Romanian Domestic Football 2015/2016

[bossake]

Very tragic.

But wasn't it clear directly how serious it was since I see the match was completed after he was taken to the hospital.

it was clearly from the start that the situation is very serious, but the referee decided to continue the game . score was 3-2 for Dinamo, Patrick Ekeng coulnd been substituted because Dinamo maded already all 3 subs, and the final score was 3-3.

Any news on what is happening in Constanta with the stadium that Farul play in?.........I was never there,but have seen it and it looks run down a little.Are there any plans to have a new stadium in Constanta?

No plans for a new stadium in Constanta. Actually with a very small amount the current stadium can be used in good conditions (good conditions for a Romanian stadium). But the problem is the authorithies from there are not very carefull with the stadium, they almost dont care, and the stadium is getting worse from year to year....

[bossake]

This round scheduled very important macthes in playout.
We had some direct games and this are the results:

Fc Voluntari - Petrolul Ploiesti 2-0
Voluntari 95% secured their relegation playoff spot and mathematically relegated Petrolul. I feel so sorry for Petrolul,I have a simpathy for this team.. Despite having a good playout display Petrolul paied because of very few points earned in the regular season. But not the relegation is the main problem for them, is a matter of time, judiciary business, until they will be declared bankrupt. Too bad for them, they promoted in 2011 and had very good 5 seasons, acutally 4 seasons, this one was a nightmare for them. They winned a Romanian Cup in 2013, finished 3rd in the league 2 times (2013 and 2014), reached in 2013 and 2014 Europa League playoffs eliminating in qualifying rounds teams like Vitesse(2013) or Victoria Plzen (2014). In 2012-2014 they were a solid team with valorous players (at that time) like Juan Angel Albin, Ovidiu Hoban, Toto Tamuz, Youness Hamza, Peterson Pecanha, Filipe Teixeira, Ferebory Dore, Jean Sony Alcenat,Jeremy Bokila, Geraldo Alves,Guilherme Sitya, Ianis Zicu or Adrian Mutu. But there was an artificial project, based only from the money they get from local authorithies. When authorithies stopped the financing they went down.

Concordia Chiajna - Cfr Cluj 2-1.
With Cfr after winning the Cup and playing for nothing this is a normal result. Chiajna secured 95% their 5 position. They saved from relegation deserved. They are a team with personallity in playing, they play an interesting 3-5-2, with 3 central defenders and 2 powerfull strikers. Also they have a plus that they keeped their coach despite he had some bad periods. Usually in Romania 2-3 losses in row = a new coach. if they had changed the coach very probably they would had more problems in saving. Also they maded a good winter transfer campaign. players like Artem Milevskyi or Christian Obodo really helped them. They were not players with only their name.

CSU Craiova - CSMS Iasi 3-2.
Craiova winned a decisive the game for winning the playout and going to the European Cups (if Dinamo will not get a licence). Now they are in poleposition with only 2 rounds before the end. They play CFR Cluj away and in the last round a very unmotivated Petrolul. Next round vs Cfr will be decisive, I dont think will be very easy for them to win there.

ACS Poli Timisoara - Fc Botosani 1-4
Timisoara 90% relegated with this result. But they simply looked awfull in this playoff despite in some periods from the regular season (September - Octomber) they looked very good and no one believed they can have problems with relegation in this season.
Botosani, a team who obtained european licence, with a chance to play for 2nd year consecutvely in the european cups.
Next round they play away at Iasi and in the last round home vs Cfr Cluj. Botosani in case of equal points with Craiova has an advantage!, so with a Craiova draw next round and a Botosani win away at Iasi they can be first before last round!

Now the table is looking like this:

1. CSU Craiova 36
2. CSMS Iasi 35
3. Fc Botosani 34
4. CFR Cluj 33
5. Concordia Chiajna 31
---------
6. Fc Voluntari 25
---------
7. ACS Poli Timisoara 20
8. Petrolul Ploiesti 18 -- already Relegated

Remaining games in the last 2 rounds:

Petrolul Ploiesti - Concordia Chiajna
Fc Voluntari - Politehnica Timisoara
CSMS Iasi - Fc Botosani
Cfr Cluj - CSU Craiova
======================
CSU Craiova - Petrolul Ploiesti
Fc Botosani - Cfr Cluj
ACS Poli Timisoara - CSMS Iasi
Concordia Chiajna - Fc Voluntari

And a very important news regarding the next season of next year Liga1. Every team will be forced to have in the first team, in the every minute of a Liga1 game, an Under21 player!
From my view, there are positive things about this rule and negative. Only the time will decide if will be benefic or not.

[bossake]

In second league we have left only 1 round:

in the East League we have:
1. Rapid Bucuresti 43
2. Dunarea Calarasi 38
3. Dacia Unirea Braila 34

So, Rapid already mathematically promoted. But here we might have a problem. Rapid had an unpaied salary debt from a player who was in the last years at the team. This player won a process on FIFA in March, but Rapid still didnt paied. And now there are reports that says that FIFA sended a letter to Romanian Federation to deduct 6 points from Rapid. Rapid paied finally,but only few days ago, some news are saying that are big chances that Romanian Federation will be forced to apply the decision from FIFA. We will see in the next period.

In the West League we have:
1. Gaz Metan Medias 40
2. UTA Batrana Doamna 38
3. Chindia Targoviste 37

So, a battle in 3 for the first 2 places. But no direct game between those teams in the last round so very probably all 3 will win.

[nogomet]

Who qualified for Europe? Iasi or Univ Craiova? Bert says Iasi, but Univ Craiova have more goals scored, so I don't get how can Iasi be ahead?

[Forza AZ]

According to the tie-breakers listed on wikipedia it should be Craiova. The Facebook of Iasi says they qualified for Europe however.

So apparently Wikipedia is wrong and head-to-head (which Iasi won) is the 1st tiebreaker.

[fillow]

Does anyone know is it Rapid or Poli who'll be allowed to Liga I this year?

[bossake]

Its Acs Poli Timisoara who had been allowed in Liga1.
Rapid got a bankrupt decision on 13 June. This happened because the club was in insolvency from 2012 but the financial situation from that time until now didnt changed. They didnt payed the debts from the past and even got more debts in this period. The decision is not final but is executory, the court decision was that Rapid must start the liquidity of the society. The owners of Rapid tried to stop this decion but they didnt got any signals from the court. The Romanian League and Federation were in the front of a hard decision. The decision was taked few days ago, Botosani in the first round (last week) should have played with Rapid / Poli Timisoara, but the game was delayed because we didnt knowed who will be allowed to play in Liga1.
Rapid being in the start of the liqiduation could not sign any player, all players contract were terminated but in the same time we didnt had any rule to say exactly that a team in bankrupcty is not allowed to play in liga1.
Normally Rapid should have been scheduled to play, they dont have players to field and after 2 games of not being at pitch they should be excluded. But in this case the league will remain with 13 teams which is a big problem for media and tv rights.
Rapid situation is not final but despite the owner or Rapid saying he will pay bla bla, I see very small chances to be changed this decision. In september most probably it will be the final decision. Just think what will happen in the case Rapid will be saved ).
Anyway, in this situation very probably more teams will be. I mean teams that are in insolvency (Cfr Cluj, U Cluj, ASA Targu Mures etc) it will be very hard for them to get out from insolvency, the bankrupt is very possible.
Another teams that were declared bankrupt in this period are: Otelul Galati and Petrolul Ploiesti! At both teams fans started a new project in a lower division...

[bossake]

Another problem in Romania is with the former club Universitatea Craiova. A short presentation of the case:
- In 2010 i think, they hired Victor Piturca as a manager. few months later they sacked him, but he had a resiliation clause of 7 Mil Euros that club must pay him if he will be sacked. Universitatea owner didnt want to pay him, so he judged with the team at the Romanian Federation comisions who gave him right. The club must pay 7 mil Euros to him. Universitatea intended a civil process to Romanian Football Federation. Because of this, you are not allowed to go to a court versus the football federation, the Federation excluded in the summer of 2011 Universitatea Craiova from any competition (they relegated in2011, normally shoould have played second league).
Owner of Craiova maked another process, why you excluded me? And now, few months ago, the court said the team was fraudulent excluded. When the team was excluded all the players remained out of contracts, were free players, all leaved the club for free. The court said Romanian Federation must pay in compensatory about ~200 Mil Euros to the Universitatea Craiova team. Why this amount? Because Craiova players had minimum release clauses. 10-15 mil Euros each player.
The decision is not final, and is not executory, but in the next period (not very early, maybe more than 1 year) we will have a final decision. Nobody knows what will happen if the Romanian Federation of Football will go bankrupt ), and how UEFA will treat this.

another problem is for Steaua Bucuresti.
In 2014 Steaua lost the logo in the front of the Romanian Army (in 2016 the Romanian Army minister has a sportive section ) ). The Army now, only few days ago, requested from Steaua about 37 mil Euros because they say Steaua used fraudulentely the logo from 2014 until 2014. So they appealed an evaluatory who evaluated the damage caused by this using at that huge amount.
Few days ago the Army maked a request to the club to pay in 30 days in case of not they will go in justice. It will be a long time process (2-3 years) but who knows, if the final decision will be such a ridiculous amount is very possible that actual club Steaua to go bankrupt, nobody can pay this amount in Romania.
Just think Rapid, a very high tradition club, went in bankrupt for a total debt of about ~4 mil euros.
Another process from the Army against actual Steaua is they want the club society to change the name. To put another name, not Steaua. They say the Steaua Bucuresti club is in their court. In this process the actual club has a decision, but final, that allow them to keep the society name.

[Club-Mate]

@bossake - I like to read your contributions about Romanian football very much and you give a lot of inside knowledge that we hardly could get somewhere else. Thanks a lot. However, if I read these stories I ask myself, how can all that happen. It needs a good part of corruption in certain cases even acts of revenge and greed of all the protagonists.
The Steaua case seems to me just weird. How can a states department (military is under ministry of interiors I guess) ask for a compensation of using a club’s name (even if in longer history this club has been connected to military itself)? What does Steaua particularly mean? Please give a translation. Is it just like a club name like Rapid etc. or is it linked directly to a military content? E.g. ESV (=Eisenbahnsportverein in German). In case it's just a normal club name there is imo no reason at all to ask for compensation it looks like some people want to get (financial) advantage of such a case. If the name Steaua is linked directly to military the approach could be different. They (military) could demand to cease this name and Steaua has to look for another name.

[Thunder_PT]

@bossake - I like to read your contributions about Romanian football very much and you give a lot of inside knowledge that we hardly could get somewhere else. Thanks a lot. However, if I read these stories I ask myself, how can all that happen. It needs a good part of corruption in certain cases even acts of revenge and greed of all the protagonists.
The Steaua case seems to me just weird. How can a states department (military is under ministry of interiors I guess) ask for a compensation of using a club’s name (even if in longer history this club has been connected to military itself)? What does Steaua particularly mean? Please give a translation. Is it just like a club name like Rapid etc. or is it linked directly to a military content? E.g. ESV (=Eisenbahnsportverein in German). In case it's just a normal club name there is imo no reason at all to ask for compensation it looks like some people want to get (financial) advantage of such a case. If the name Steaua is linked directly to military the approach could be different. They (military) could demand to cease this name and Steaua has to look for another name.

I don't know about the rest, but Steaua just means "star".

[Club-Mate]

@bossake - I like to read your contributions about Romanian football very much and you give a lot of inside knowledge that we hardly could get somewhere else. Thanks a lot. However, if I read these stories I ask myself, how can all that happen. It needs a good part of corruption in certain cases even acts of revenge and greed of all the protagonists.
The Steaua case seems to me just weird. How can a states department (military is under ministry of interiors I guess) ask for a compensation of using a club’s name (even if in longer history this club has been connected to military itself)? What does Steaua particularly mean? Please give a translation. Is it just like a club name like Rapid etc. or is it linked directly to a military content? E.g. ESV (=Eisenbahnsportverein in German). In case it's just a normal club name there is imo no reason at all to ask for compensation it looks like some people want to get (financial) advantage of such a case. If the name Steaua is linked directly to military the approach could be different. They (military) could demand to cease this name and Steaua has to look for another name.

I don't know about the rest, but Steaua just means "star".

so, no reason at all to sue them! another case would be the name e.g. "sportsclub of the army"
which entity could sue e.g. Red Star Belgard to cease its name? Police department? If this case of Steaua would be successful this could be a model for a wave of lawsuits where a state department tries to squeeze out money from clubs.

[bossake]

Problem is that in 2014 December, our highest court gaved the brand "Steaua Bucuresti" to the Army. The brand I mean the logo that Steaua played from 2004 until that time. this logo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ua.svg.png
Very curious is the first 2 courts, in this case, gived right to the actual team. But the last court, the decision being final, said this logo belongs to Sportive Club of Army. The Army still has a sportive club - named Sportive Club of Army Steaua Bucuresti who have other sports like water polo, handbal, basketball etc.
In this moment this logo is in the posesion of the Army.

So in this moment the Army said:
- the entire brand Steaua Bucuresti worths about 57 mil Euros. here is included all the sports,rewards, trophies etc not only football.
- if a football team wants to "rent" the logo they must pay 4.2 mil Euro per year
- the current football club used this logo from 2004 until 2014. they used the logo on their shorts, the actual club selled shorts, flags etc (but in Romania the income was very very small by selling fan products), so they evaluate their loss at about 37 mil Euro.

Those amounts were calculed by a company specialist in evaluations, who was hired by the Army. Nobody knows exactly what were the criterias of evaluations but those amounts are simply crazy for Romanian football and Romania in general.

But in the next future they will make a process vs the current team , they will require this money (37 mil), and here we will have more scenarions:
- the judge will say Steaua must pay nothing, the judge will say Steaua must pay a resonable amount or who knows, maybe will accept that evaluation, case who will mean the end of this current club.
Thing is that from 2004 until the decision in 2014 Steaua had the logo registered on their company! In the day when they lost the logo they immediately stopped using it, but the Army wants money from the past.

Another process between the Army and Steaua is that the Army wants the company who is behind Steaua to change his name. Now the name is: Society of Football Club Steaua Bucuresti. In this case the current club has a victory, the first court said the name is ok, even said this club is the continuator of the football section of former Steaua, who belonged to the Army in the past. Said also something like the Army approved in 2004 the foundation of the new society.

The problem with the logo is that when in 2004 the new club structured on this current society they didnt specified in the papers that the club will take the logo (brand) too. They said only about the players, place in the first league etc.
The transaction, the papers, from the Army to the private wasnt maked very smart. Also regarding this problem I think the best solution in 2004 would have been to make a new logo, something like Football Club Steaua Bucuresti. They chosed to use an old logo which is very very similar to the logo Steaua used in the years 70-8-90, an historic logo. Maybe that is why the final judges said that this logo belongs to the Army.

But anyway, Steaua Ultras after losing the logo (2014) didnt camed to the matches. The most radical part of them wants the Army to create a new team in the lower division. But this is because they hate Steaua current owner, and see this situation a way to get rid of him. They simply refugiate at this thinking: noo, this is not Steaua. But in the fact Steaua lost only that logo. For me, the actual club, despite losing the logo is nothing less than the continuator of the old club. yea, at some time the club went from the Army to private. Of course a change has been made, but its Steaua, they keeped same players in 2004...

A similar problem is with Universitatea Craiova too. The badge of "old" U Craiova (disolved in 2011) was lost in the front of the University of Craiova. And the University, the historic founder of the team, gaved the logo to actual CSU Craiova. Normally we talk only about the logo on the shirt but even so, the new CSU Craiova (founded in 2013) because is having the old logo can be seen like the historic Universitatea? In Craiova despite the new club having the logo people dont love this team. If the former team will be back to life (the team who is in process with romanian federation) people will love that team very much.
Of course if things will not change and the old team will never come back I think in the time people will support the new club finally....
But the relevation of this case is that same like Steaua, the historic logo was gived by the court to the historic owner of the team.

Dinamo another team that was in the same situation like Steaua is not having problems because people from Police Ministery are very friendly with the current club. They are not against the current club. An excellent relationship. Steaua is completely reverse, despite the Army earned some good milions of Eur as a rent in 2004-2014 period when Steaua trained and played in Ghencea Stadium. Now the stadium and the whole base is simply self-destroying because the Army dont have money to keep the stadium + base in good conditions.
Actually not the Army is the problem, the problems is in the chiefs of the Sportive Club of Army are some people who dont like Steaua owner. Also the juridic president, a guy who is a bit crazy, is a man who is very very ugly and against the current club. Everytime he gives statements that the current club is not Steaua, few days ago he gived to the press a warning that if journalists will name anymore "Steaua" about this club the Sportive Club of Army will make a process against the papers where this journalists belongs ), everytime this juridical chief say something is a moment of laugh in Romania... of course Steaua owner makes us laughting too, he said he talk with the Minister of Army and minister said in a private meeting: Man, that guy is crazy (the juridical chief), we cant stop him from this war against you, nobody can talk with him... )))))) .. But that guy is the HERO of some fanatics ultras of Steaua !
Some of people from Army Sportive Club see current club as a good milking cow and get money, some of them wants to destroy the club and this is the reason for this all problems. Just think the club was "sold" in 2004 and only in 2011 Army started the first process for the logo, which finallised in 2014.

[fillow]

What the hell happened here?

[bossake]

in the summer that team remained out of financing, the local authorithies from Pancota (a very small rural village - ~6000 people) stopped pumping money to the football team so the team remained out of players who left the team for another teams who can pay them.
In this summer we had elections, this small city was won by a new mayor and he stoped the money. The team owner tried in this summer to find another city in Romania where to move the team. I mean to find another city and to talk with the authorithies fro that city to move the team there, change the name of the team etc. Practically he had a second league place for sale ). But he didnt find nothing, but he still moved the team from Pancota city to Siria (about 5km). I think he made this because he was very mad on Pancota authorithies )

Is a mistery why the team still choosed to remain in the League2. They had at the first game only 12 players (age from 15 to 18). Today in the second round they lost "only" 7-0... The owner still says he is trying to find a way of getting some players to accept low salaries in exchange for playing in second league.

By the way, now is the first year when our second league has only 1 group. It is a big possibility that some of teams will dissapear until the end of the season because the travelling cost is considerable because teams needs to travel very often 500-700km, in Romania we dont have very much highways etc. .. The Tv rights for League2 has been sold for .. 350.000euro that must be split by 20 teams so traveling by plane is totally excluded

[retroactive2]

@bossake - I like to read your contributions about Romanian football very much and you give a lot of inside knowledge that we hardly could get somewhere else. Thanks a lot. However, if I read these stories I ask myself, how can all that happen. It needs a good part of corruption in certain cases even acts of revenge and greed of all the protagonists.
The Steaua case seems to me just weird. How can a states department (military is under ministry of interiors I guess) ask for a compensation of using a club’s name (even if in longer history this club has been connected to military itself)? What does Steaua particularly mean? Please give a translation. Is it just like a club name like Rapid etc. or is it linked directly to a military content? E.g. ESV (=Eisenbahnsportverein in German). In case it's just a normal club name there is imo no reason at all to ask for compensation it looks like some people want to get (financial) advantage of such a case. If the name Steaua is linked directly to military the approach could be different. They (military) could demand to cease this name and Steaua has to look for another name.

Things are like this ... in 2004 the Ministry of Defense was forced to 'sell the club' because of UEFA laws! Under the romanian laws they could have still keep the ownership ... but then Steaua couldn't have participate in eurocups, afterwards! Apart from that, the Ministry of Defense didn't want to finance the club anymore, and certainly didn't want to pay the 14 mil euro debt they made so far. So they transferred the activity ... Steaua to a new society, FC Steaua Bucuresti SA, with 100% private capital ... this meaning every competition right and federative right (player contracts at that time) ... but not the patrimony of the club (meaning assets and debts, meaning Ghencea Stadium and complex and the 14 mil euro debts, and the author right over the use of the seal). The new private society is the juridical and sportive 'heir' of Steaua, it is Steaua! We have no problem of identity or continuity!

Once the National Arena was build, George Becali, the owner of the club, decided to play on the new arena ... the rent was lower, the stadium bigger, better facilities and better position and to stop paying the Ministry of Defense the insane rent they asked for ... knowing that we have nowhere else to play in Bucharest! This infuriated the Ministry of Defense ... seeing that they cannot extort Becali anymore ... they said ... 'Wait ... the trademark 'Steaua Bucuresti' belong to us ... we didn't gave you the express accord that you can use it ... to teach you stop paying us'! So they asked for the 'exclusive use' of this trademark in 2011 ... even if they were outside the protection period of 5 years (2004-2009) ... so they lost at the first 2 courts because of this, but won at the last one ... in a weird manner ... so they obtain the exclusivity ... the court motivating something about the author property ... that we didn't get the patrimony in 2004 (only the fotball activity of the club), so we didn't get the trademark either... which belongs to the patrimony! That's ok ... but they didn't asked for their property to be recognized, but their exclusivity ... so the motivation was ... crap ... but we didn't had anywhere else to attack the decision anymore ... so we comply with it ... and stop using this trademark since the end of 2014. There is no problem ... as long as it is well understood that trademark equals a number of registered seals (minim 1 ... maxim ... n).

Afterwards ... the Ministry of Defense tried to give another sense to this decision, than what it actually is ... using media channels and making demands ... to UEFA, Romanian FA ... to exclude Steaua from competitions, to the Commercial Registry to cancel our juridical name (<> commercial name and <> trademark) aka 'FC Steaua Bucuresti SA'. They were unsuccessful so far ... it was explained to them that the ICCJ decision from 2014, do not cover what they demand for, as it doesn't cancel our juridical continuity ... so they need additional court decisions! Lastly they lost at first court, a demand for us to change our JURIDICAL name ... so it doesn't contain the word 'Steaua' anymore ... on the grounds that it is a generic name, and anyone can use it. They weren't happy so they appealed the decision ... hoping they will get to ICCJ again, where they have the appropriate channels to win any decision, apparently. And finally they made an evaluation on the 'brand' Steaua ... with their own expert, counting everything, that juridically belongs to us, achievements, trophies, etc ... since 1947 and established that value is '57 mil euro' ... without any court decision to give them that right ... they already established an auction ... at 3.7 mil euro / year! In parallel they suited Becali to pay them ... based on their evaluation ... 3.7 mil euro * 10 years = 37 mil Euro ... because he used their trademark between 2004-2014 ... even if as i explained they didn't had the exclusivity right until 2014 ... and this implies that others can use your right, which is not juridically secured, and you cannot expect to get damages! You have to obtain exclusivity for that!

So as you see ... the war continue ... the Romanian Ministry of Defense ... identified an enemy, aka ... the capitalism and the private investment ... and started shooting ... blank shots ... i don't think they will win anything ... the only advantage i see for us being in UE ... is having access to UE law courts ... so even if the domestical justice fail ... the property is sacred under the EU law! As domestical justice goes ... Ministry of Defence lost all battles until now ... except the decision from 2014 ... which is somehow fair (being their trademark and all) ... but not in the letter of the law.

But no matter how this goes ... our club is already damaged by this war with the 'romanian State' ... and i don't think that this is a normal attitude in an democratic and capitalist country, for a public institution behavior! Let's add to this, that apart from Steaua (Becali) there are only 2-3 other clubs that use private money now ... the Romanian State finances cca 8-10 clubs / 14 in Liga 1, how fair is this? The public teams enter all in 'insolvency' because they are not relegate anymore ... so they can stay in Liga 1, receive Liga 1 TV rights, and not pay debts ... how is this fair for the teams like Steaua ... which has no debt, and which use private capital, to compete? Are you begining to understand ... why is Steaua being hunted like this?