By Mark Baber
May 16 – FC Dinamo Bucharest, Romania’s second most popular club, filed for insolvency on Wednesday. Dinamo, currently fourth in the league, won the Championship for the 18th time in 2007 and was bought by Ionuț Negoiță in 2013 on a promise to return the club to its former glory.
Earlier this week Negoiță issued a statement saying: “I searched for all possible solutions and I hoped until the very last moment but a new debt of several million lei came out of nowhere. Our conclusion is that (filing for insolvency) is the only solution at the moment.”
An administrator is expected to take over management of the club which enjoys the support of an estimated 16.3% of Romanian football fans.
Dinamo was decimated in 1989 when practically the whole team went abroad following the Romanian revolution.
In recent years Romanian football has been hit by bankruptcies and a recent transfer scandal which has seen numerous officials imprisoned for corruption and tax evasion over the handling of transfer fees from foreign clubs as players are sold with the bulk of the fees ending up in off-shore accounts instead of going to the selling clubs.
After a long-running prosecution, former executive chairman of Dinamo Cristian Borcea failed in his appeal in March, being sentenced to six years and four months in prison without parole for tax evasion in the transfer of players whilst former Dinamo sponsor Gigi Netoiu was also sentenced to three years and four months.
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