to the European Championship.



    Sweden — Saturday is the last day of the election campaign in Sweden ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections. According to opinion surveys, the main centre-left and center right parties are very close to one another in citizens’ voting preferences, and it is very likely that none of them will obtain the majority in the future parliament. The anti-immigration far right will get around 20% of the votes and might become the second stronger party in the Swedish parliament. (news translated by Lacramioara Simion)