By Jaroslaw Adamowski
September 22 – Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) has launched an investigation to determine whether Gheorghe Ciuhandu, the former mayor of Timisoara, and two other local officials illegally funded local football club Politehnica Timisoara, which was privately-owned, between 2008 and 2011.
From 2008 to 2011, Ciuhandu allegedly transferred about RON 27.1 million (€6.1 million) to Politehnica from municipal funds, reports local news agency Agerpres. The DNA says that the funds were provided for the personal benefit of the side’s owners, and not public interest.
The directorate has seized a estate property owned by the former mayor and the bank accounts of one of the two officials.
Following the 2010/2011 season, the club, which had been struggling to stay financially afloat in Romania’s top tier, was relegated to the country’s Liga II due to its incapacity to obtain the required club licence from the Romanian Football Federation (FRF).
Despite their promotion to the Liga I following the 2011/2012 season of the second tier, the club was again denied a licence. Politehnica closed down in 2012, some 91 years after it was established.
Ciuhandu served as Timisoara’s mayor from 1996 to 2012.
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