PREMIERE: FINANCIAL/ATHLETIC SHOCK IN TIMIŞOARA AND BISTRIŢA Two Romanian football clubs demoted due to their debts

The licensing process gave nightmares to many of the domestic clubs, with two of them, Poli Timişoara and Gloria Bistriţa, being relegated due to their financial issues. The conclusions reached at the end of the process by the director of the Licensing Commission, Viorel Duru, should serve as a warning for many reputable teams, as the case of Poli Timişoara and Gloria Bistriţa came as a real shock. No less than eight major clubs had problems securing their license.

Over 80% of the clubs in the first three tiers owe money to the state, 40% of the First League spend more on wages than they earn, which leads to accumulation of debt and the increase in the number of lawsuits between the teams and the players left unpaid.

Unless things undergo a major change, next year very few clubs in the first league will succeed in getting their license. The first victims of the licensing application are Gloria Bistriţa and Poli Timişoara, which will both be playing in the matinee, given the fact that the decisions of the Appeal Commission are final. Losses range in the millions of Euros, with a more detailed calculation to be made in the near future, since we are talking about TV royalties, sponsorships and tickets. Poli Timişoara, which was set to play in the preliminaries of the Champions League this autumn, will be hit the hardest. Furthermore, Poli also has under contract players which are valued at more than 26 million Euros and which have very big contracts. Poli Timişoara failed to get its license due to it having debts towards the state budget and towards Benfica Lisabona for the transfer of full back Laszlo Sepsi, whereas Gloria Bistriţa failed the review due to its debts to the state budget. The major winner of this decision is Sportul Studenţesc, a team which was relegated on athletic criteria, but which now gets promoted on the basis of financial criteria. Five teams of the Second League will be promoted, of which four directly.

The licensing administration initially proposed denying the license for the following teams: FC Timişoara SA, CF Gloria 1922 Bistriţa, FC Universitatea Craiova, CS Gaz Metan Mediaş, FCM Târgu Mureş, FC CFR Cluj, ACS Victoria Brăneşti and Unirea Urziceni (which did not apply for a license). Universitatea Craiova, Victoria Brăneşti and Unirea Urziceni did not receive the license from the First Instance Commission. There were some discussions concerning Poli Timişoara and Gloria Bistriţa, due to some outstanding financial debts, which the Romanian Football Federation appealed against. The head of the Licensing Commission, Viorel Duru, said: "The licensing process is not subject to any avenue of attack. The decision is final. We have considered that the documents submitted by FC Timişoara and Gloria Bistriţa were irrelevant, and so we have filed an appeal. By splitting the club and spinning it out of the patrimony, the Timişoara club was supposed to prove that its outstanding debts it had on December 31st, 2010 are no longer outstanding through compensation, in the case of the new company, on the deadline of March 31st, 2011. Given these circumstances, myself and the Financial expert have considered that there are reasons to appeal the issuing of the license to Poli Timişoara. Poli did not prove that it paid off the debts of the old company and those towards Benfica Lisabona, in the case of the transfer of Laszlo Sepsi". The reaction of the boss of Poli Timişoara, Marian Iancu, is telling for the financial state of clubs in the First League: "There are at least 4-5 teams at the top of the chart that shouldn"t receive their license, teams with their accounts frozen". The trainer of Gloria Bistriţa, Nicolae Manea shares a similar opinion: "I do not think that we are the only team which owes money to the state, but that"s the way things work in Romania".

The decisions of the licensing commission caught off guard the entire domestic football industry, and even some of the officials of the Romanian Football Federation and of the Professional Football League are having problems in specifying which division Bistriţa and Timişoara would play in or how the number of 18 teams in the First League would be met.