Two days ago, news, DR and SVT presented a survey in which one in three national handball players answered that they had played a match they suspected was fixed. Some players wanted to be contacted afterwards. When we spoke to the players, one country stood out: Romania. An anonymous source told us that referees are paid between 2,000 and 3,000 euros to fix a match. We heard stories about how a team loses almost all of their away games but wins them all at home. Stories of a corrupt system so permeated that matches are fixed on an almost weekly basis. Could that really be true? – Corruption has deep roots in Romania. Sports are postponed. That’s why it’s happening here, says Romanian excavation journalist Costin Stucan. He has uncovered a large number of match-fixing cases in the country in recent years. – I will be surprised if you manage to convince a player, team manager, coach or referee to talk about match-fixing in handball, says Stucan. He was right that it was going to be difficult. But we got hold of some in the end. An angry coach The aim of the trip was to talk to coaches and players. We will confront the Romanian association with the rumors we have heard. But perhaps most importantly: We wanted to see handball matches with our own eyes. The time is 11.57. In the far north of Romania, a coach runs onto the pitch in the final seconds of a match. Gheorghe Tadici is angry and physically stops the referees. The match, which started at 10.30 this Saturday, has been even. It was 12-12 at half-time and now it is 27-26 between home team Zalau and Buzau. There are only seconds left in the game when the away team counters to equalise. The match ends 27–27. See the situation here: In the stands, the audience boos and whistles, admittedly interspersed with a little laughter at the situation that arises. The coach receives a two-minute suspension for the behaviour. After the match, he shouts in anger. When we get the outburst translated afterwards, we understand that he is shouting that the referees have been bought. A few minutes after the match, he poses for an interview with us. He is still angry about the situation in the final seconds, but denies that his club is involved in match-fixing. – I am frustrated because I feel that the last minutes of the match were unfair. The referees stole the last ball from us, says Tadici. – It is rumored that the judges often rule in your favor. What do you say to that? – We have only had the judges against us recently. You do not have the correct information. We only meet the referees in the technical meetings before the match, says the former national team coach. Gheorghe Tadici is a coaching legend in Romania. Here from when he coached the Romanian women’s national team during the World Cup in Russia in 2005. Photo: ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / AP The home team received 12 penalties during the match. The away team got 2. To emphasize it: We have no evidence or indications that the match was fixed. A couple of weeks later, the disciplinary committee of the Romanian federation looked at the match. They decide to ban the referees in four matches for “ignorance or incorrect application, without intention, of the rules of the game (…) which directly affects the outcome of the game”, the meeting minutes say. Culture shock In a small town in the far north of the country, two Swedes sit in their apartment. They moved to Romania this year to follow their professional dream. Emilia Lundbäck and Hayder Al-Khafadji play for the women’s and men’s teams of Baia Mare. Both play in the top division of Romanian handball. They meet us at home in their apartment. From the balcony we see tired garages, rubbish bins and brick buildings. AIR TOUR: Amelia Lundbäck and Hayder Al-Khafadji say they have seen what there is to see in their new hometown. Baia Mare has around 150,000 inhabitants. Photo: Henrik Myhr Nielsen / news They say they were prepared for a kind of culture shock. In that sense, the start of the stay abroad has been fulfilled. – It feels like you could write a book about the four months we’ve been here. After all, things happen about every three days, where you raise your eyebrows and think “what is happening now”, laughs Al-Khafadji The couple are happy to have each other there, to talk about events. They are both clear that the club, coaches and fellow players show a lot of humanity, despite the fact that the feedback culture is a little different to what they are used to. As Hayder describes it: – The intention is often good. Then the solutions may not always be equally rational. Before they left, they had heard that it would be clear whether matches were fixed or not. That some judges are better than others. That impression has been reinforced since they got on the plane. The president: – It is my responsibility. We meet journalist Stucan at a hotel in the capital, Bucharest. We know that he is a renowned journalist who has worked extensively with match-fixing. He works for Gazeta Sporturilor and has had his own TV program where people have come forward and told how they fixed matches. Stucan has primarily worked with football, but has done some research on handball. JOURNALIST: Costin Stucan. Photo: Henrik Myhr Nielsen / news On the way into the hotel, the receptionist asks for the autograph. The receptionist holds out a banknote which Stucan signs before sitting down with us. – The citizens here are used to corruption. I’m pretty sure it happens everywhere in sports in Romania. But we don’t have proof, he says. Every year, Transparency International produces a corruption index, a ranking of all countries in the world from least to most corrupt. In 2022, Romania received 46 out of a possible score of 100 in this overview. In comparison, Norway received a score of 84. – For the union, the problem is that people will be elected. They will not upset the clubs, because it is the clubs who vote for them. Then you cannot start a match-fixing case against a club, team managers or coaches because you can make someone angry, says Stucan. The highest elected leader of the union is president Constantin Din. Din took over the job a year and a half ago. He has previously been a judge at the top level, but is therefore a relatively newly elected president of the association. Although he does not speak English very well, he oozes authority when he meets us in Ploiesti in connection with a youth tournament for the national team. He does not need to speak loudly, because when the president speaks, the people around him listen. PRESIDENT: Constantin Din of the Romanian Handball Federation. Photo: Henrik Myhr Nielsen / news He arrives four hours late for the interview appointment, but takes his time when he meets us. – I have some important things to work on, Din admits. – One of them is to increase the number of handball players in Romania. It is very clear to me that we need many good, young handball players. Handball is big in Romania. The country has gold in the World Cup on both the men’s and women’s side. Last year, the women’s league was ranked as the 6th best in Europe. Several teams from there have played in Europe and faced Norwegian opposition on several occasions. The president says that his second major task is to keep the sport “clean”. – That is my responsibility. “You’ll see. It’s normal” There is a long line of top Norwegian players who have played in Romania. Nora Mørk, Camilla Herrem, Marit Malm Frafjord, Amanda Kurtovic and Malin Aune, to name a few. But it is the two Swedish players who have agreed to meet us. They have been playing in Romania for a few months. They were prepared for the cultural differences. They were prepared that some matches might have been fixed, but the openness around the topic was surprising. Although they do not know that they have been directly involved in match-fixing until now, both the rumors and suspicions have reached them. They emphasize that they have no concrete evidence. But the conversations are not to be misunderstood, says Lundbäck. – It’s almost like “Yes, you’re going to see. It’s normal.” And that’s a shame, because it’s not normal. Or. It shouldn’t be normal. GOALS: Amelia Lundbäck has scored 32 goals so far this season for Baia Mare. Photo: Henrik Myhr Nielsen / news She tells about things she has been told. About a team that always fights at the bottom of the table, but always has access towards the end of the season. It doesn’t matter if they face a top team or a bottom team. Towards the end of the season, they always manage to get the points they need anyway. – Do you know that you have played a match down here that was fixed? – No, we don’t know, answers Lundbäck. – Do you think? – I think I have played one. But then I think it was to our advantage. It was a rule error that occurred on the part of the referee. But it’s hard to say, says his girlfriend Hayder. – Disaster According to the Swedes, match-fixing is something “everyone” talks about in Romania. That it takes place. Especially towards the end of the season, when points become even more important. At the same time, it is difficult to put one’s finger on anything concrete. There are many 50-50 situations in handball. Sometimes the judges are wrong. – Sometimes after a match, my teammates say “those referees here, they were bought, that is”. You also think “were they not just bad?” So, we have had bad referees in Sweden too, but it is never the first thought in Sweden that they have been bought, says Al-Khafadji. There can certainly be completely different reasons why a match feels fixed. Before the season, all referees must go through a theory test on the handball rules. Before this year’s season, more than half of the referees in Romania failed the theoretical part. They simply don’t know the rules well enough. HOME: The couple Amelia Lundbäck and Hayder Al-Khafadji live together in a small apartment. They play in the same club, for the women’s and men’s teams of Baia Mare respectively. Photo: Henrik Myhr Nielsen / news – It’s a bit parodic. It gets weird at this level. It’s all right if you’re a youth judge, but this is the highest level in Romania we’re talking about, says Al-Khafadji, before his girlfriend interrupts: – I’m actually getting cursed. It’s a disaster. And it says that you have been right sometimes when you have thought “what just happened”. Back to the president of the association, Constantin Din. He confirms that many failed the theory test before the start of the season. He believes the problem lies there, not in match-fixing. – We want to develop further, but the referees don’t know the rules. It is not good. But I am sure that the next time we do such a test, the Romanian judges will be very good. – Sometimes the judges have made mistakes. It is very important whether these mistakes are deliberate or not. I hope that these situations happen because the judges have made mistakes without any intention, he says. It doesn’t happen now anymore? After the match between Baia Mare and Ramnicu Valcea, a match Amelia Lundbäck played, we meet the referees. They have extensive experience and have also judged international championships. They believe that the judiciary in the country is getting better and better. They claim they have never been contacted with questions about fixing a match. At the same time, they understand why we have heard rumors about it. – Is there any truth in those rumours? – There was a problem. But now, in the last year and a half with a new president in the association, they have tried to improve the level of the referees. I haven’t seen anything like that myself. I haven’t heard anything about anything like that in the last year and a half, says Alexandru Constantin. – It is a very difficult topic. When someone says something like that, you have to prove it. Proving corruption is very difficult. To believe in corruption because the media writes about it without proving it, I cannot believe that. I believe in what I see with my own eyes, says the partner, Laszlo Gal. KNOCK: Referees Alexandru Constantin and Laszlo Gal give each other a knuckle right before kick-off in the Romanian league. Photo: Henrik Myhr Nielsen / news After speaking to a wide range of sources in Romania, many say that match-fixing has been a big problem. Several say it still is. The president will not agree to that. – I don’t like the word “still”. Because I hope this doesn’t happen anymore. – Do you think it will happen? – I do not hope so. I don’t like to think about it. Because believe me, I hate this kind of behavior. – Most people we have spoken to have said the same. That you do a good job. But the fact is that people are telling us that the matches are still fixed. Does it make you sad? – Please, don’t say “still”. During four days in Romania, the Swedish couple were the only ones who would talk openly with us about the fact that this is still going on. No Norwegian or Danish players would allow themselves to be interviewed. An anonymous player has told us about a completely open conversation with someone in the club’s management, where the manager told what his own team got back for losing on purpose. Because the problem is not just about the judges. Players, team managers or coaches may just as well be involved. – The comments from the team management are probably that this is happening. Not necessarily that they do it themselves, but that they say “This is Romania”, it happens. Thanks to Nordvision for supporting the work on this matter.
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“This is Romania” – Sport Langlesing
