Gică Hagi, the future Romanian coach, will have a clear objective: qualifying for the 2028 European Championship.
After the meeting of the Executive Committee on Thursday afternoon, Răzvan Burleanu, the president of the FRF, declared that he was mandated to negotiate with Gică Hagi for the position of selector. Basically, a formality.
The best scorer in the history of the national team, with 35 goals, equal with Adrian Mutu, will take over the reins of Romania this month and will make his debut in June, with friendlies against Georgia and Wales.
Gică Hagi's national goal is to qualify for EURO 2028
“It is not a surprise, we have repeatedly wished to be able to work with Mr. Hagi, but there were reasons you know. The financial details are confidential.
Each selector works with this goal, to achieve a sporting performance at a final tournament. Therefore, the goal will certainly be to qualify the national team to the next European final tournament.
Certainly, we will have changes in the technical staff. The selector's mandate is exclusively focused on the level of the first representative team”, declared Burleanu, at the end of Thursday's Executive Committee.
The President of the FRF conveyed that there will be no goal regarding the Nations League, a competition that will begin in the fall, where Romania will play alongside Sweden, Poland and Bosnia.
“Our approach as a federation regarding the Nations League will be not to have a sporting performance objective, but rather to be able to prepare the qualification campaign. We look at the Nations League as a stage before the 2027 qualification for the next European Championship,” Burleanu said.
It is an opportunity for Gică Hagi to return to the national team and I am very confident. Over time, our relationship became better and better. I have consistently found him to be very passionate about what he does and determined. I am confident that it is the best solution at the moment.
– Răzvan Burleanu, president of the FRF
How Romania qualifies for the European Championship in 2028: the system is complicated
The next edition of the European Championship will take place in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The 4 host countries will participate in the preliminaries.
The preliminaries for EURO 2028 will be contested during next year. There will be 12 groups: the winners and the best 8 teams in 2nd place go directly. UEFA has explained how the qualification system will be for the final tournament:
“The 12 group winners and the eight best second-placed teams (20 teams) will qualify directly for the EURO 2028 final tournament.
Two places in the final tournament will be reserved for the two best-ranked host countries that do not qualify as group winners or as some of the best second-placed teams after the conclusion of the qualifying group stage.
The remaining places will be awarded via play-offs between the other second-placed teams in the qualifying groups and the highest-placed 2026/27 UEFA Nations League group winners who are not already qualified.
Depending on the number of places occupied by the host countries, the number of places in the final play-off tournament may vary between two and four, in one of the following three scenarios:
-
If both places reserved for hosts are used: Eight teams will compete in two legs for two places in the final tournament, with semi-finals and finals in one leg.
-
If only one reserved home place is used: 12 teams will compete in three legs for three places in the final tournament, with semi-finals and finals in one leg.
-
If no place reserved for the hosts is used: eight teams will play four double play-off legs (round-trip), and the winners will qualify for the final tournament”.
