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| AN EXCITING CHAMPIONSHIP 08/05/2008 |
| (2008-05-08) |
| Last updated: 2008-05-09 15:11 EET |
After a 17 year recess, a Romanian football team from other locality than Bucharest has clinched the national championship title. This remarkable performance was obtained by CFR, a football club based in Cluj, in the west of the country, which for the first time in its 100 year history has become Romania’s champions interrupting the all-out supremacy of the triplet, Steaua-Dinamo-Rapid Bucharest. Runner-up Steaua Bucharest was only one point away from securing the 23rd title in their participation in the domestic championship.
However, CFR is considered an exotic champion, not only because it comes from outside Bucharest, but also because its owner Arpad Paskany is a young businessman of Hungarian descent. CFR Cluj’s line-up barely includes one-two Romanians, consisting mainly of Portuguese, South-Americans or Scandinavians. So ironically, although champions, CFR Cluj cannot supply footballers to the national team. But what is really spectacular is the fact that the team made its entry into the first football league only four years ago and will be the first Romanian team directly qualified for the Champions League groups.
And if it qualifies for the next stage of the competition which is most likely to happen, it will be accompanied by rival side Steaua Bucharest. It is also for the first time that Romania is represented this year by four sides in the UEFA Cup: Rapid and Dinamo, both from Bucharest, Unirea from Urziceni, southern Romania and Poli from Timisoara, in south-western Romania. On Saturday, CFR will take on Unirea in the last game of the current football season, counting for Romania’s Cup finals.
After this game Romanian footballers will enter a prolonged training session before the European Championship in June, the first final tournament Romania has qualified for in the past 8 years. We hope that Romania’s footballers will pass this test, proving their real value, making up for the current football season, which although challenging and exciting has been constantly marred by violence either on the pitch or among supporters, by allegations concerning rigged games and corruption, both among top level teams and at the bottom of the championship involving teams struggling to avoid demotion. Hit on the head by a lighter thrown by one of the supporters, the referee had to stop the derby Rapid versus Steaua Bucharest.
Supporters of various teams either from Bucharest or from other cities have clashed with gendarme troops, smashing seats, breaking windows and cars parked outside the stadium. nevertheless, the real matches on the pitch have been overshadowed by the talkshows aired by various TV channels, where football officials have launched in verbal diatribes putting up illiterate and instigating speeches. Most of these would-be ‘football people’ see in sport a way to promote their political ambitions. And many of them including the chair of the Romanian Professional Football League, Dumitru Dragomir, have been involved in various corruption scandals, currently investigated by the anti-corruption prosecutors.
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2025-04-03
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