New finance rules threaten Romanian football future

The Romanian government's determination to stamp out corruption in football is in danger of leaving the country's first division significantly short of participants. Finance minister Ionut Popescu has ordered that all companies owing money to the government have to pay up or have their assets frozen, as part of a severe crackdown on taxpayers. Since the announcement, 11 clubs have had their bank accounts frozen. Steaua Bucharest is reported to owe �3.3 million in unpaid taxes while Dinamo Bucharest, National Bucharest, Politehnica Timisoara, Apulum Alba Iulia and Gloria Bistrita have all been targeted. "It's possible we will have only five or six teams able to play in the first division next season," Viorel Duru, the head of the license commission for the Romanian football federation (FRF), told media. Under UEFA rules, clubs which owe substantial amounts to other clubs, to employees or to the state can have their professional licenses suspended by their national football association. The clubs have been given until March 31 to pay their debts, estimated by the finance ministry to be around �19 million. "After this date, the clubs' assets will be seized and they will go bankrupt," said Duru. "Football will die if the government doesn't reschedule or postpone payments," Dumitru Dragomir, head of the professional football league (LPF) said. "All clubs have debts but they don't have money to pay." The move is part of a government-wide drive to reduce public debt after it promised the European Union, which it hopes to join in 2007, that it will put an end to a widespread practice of amassing debts to the state.

Source: euFootball.BIZ © Copyright 2006 - All rights reserved.