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Florin Orban, 03.11.2016, 13:42

Romanian
international football player Ciprian Marica has announced his retirement from
competition. 31-year old Marica has stated he took the decision because of his
worrying physical condition, which has affected his career in the past years.

In a message
posted on his Facebook page, Marica wrote I have always been open to
you, but it’s not at all easy to announce that: my condition no longer allows
me to do things at the level you expect me to do. So I decided I should put a
stop to my footballer’s career.

Brought up and trained by Dinamo
Bucharest, the team he made his League
One debut with when he was only 16 years old, Ciprian Marica got signed up by
Shakhtar Donetsk in 2004, a team where he had a three-year stint, wining five
titles: three Ukraine champion titles in 2005, 2006 and 2008, Ukraine’s Cup in
2006 and the Supercup, in 2006. Marica also played for VFB Stuttgart, Schalke, Getafe and Konyaspor. Steaua Bucharest was the last team
Marica played for, in the previous season. Ciprian Marica boasts 71 caps for
the national squad, scoring 25 goals.

The quality of
League One refereeing is now under scrutiny by the Professional Football
League, whose president Gino Iorgulescu has accused referees of perverting the idea of sportsmanship in competitions. In an open
letter, Iorgulescu requires an urgent
discussion with the Central Referees’ Committee. Gentlemen of the Central
Committee’s board, it’s too much!
Romanian refereeing has become a plague! Put a stop to this ! , the letter
reads. Also, Iorgulescu was quoted as saying: As President of the Professional
Football League, as a man who is being held accountable by all Orange League
One teams for the proper functioning of their activity, as a simple man who
doesn’t want to witness with his arms closed how the idea of sportsmanship in
competitions is being perverted, and also as a former Romanian international
footballer for Romania’s national squad, I hereby address this open letter to
you all.

Unfortunately,
for us, those in Orange League One, the past days have showed that we have
trusted those who did not deserve it, that we gave given them a hand, a gesture
that was not reciprocated, while the only response we got from the other side
was an echo of our own voice, Gino Iorgulescu also wrote. The text also has a
Post Scriptum: On Tuesday, November 1st, I watched very
carefully the Champions League game pitting FC Basel and PSG, refereed by a
Romanian crew, with Ovidiu Hategan as the central referee. Refereeing was
flawless, standing at the highest European level possible, it was performed in
style and elegance. So it IS possible. Or
that can only be achieved in a foreign country?