Bucharest (AFP) – The Football Federation (FRF) and Football League (LPF) of Romania, as well as two former high-ranking officials, have been ordered to pay 240 million euros ($271m) compensation to the Universitatea Craiova club, the Bucharest court said on Monday.
The punishment, for abuse of a position of power, relates to the temporary suspension of Craiova by the FRF in 2011.
Prosecutors said the suspension had been motivated by “serious breaches of the federation’s position” and was not backed up by any supporting evidence.
FRF chief Andrei Vochin said such a heavy fine would bankrupt the federation, which he said only has an annual budget of 15 million euros ($16.9 million).
“Romanian football would be dissolved if this decision is applied,” said Vochin, according to the dolce-sport.ro website.
The FRF said it would appeal and blamed its former president Mircea Sandu for the issue.
The federation said the suspension “had an individual and subjective nature, by consequence the responsibility… should be individual”.
Sandu and former LPF chief Dumitru Dragomir were both hit with a three-year suspended jail sentence, a fine of around 17,700 euros and 100 hours of community service, the Agerpres news agency said.
Both men rejected the accusations and said they would appeal.
