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Hagi discouraged by corruption in soccer |
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May
13, 2000
BUCHAREST, MAY 12 (UNB/AP) - Less than a week after pledging to return to fight corruption in the national soccer league, Romanian star Gheorghe Hagi acknowledged having second thoughts about the effectiveness of such an endeavor in comments published Friday.
"I no longer have any confidence in anything or anyone," said Hagi in an interview with the daily Pro Sport. "The (soccer) federation has no power and doesn't take any measures."
Hagi claimed important matches were decided for up to dlrs 60,000, a figure also cited by other Romanian soccer figures. He said that Romania's future performance as a national team was undermined by corruption and "match rigging."
Romania is due to play in the Euro 2000 soccer championships and is seen as one of the best countries in southeast Europe. Many of its players have contracts with foreign clubs. Hagi plays for Istanbul's Galatasary.
Hagi's latest attack on the way soccer is conducted came after Farul Constanta, the team from his home town on the Black Sea, was relegated. There are suspicions that the relegation may have been the result of match rigging.
Hagi, 35, said he was particularly upset with the chairmen of two clubs who he claimed had too much authority - Jean Padureanu of Gloria Bistrita, and Georghe Stefan of Ceahlaul Pietra Neamt.
"They meet in a restaurant and write on pieces of paper; that one will get the title, that one will be relegated," he was quoted as saying.
Contacted for reaction, Stefan would only say: "It's his opinion and he has a right to it."
Last week, Hagi said he would return this summer to Romania to fight soccer corruption.
Hagi debuted for Romania at age 17. After the 1989 fall of communism, he signed on with Spain's Real Madrid, then moved on to Italy's Brescia and then to Barcelona, another Spanish club. He is very popular in Istanbul, where he now lives.
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