This article is the result of a relatively lengthy discussion with a friend, on, of all the things that one may talk about, football. Just to be clear, I do not watch football, despite growing up in a family where this activity was practiced quite often, and despite my grandfather's attempts to instill the love for this game in me, by bringing me with him to a few matches. I also do not follow the politics of football and I am not aware of the ins and outs of the Romanian Football Federation -- Federația Română de Fotbal, also known as FRF -- although this is precisely what I am going to talk about. I am certainly not aware of details, so mind the fact that my naïvete on the subject may be what drives my entire discourse to dust. In any case, feel free to correct me if you think that I'm wrong, who knows, maybe together we'll learn a thing or two.
The discussion with my friend stemmed from the fact that certain people in the field have begun to talk; namely, of the power shift that occurred by force in the field between approximately 2008 and 2015. One referee started talking on a talk show about how refs got targeted by the Romanian Anti-Corruption Directorate, aka DNA, circa 2009. Another figure, the ex-chief of FRF, Mircea Sandu, started talking in a local newspaper about how he was targeted by the same DNA, and was pressured to renounce his candidacy for the next cycle, lest he would end up in prison. Let us quote from the article (archived) in question:
"Prin 2009-2010 a început teroarea. Am câștigat procesul cu Loteria. Am fost singurul președinte de Federație care a deschis acțiune și am câștigat vreo 28-30 de milioane de euro. Dar s-a raportat la cel mai înalt nivel. Că Federația a spart pușculița și 'terminați cu golanii de la fotbal!'. Ca Ceaușescu. Și a început teroarea. Iar în 2012 am anunțat că nu mai candidez, pentru că eram în pușcărie dacă mai candidam.
Păi, dacă am spart pușculița... Eu și cu Mitică Dragomir am fost condamnați la trei ani cu suspendare și să plătim 250 de milioane de euro în cazul cu Craiova. Nici Real Madrid nu face atât. Procurorul s-a pensionat, judecătoarea după ce ne-a dat condamnarea s-a pensionat, încă un procuror de la ultimul proces, la 48 de ani s-a pensionat și el, și așa mai departe. Deci, revin. S-a dat sfoară: terminați cu golanii de la fotbal!", a spus Mircea Sandu, potrivit digisport.ro.
Loosely translated:
"The terror began around 2009-2010. I had won the lawsuit with the Lottery1. I was the only Federation president who filed a lawsuit and I won around 28-30 million euros. But this was reported at the highest level. That the Federation broke the piggy bank, so 'get it done with the hooligans in football!'. Like Ceaușescu2. And then the terror began. And in 2012 I announced that I wouldn't run for office anymore, because I would end up in prison if I did that.
So, as a consequence of breaking the biggy bank... Myself and Mitică Dragomir3 were convicted to three years' probation and a fine of 250 million euros in the lawsuit with Craiova. Not even Real Madrid makes this kind of money. The prosecutor retired [afterwards], the judge that gave us the conviction retired, another prosecutor from the last lawsuit4 also retired, and so on. So, getting back to it. They spread the word: get it done with the hooligans in football!" said Mircea Sandu, according to digisport.ro5.
This was the first part of our case study. The second part will be a Very Biased and Naïve analysis by yours truly, so brace yourselves.
Now, as I've said, I may not know all the details of Mircea Sandu's deeds, but looking at his CV, he had some achievements. He had minor achievements as a football player, his activity spanning between 1971 and 1986. That may not be much, but still, I suspect fifteen years of kicking the ball is bound to teach one a thing or two about the core activity of what we're talking about, i.e. football. More importantly, he had some pretty important achievements as the chief of FRF, which he led between 1990 and 2014. Even I know that 1994 was the only time that Romania's national football team reached the quarter-finals of the Soccer6 World Cup. One could argue that being unable to equal this performance for the next two decades would make one unfit to be the chief of FRF, but I mean... the dude got other awards for other achievements in the same two decades, so while he may be old and yes, it may have already been the time for someone younger to take the reins of that particular organization, the person chosen for the task is the one who gets us to the crux of this issue.
As the quoted article mentions, the successor of Mircea Sandu was supposed to be Gheorge "Gică" Popescu, who was part of the team that participated in the 1994 tournament. He wasn't the star, but he was miles above most of the people eligible for the title of FRF chief, yet he was also sued and convicted in the precise year of 2014. One may say that this is some sort of coincidence, but even if we make the by now entirely dubious assumption that this is indeed coincidental, let's see who got to occupy that office.
In 2014, the FRF presidency was taken by one Răzvan Burleanu, son of footballist Gheorghe Burleanu and a self-proclaimed "pro-European", for a very short while a football player and also a referee. Burleanu gave up football at the age of 19 to study Political Sciences at SNSPA7 and then he followed some courses at the National Defense University Carol I, culminating with a PhD at SNSPA. Quite the educated fellow, isn't he? The problem, as with many people of my generation, being that he seems to have been trained to be a bureaucrat rather than actually preside over an institution that decides policies. And at this point I'm going into pure speculation, but especially his "specialty studies on security policies and strategies" seem to indicate that well, how shall I put this, he seems to be wearing some epaulets on his shoulders. I guess we will find out whether I'm right when the next generation takes the reins, which may yet be quite a while from now.
I guess this speculation goes a tad beyond my case study, so this is just about where I'll leave it. In closing, I will admit that I don't really care about football, and in my lack of care, I will further speculate that this state of affairs is not even specific to this field. This, à propos of my observation in footnote #7, should, if nothing else, stand as a cautionary tale for the believers in democracy, meritocracy and all that nonsense. By now, I'm quite convinced that (Romanian) communism was not as much, as naïvely thought, an autocracy as it was in fact an oligarchy centered around Ceaușescu's clique; while today's democracy is an oligarchy centered around various cliques which alternate depending on how the wind blows. In other words, the transition transitioned from A to B, which is also a variety of A. Talk about continuity indeed.
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FRF sued the Romanian Lottery around 2006, claiming that the latter had violated some PR agreements. I don't know the details, and they're not too important for this discussion, but long story short, FRF won and one of Sandu's suspicions was that his following lawsuits were revenge work. ↩
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Dumitru Dragomir, ex-president of the Romanian Professional Football League, another football institution or the other. He himself is quite the character, I'd say, even though, as I said, I don't really follow what all these people have to say. ↩
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Yes, these folks went through multiple lawsuits, which were totally not part of a turf war. Problem? ↩
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For what it's worth, Digi is the largest media conglomerate in Romania, and probably in the region. Make of that what you will; as for myself, I don't think that his invitation to talk on Digi Sport, of all places, is a coincidence. ↩
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The US hosted that particular instance, so let's give them this one. ↩
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Școala Națională de Studii Politice și Administrative, or: the National School of Political and Administrative Studies. During Ceaușescu's time, it bore the name Ștefan Gheorghiu and it was the main educational institution for forming party cadres. Talk about continuity. ↩
Oh, and by the way: Romania's football team did qualify for the 1998 World Cup game and made it to the eighth-finals, but that was the last time, at least for the time being. Let's see if Burleanu actually gets any results or whether football as a whole dies before that point.