Clean-up in Romanian Football

Romanian football has been facing more and more problems with the judiciary.

Florin Orban, 09.04.2014, 14:15

Several top former and present club managers along with agents and even a former top player, Gheorghe Popescu, are already incarcerated for corruption. This time around, magistrates have started targeting the management of top football organizations. Former chairman of the Professional Football League Dumitru Dragomir is under criminal investigation for his alleged involvement in television rights for games in the First Football League between 2011 and 2013.

According to a press release from the Bucharest Tribunal Prosecutor’s Office, quoted by Agerpres new agency, the evidence in the case makes it reasonable to conclude that 3 million Euros were embezzled from the League, through a ghost circuit of intermediaries in the business of selling rights for football matches to be televised. The real sale had occurred through direct negotiations between the League and the contracting company. Also, the source indicates that there is information showing that the money was laundered through a ring of companies. Dragomir has been released pending the investigation, while two businesspeople also involved in the affair have been placed under preventive detention for 30 days.

The head of the Romanian Football Federation, Razvan Burleanu, may also be on the National Anti-Corruption Directorate’s target list. The sports director of the federation, Daniel Prodan, filed a complaint against him in relation to land purchases. However, the complaint comes against the conflict between the chairman and the former international player in relation to the latter’s handling of junior teams, which may result in his getting fired without compensation. Little can be said about that before the National Anti-Corruption Directorate decides to pursue the case, however.