By Andrew Warshaw
November 14 – Romanian football has been plunged into disgrace after prison sentences were handed out to some of the country’s most influential senior executives and former players for tax evasion and money laundering in connection with the overseas transfers of 12 players over a six-year period.
Charges originally brought by anti-corruption prosecutors in 2008 have resulted in eight jail sentences for between three to eight years in one of the biggest corruption scandals of recent years.
All eight have a right of appeal in the so-called Transfer Case that focused on moves from Dinamo Bucureşti, Rapid Bucureşti, Gloria Bistriţa and Oţelul Galaţi to foreign clubs between 1999 and 2005.
The difference between the transfer fees declared and the real amounts was siphoned off as the books were fiddled, cheating the state out of a fortune.
Among those jailed were Rapid Bucureşti chairman George Copos and Cristian Borcea, former majority shareholder of Dinamo Bucureşti.
But by far the most famous name among the defendants – and one of only two who had their sentences suspended – was Gheorghe Popescu (pictured top), capped 115 times by Romania and member of the side that reached the 1994 World Cup quarterfinals.
During his stellar career, Popescu also skippered Barcelona as well as playing for PSV Eindhoven, Tottenham Hotspur and Galatasaray.
“This trial has done me a great deal of harm but I still hope will end well,” said Popescu.
“I consider myself totally clean.
“Such a decision is difficult to accept when you know you’re innocent.
“It is very hard to wipe off everything has happened during the years since the trial began.”
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