Article by Daniel Grigore – Published Thursday, November 13, 2025, 2:18 p.m. / Updated Thursday, November 13, 2025, 2:19 p.m.
Ioan Ovidiu Sabău, 57 years old, coach in the first league at U Cluj until October 18, says that the football betting problem it is already known in Romanian football and that it would probably be more widespread than is currently known.
The betting scandal takes on new proportions with the statements of a man from the phenomenon, Ioan Ovidiu Sabău, until last month a coach at U Cluj.
In the context of the investigation regarding the suspicion that Metaloglobus players bet on their own team's matches, Sabău comes out and says that this kind of activity is practiced by many more athletes, some of them resorting to intermediaries in an attempt to protect themselves.
Ioan Ovidiu Sabău detonates the betting scandal: “Not only at Metaloglobus! There are other players in our championship”
“I think that these things can be found out, they are known. I don't think that only at Metaloglobus… I think that there are other teams, players. There is a lot of talk and I think that there are also many truths.
I don't have clear information, but there is a lot of talk, in several teams. They are still in our championship, there are also players who… or through intermediaries. This is possible.
I think they are, that it is being discussed and has been discussed before. The temptation is great. Let the people who are able to intervene, check, let's be careful.
You can earn money quite easily. But were these things not known, with Metaloglobus? I didn't know, but it was supposed to be heard. Behind the curtain there is a lot of discussion, there is talk.
We have to censor ourselves, you can't say everything you feel and see. In general, coaches and managers also censor themselves, you can't say what you think. But lately, things have settled down quite well, they work correctly, I don't think there are any more fixed matches”, Sabau said for digisport.ro.
On a similar note Gigi Becali, the FCSB boss, also spoke the other day: “There are more players, even in bigger teams, who deal with this kind of thing.”
The case of bets at Metaloglobus, in short:
- A few of his players Metaloglobus allegedly made accounts on betting sites through a staff member and would have bet including against their team. The Integrity Department of the FRF has already started an investigation regarding the Metaloglobus matches;
- A former staff member he made astonishing testimoniesclaiming that he had come to the team precisely to gather information to improve his chances of winning at bets!
- At GSP Live, the general secretary of the LPF stated that it is being investigated “if there is an organized thing there or something accidental, if there were bigger things planned or it was just a person who was gambling”.
- Metaloglobus supports that the involvement of the players in such activities would immediately lead to the termination of the contracts.
