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Hannover’s target, Younes Hamza, starts the season in style
Hamza Younes, enjoying the fantastic support of the passionate crowd from Ploiesti.
12 goals scored in 13 matches in the second half of last season meant that Petrolul could avoid an immediate return to the second flight, but also that the 26 years old striker will enjoy some attention this summer. According to the former manager, Valeriu Rachita, the man that signed Younes back in March for 150.000 Euros – a sum that he didn’t even had to pay upfront – the Tunisian had a highest bid of 1,5 million Euros this summer, coming from a 1.Bundesliga club. Later, he revealed that it was Hannover 96 the team that wanted the player, but the yellow-blue outfit had already decided to keep him, offering a new and better deal, lasting until June 2015. A mistake, in my opinion, financially speaking, but a good move for the team’s ambitions, if we look at the way the season started for the Yellow Wolves, with a 5-0 win against Ceahlaul Piatra-Neamt.
Hamza was used upfront, alongside the young Romanian international Gicu Grozav – once at Standard Liege -, and the partnership worked like a charm. If Grozav scored once, offered two assists and was also involved in the move that lead to the last goal, the Tunisian striker scored an impressive hattrick, which gets his average above one goal per match in Liga I! He’s now got 15 in just a few months, while the all-time best foreign striker to have ever featured in Liga I, FC Vaslui’s Wesley, has 62 goals scored since September 2009. The Brazilian scored a brace as well in the first round and the most exciting strikers in Romania will meet next weekend, in a very attractive match scheduled on Saturday evening, in Vaslui.
Sven-Goran Eriksson denies any interest in taking over Petrolul Ploiesti
Eriksson’s name getting used in Romania for business and political reasons. Photo from Daily Mail.
Let me give you the facts straight away. Two days ago, the following story “leaked” from Petrolul’s offices: “A foreign investment fund ran, among others, by Sven-Goran Eriksson, is interested in taking over the club”. A day later, when it was all still in the dark, the manager Valeriu Rachita, who had already announced his intention to leave this summer, looked for a stronger effect and came out himself with the story on national television. Then, local media presented a written (and already registered with the Local Council of Ploiesti) letter of intent, signed by a certain Nicola Imputato, speaking on behalf of Seamed, an investment bank with offices in London and Auckland. Of course, Eriksson was the name that was going to get everyone’s attention, the most important piece of the puzzle!
All this has been all over the news in the past two days and who could have missed it? Nobody, really! Unfortunately, though, you get the same answer if you browse through the media channels – both local and national – to find out if someone really checks such a story before selling it to the fans. Nobody…
Thanks to Jamie Jackson and David Hills, from The Guardian, who were kind enough to give me a hand, the story reached the coach, who firmly denied any involvement. So, why was the Swede’s name involved in this story in the first place? For business or political interest? My guess is for both 
It’s possible that the Italian guy who sent the letter wanted to get the attention of the authorities – although the club that survived in recent years only thanks to public funds now belongs to a businessman – and Eriksson’s famous enough for his recent interest in all sorts of deals, as long as the right amount of money is at stake. It’s also possible that, with the current mayor of Ploiesti, Andrei Volosevici, involved in a desperate campaign to get himself re-elected wasn’t surprised at all by the arrival of this attractive proposal for the future of the club. He will want every vote and football fans would love the idea of challenging for the title one season after barely avoiding relegation. And, with the vote scheduled on the 10th of June, this kind of story does come up at the right time, doesn’t it?
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What do Swansea and Petrolul Ploiesti have in common? Unfortunately, just an idea…
David Conn’s excellent piece from The Guardian on the rise of Swansea is definitely worth a read. You can find it here and I will draw now a parallel. Using less words and a large number of spelling and grammar mistakes, I’d like to offer you the story of Petrolul Ploiesti, one I know in detail, as we’re talking about the club from my home town.
It all started years ago, when Liviu Luca, the leader of one of the biggest unions in Romania, got hold of the club without paying a dime, switching one day from sponsor to owner without anyone opposing what seemed like a natural move at that time. It was a good period for Petrolul, who had just won their last domestic trophy, the Romanian Cup. Years went by and during a season that saw the team finish the first half in second place just to give up the fight in the spring, “offering” points to all those in need, it became clear that sporting success is not among the owners’ priorities.
Luca, just like Ninth Floor did with Swansea, publicly asked for 1 US Dollar to give up the club, at a meeting with the local journalists. The owner of a newspaper, now running for mayor in Ploiesti, Iulian Badescu, wrote a letter of intent that very day and presented an official offer. Of course, Luca (who once asked his players to fix a match, having a gun on the table!) was bluffing and the club remained one of the means to use the union’s money in a way that, in the end, got him in trouble with the law… Bad call for Luca, worse for Petrolul, whose fans had to wait for years to see once again a glimmer of hope when another journalist, Dragos Patraru (my cousin and best friend), initiated a local movement called “Petrolul e al nostru” (Petrolul is ours), hoping to get the club back from the current shareholders and offer it back to the city.
Over 15.000 signatures (in a city with a population below 200.000) were raised with the help of enthusiastic fans who took the streets every day for weeks and the Local Council was forced to discuss the possibility of acquiring back the club. Getting together incredibly rich union leaders with desperate for votes and money politicians wasn’t the best idea though, but everyone, including those who supported the movement with their signatures and efforts, refused the suggestion to start from scratch and build a new, solid structure, taking only the club’s name from the current owners and cutting all the other strings. They wanted first division football, as quickly as possible. So, the two parties shook hands and… became best friends.
Just like Swansea, Petrolul can play on a new, modern stadium, thanks to the Local Council.
Three years after that moment, the shareholders are the same, but the money to run the club come from the Local Council. As if this wasn’t enough, the old stadium was replaced by an attractive new arena and offered for free to a private club, completely supported with public funds. Oh, I forgot, the club is in debt – almost 3 million Euros – and the transfer from the current owners to the Local Council cannot be completed until the debt is cleared. The owners don’t want to do it, while the Local Council cannot do it . Starting from scratch was the best idea, but, hey, Petrolul’s in the top flight, although not for very long, given the current position in the standings…
The yellow and blue outfit, in the current setup and ownership uncertainty, looks once again doomed. The club might avoid relegation, but unless a radical change takes place and a new, solid foundation is laid, will lose the fight with the mediocrity that comes with sheer amateurism. Too bad for the idea and the fans that were the force able to move things, the pressure firmly applied on the politicians who ran the city and Petrolul’s true engine that helped the three times Romanian champions climb back from the third division to the top flight. The supporters who were promised to have a say have been tricked. Those loyal and influential were offered jobs within the club, giving up the idea of having a representative in the club’s board and act like a supervisor for the masses, ensuring nothing that could affect the club’s present and future stays behind closed doors. But who would want that to happen? Not a politician, nor a union leader who’s in serious trouble with the law or the dubious business man who has been trying to control things from a distance in the past couple of months, for the simple reason that he’s already the owner of another Liga I club.
What makes the difference between Petrolul and Swansea? Simple: the Yellow Wolves are still being used by those who run the club, while the Swans are already used to running the club. Who said football is not about the fans anymore?
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New coaches, new hopes
Three new coaches, with impressive credentials, took over this winter clubs with either important tradition (Mark Wotte – Universitatea Craiova) or important ambitions (Andrea Mandorlini – CFR Cluj, Ronny Levy – Unirea Urziceni) and they offered new credit to promising players, who had found little or no space in their teams in the past:
- Ciprian Deac - 24 years old, left winger/forward, CFR Cluj
Left footed attacking player, who made his debut in the top flight for CFR three seasons ago, in a team packed with foreign players, showing a lot of promise. Enjoyed a good spell on loan at Otelul Galati, where he was a regular starter for half a season, but once he returned to Cluj “regained”his backup/rotation status. In total, he has played 51 matches for CFR, but started only 18 matches! This year, under Italian coach Andrea Mandorlini, Deac was immediately handed a start, although in a surprising position – a right winger in a 4-3-3 system. Read more…
