FOOTBALL AND MONEY The millions of Euros of the Champions League are causing a deadlock in the Romanian 1st League

The teams fighting for the title of the Romanian championship are overwhelmed by the financial crisis, more specifically by the millions of Euros coming from the UEFA for participating in the groups of the Champions League. The pressure of who would get that money, which could amount to at least 10,000,000 Euros, ruined the games for the most part, as the top five team played increasingly bad over the last five stages, losing matches against teams ranked far lower. Concerned with calculations, including with the backroom wheeling and dealing of their opponents, the teams seem to have "forgotten" how to play football. Oţelul Galaţi, Poli Timişoara and FC Vaslui are the main contenders for the championship, even though, given the many surprises that took place so far, the teams ranked fourth to sixth could come into the equation as well. For the top three teams, the money from the UEFA would be a true blessing. For example, in the case of "Oţelul", 10 million Euros amount to its budget for the next three years.

The stakes are made even bigger by the fact that this seems to be the last shot to receive money from the UEFA. The preliminary rounds are very hard to win, since none of the Romanian teams will no longer be top-seeded due to their weak results over the last five years. The next season will be the last when Romania is certain to have a club present in the groups of the Champions League. The same applies this season, Romania will have just six teams in the European Championships in the 2011-2012 season: two in the Champions League, with the champion going straight to the groups - and the second ranked Romanian club will play preliminary rounds, and four clubs in the Europe League. Starting with the 2012 - 2013 season, the champion will go through at least a preliminary round, depending on Romania"s ranking in the charts, based on the coefficients calculated by the UEFA.

The last time a domestic club participated in the Champions League resulted in a payout of no less than 17 million Euros, with the amount set to increase after the UEFA will finish calculating the entire financial receipts. Even though its results aren"t anything to be proud of, CFR Cluj has plenty of reasons to rejoice as its participation in this season was a financial success. Over the last five years, following the participation in the groups of the Champions League, Romanian clubs Steaua, CFR Cluj and Unirea Urziceni earned no less than 65,431,000 Euros. While the amount may seem impressive, it doesn"t compare to the earnings of British clubs over the last seven years: Manchester United - 216,594,438 Euros, Chelsea London - 215,869,359 Euros and Arsenal London - 189,186,115 Euros.