Article by Ovidiu Minea – Published Friday, January 23, 2026, 09:08 / Updated Friday, January 23, 2026 09:08
A new scandal in Romanian handball reached the table of the National Anticorruption Directorate. DNA is called to shed light on a case that, in parallel, is being played out on other fronts, the commissions of the Romanian Handball Federation and the civil courts.
In the center of attention is the club of the Iași City Hall, CSM Iași 2020, a group that in the last three years has spent over 13 million lei from the money of the people of Iași.
Salaries of seven and eight thousand euros in the last handball league
Iustin Jalaboi, the former interim director of the Iași club, which was relegated from the National Women's Handball League in 2025, signed contracts with three coaches and 12 players last spring, who were to receive huge salaries in the next two seasons.
Although CSM Iași 2020 was sure to play in the last division from the summer of 2025, Jalaboi signed a two-year contract with coach Iulian Stamate, with salaries of 7,000 and 8,000 net euros per month. And the handball players were going to receive dizzying salaries for Division A, some as much as 6,000 euros net per month.
Mayor's intervention
Hearing of Iustin Jalaboi's initiative, the mayor of Iași, Mihai Chirica, revoked him from his position on May 14, 2025 and appointed Dumitru Tomorug as interim director on June 3.
On May 27, Jalaboi, who signed the agreements without the approval of the Board of Directors, sent an address to the CA in which he signaled that those agreements can be terminated by notices, if they are sent by June 1. At the same time, he also recognized that there was no budget cover for supporting the contracts.
The new heads of CSM Iași 2020 have notified the Romanian Handball Federation of the situation, receiving assurances that the agreements will not be formalized.
It came to DNA
The case also came to the attention of the DNA after inadvertences related to those contracts appeared. While the heads of CSM Iași 2020 claim that there are no contract registration numbers in the club's electronic register, which, therefore, could not be valid, agreements with registration numbers arrived at FRH.
Until the completion of the DNA investigation, Stamate and several players complained to CSM Iași 2020 that they terminated the contracts without just cause, requesting compensation. Some plaintiffs turned to federal commissions, others to civil courts. Although the Iași club asked FRH to postpone a verdict until the DNA investigation is clarified, the Dispute Resolution Commission (CSL) within the Federation has already ruled.
Stamate has about 200,000 euros to collect, although he did not work for a second
At the end of 2025, the CSL of FRH awarded huge compensation to the claimants. Stamate has the right to collect the money for the two years of the contract, 930,000 lei, Maria Bardac – 594,000 lei and Gomes Barbosa Elaine 489,000 lei.
Another plaintiff, Sara Kovarova, received only 79,267 lei of the 696,000 requested, money due until September 23, 2025, when she started playing in Poland, in Koszalin.
Unlike Kovarova, Bardac, who plays for Târgu Jiu, and Barbosa, registered for Hapoel Ashdod, in Israel, the latter since June 29, before the agreement with Iași came into force, received compensation for both years of the contract.
CSM Iasi 2020 appealed
CSM Iași 2020 appealed the decision, citing several arguments, on different levels. Among other things, it is the fact that the agreements were not registered by either the club or the FRH, and an important contradiction appears in the reasoning of the decision.
Thus, it is said that Tomorug was appointed director on August 31, 2025, as a result of a decision given by the mayor later, on September 5, 2025. So, according to the commission, the address sent by Dumitru Tomorug FRH on June 16, requesting the termination of the contracts, was from a person who was not a representative of the club. This despite the fact that Tomorug had been appointed to head the CSM 2020 on June 3.
In addition, the loss of the litigations is based on the fact that they were denounced without just cause by Dumitru Tomorug. But, as I stated, the commission says that he was not an official of the club, so he had no right to terminate the contracts.
