By Jaroslaw Adamowski
February 3 – Arpad Paszkany (pictured), owner of CFR Cluj, has confirmed plans to find a new investor for the Romanian club which currently plays in Liga 1, the top tier of the country’s professional football league.
Paszkany has invested heavily into the club over the past 13 years, qualifying for European competition as league champions in three of the past five seasons. He is now looking for new investment to take the club to the next stage.
“I have a principle: it is better to eat a thin slice of a delicious cake than eat an entire cake of worse quality,” Paszkany told local news site City News Cluj, adding that he could agree to sell a majority stake in the club.
The Romanian businessman said that in 2013 he commissioned consultancy firm KPMG to contact potential partners willing to acquire a share in the club. However, said he was aware that this was hard, as clubs in Romania are “much less tempting” to foreign investors, especially those from Asia, than their counterparts from Western European countries.
Paszkany became the owner of CFR Cluj in 2001. Under the new management, the troubled club was promoted to the Liga 1 and won a number of domestic honours. These include the Romanian championship in 2008, 2010 and 2012, the Cup of Romania in 2008, 2009 and 2010, as well as the Super Cup of Romania in 2009 and 2010.
Set up in 1907, CFR Cluj is based in Cluj-Napoca, in Romania’s north. The club’s Dr. Constantin Radulescu stadium has a total capacity of 23,500, according to data released by CFR Cluj.
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