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| UNPRECEDENTED SANCTIONS IN ROMANIAN FOOTBALL 09/07/2009 |
| (2009-07-09) |
| Last updated: 2009-07-10 14:06 EET |
On Wednesday, the Romanian football side FC Arges were relegated to the second division, following a decision made by the Discipline Commission within the Professional Football League.
The authority made this decision to penalize the team for its involvement in a corruption scandal. On April 14th, club manager Cornel Penescu was placed under arrest by the National Anti-Corruption Department, for having bribed several referees. A handful of other businessmen involved in the club’s affairs, as well as high-ranking referees were also taken into custody. Although the court of law has yet to reach a verdict, the Discipline Commission has imposed tough sanctions in light of the evidence they had access to. It was for the first time in the history of Romanian football that a squad was relegated from the First League for acts of corruption.
Furthermore, club manager Cornel Penescu was fined 300,000 lei, the equivalent of some 73 thousand euro, just like club president Cristian Minca and Gheorghita Pieca, manager of the PIC Company, owned by Penescu. The three men, as well as any other representative of the football side FC Arges, may appeal these sanctions within five days. However, it is highly unlikely that the Professional Football League would go back on their decision. Should the team’s appeal be rejected, the side from Pitesti will be relegated to the second division, and their place will be taken by Gaz Metan Medias. Last season, the latter played in division one, and finished in 15th place, the highest relegation spot. We should note that football fans have been looking forward to seeing such sanctions in Romanian sports since the 90’s, when people started to get a general idea of the level of corruption.
It was widely known that money laundering was not uncommon in Romanian football, and that the big cats in this business made money like in Hollywood, but paid taxes like in third world countries. It was also common knowledge that games were bought and sold, and that referees were bribed to favour one team or another. However, no one could provide solid proof. Now, evidence was produced in the case of FC Arges, but perhaps on too small a level to make any significant change. Attorneys have their eyes on a handful of people in charge of a small team, a few referees and only one high-ranking member of the Federation – Florin Prunea, charged with peddling in influence. Therefore, demoting FC Arges proved more of a punishment to the players and fans, who had nothing to do with the scandal. Pitesti, the city of the late great footballer Nicolae Dobrin, has to pay for the sins of second-class businessman Penescu and his gang. All we can do is hope that this was only the beginning of a serious cleansing of Romanian football, and not just an attempt to find a scapegoat for the faults of greater teams.
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