Article by Alexandru Tomuțiu – Published Sunday, November 16, 2025, 9:50 p.m. / Updated Sunday, November 16, 2025, 9:51 p.m.
The former central defender Cristi Săpunaru (41 years old) put the cannons on arbitration, after Romania lost in Bosnia with the score of 1-3, in the penultimate match of the preliminaries for the 2026 World Cup.
Cristi Săpunaru described the refereeing of the Englishman Michael Oliver as “execrable”. He reproached the “central” for giving the yellow card to Bogdan Racovițan at a time when it should not have been the case.
Cristi Săpunaru, angry at the arbitration in Bosnia – Romania: “It is impossible for there to be a promising phase, when you take it to the touch”
“For me, the refereeing was execrable! I'm not saying this because I'm Romanian, but I sat and watched the match. The English referee gave a yellow to Racovitan, on that free kick, when they sent the ball over the bar.
It is impossible for there to be a promising phase, when you take it to the touch. It's promising when you take it to the square”
Retired at the end of last season, Cristi Săpunaru represented Romania in 36 games. He failed to score for the “tricolors” but was present at two European Championships, in 2008 and 2016.
The selector Mircea Lucescu also put the cannons on Michael Oliver after the final whistle: “The referee left everything to them. Now he sews Marius. He didn't go to see. Drăguș was facing the ball, he raised his leg, the opponent came from behind.
The opponent suffered nothing, had nothing. He pretended. The referee didn't think twice. He took out the red card. Unplayable in these conditions. From that moment on, I surrendered all duels. With referees they won all the duels. I didn't do what I did in the first half.”
