After “scouring” him in the 2018 elections, Burleanu harshly attacks Ionuț Lupescu: “A period marked by a lot of corruption in arbitration”
The president of the Romanian Football Federation, Răzvan Burleanu (41 years old), announced, on Monday, in a press conference, that there is no risk that the president of the Central Commission of Referees (CCA), Kyros Vassaras, will be replaced due to recent refereeing mistakes.
Ionuț Lupescu, pointed with the finger from FRF FOTO Facebook
“There is no risk that President Kyros Vassaras will be replaced. This topic is not on our agenda. I also deny the information according to which Vassaras will be replaced by Hațegan. Ovidiu is part of our team, of Vassaras' team. Along with it, it will contribute to increasing the implementation of VAR in Romania“, said Burleanu.
The center Istvan Kovacs, the one accused of wrongly validating the 2nd goal of the Rapid team in the 3-2 victory in the derby with Dinamo, is in Burleanu's opinion “the best Romanian referee in history”.
“From my point of view, even before this Rapid – Dinamo derby, and after it, Istvan Kovacs remains the best Romanian referee in history. He is the first to referee three finals of European interclub competitions.
What if he was wrong? It depends on who you ask. When a match ends, every time the losers consider themselves at a disadvantage and blame the referee. And the others are either silent or say nothing, so to speak.
We have VAR which is a safety net for referees. We must not forget where we started from. When we implemented it we wanted to bring a plus in terms of the integrity of the competition. But I don't want to talk about a match or the evolution of a referee because that would imply an interference in Romanian refereeing.
So this is the exclusive attribute of the Central Referees Commission”, said the president of the FRF, who is preparing for re-election tomorrow at the Football House for a new mandate (he has been in office since March 2014).
“Unfortunately, the people who now give their opinion about the refereeing of Istvan Kovacs are the very ones who made the delegations in Romanian football in the past. It is about a period marked by a lot of corruption in arbitration. And I am referring here directly to Mr. Ionuț Lupescu. And now we're going to see those who were part of that system jump to its defense“, added Burleanu, referring to the one he defeated in the elections.
“I have to admit that, although it wasn't really a trifle, I gave them a hard time“, Răzvan Burleanu said in 2018, referring to names such as Ionuț Lupescu (57 years old), who was joined by Mircea Lucescu (80 years old) and Cristian Chivu (45 years old).
