“The little local tyrants, narcissists and populists want to give their opinion more than it falls!”

GSP.ro exclusively presents some of Alin Cârligeanu's ideas with which he hopes to convince voters at the General Assembly that will take place on Friday.

“We all have to contribute to the realization of a quality sports show”

– Hello, Mr. Cârligeanu! Why are you running for a seat on the Board of Directors?
– I am running for a new mandate as a member of the CA of FR Handbal because after 5 years of experience (I also counted the year 2012-2013 under the presidency of Alexandru Dedu) I have gained enough experience and balance to be able to change something for the better. I also want to be able to collaborate with a more skilled, more humane and modest president, who will unite around him a CA willing to “pull” handball up, to be useful to the generations to come. To be able to witness successes other than sporadic qualifications or good results at club level. Because I have the necessary expertise in the rules of the game and I am willing to present and share it with other handball people, I will run for a new term in CA

– How can you change from CA some problems in Romanian handball?
– I partially answered the first point as well, I will optimistically encourage dialogue to give handball better regulations, a richer competitive program and balanced in terms of the number of games and costs for the youth sector, in particular. I want to honestly mediate the relationship between coaches and athletes on the one hand and referees + observers on the other in the next 4 years. I think that sudden rise in the National League rankings has created a rift, an envy that is not necessary in this relationship. Simply put, everyone involved, listed above, must contribute to a quality sports show that makes our sport more attractive and richer (in sponsors).

“I am disturbed by the abrupt intervention of classless politicians”

– What bothers you the most in Romanian handball?
– The abrupt, negative intervention of some people who have to do with politics, but are not class politicians, scholars. The little local tyrants, narcissists and populists want to give their opinion more than it falls, more than the world champions did in their time. The mayors, the presidents of the County Councils and below them, the local sports officials who are part of political parties must have an opinion because in Romania it is said and it is true: “whoever gives the money orders music for the fiddlers”. In their case, I see primarily a role of controlling the distribution of allocated funds. How much of the funds go to league teams, how much to juniors and how much to amateurs, how the money is spent at each of the mentioned levels, who wants to “lick their fingers”, who is lazy and especially who works with passion. If the politicians take a “step back” and have a big picture, of course they can use their authority to fix things that aren't working and after a while (longer or shorter, between 3 and 5 years) they can reap the rewards. You can't center (allocate the money) and score (the coach kicked out after 6 stages). And there would also be, as I have shown, the competitive program for juniors, they must play more, but a more accessible way must be found for teams with reduced financial possibilities.

– If you were to decide, what would be two measures that you would immediately impose in Romanian handball?
– 1. Modification of the regulations for the conduct of the National Male and Female League by reintroducing the U23 and U21 rules. In the new Statute of the Romanian Handball Federation, the maximum number of presidential mandates should be two, and it should be analyzed if the duration of a mandate is extended to 5 years, so as not to overlap perfectly with an Olympic cycle.
2. Single methodical training line at Junior 3, Junior 2, Junior 1 level established by the methodical committee and the technical committee after a thorough consultation with the junior coaches. Annual analysis of the results of the implementation of this measure and possible necessary “adjustments” along the way. The award, in a descending line of all the coaches who have dealt with the discovery and growth of an athlete who reaches the senior national team after he has exceeded a number of selections, say 20. No more than 3 awarded coaches/selected athlete.

“The forms of corruption in society are also manifested in sports”

– Is there corruption in Romanian handball?
– Sport is a mirror of society, I'm 58 years old, people have an opinion about me, so I'm not afraid to say yes. There are different forms of corruption that are manifested in our society and that are reflected in sports, there is a lot of talk about sinecures, for example, and I think that if we look closely, also at FRH, people were hired who have no other quality than being friends of whom they should. Naturally, you expect a “bombshell” like: I know that man is corrupt. Maybe one unfortunate day such things will be written about sports, but for that the competent institutions must provide evidence. I understand that 3 and a half years ago, a prosecutor was also invited to a meeting of FRH officials. Not participating because I wasn't invited, I don't know what they learned but present, probably to avoid temptation, I think too.

– What do you reproach the current president?
– Nothing today, it's already late. His mentor taught him that a difficult conversation begins with the question: “You have something with me, are you angry?” » However, there are certain character traits that a true leader must have: to know how to build a team, to be an excellent communicator and an optimistic person who supports his colleagues in difficult moments, to be able to make quick decisions under pressure of various kinds, not to dye his hair if he is a real man (that is, to call things by their name), to be able to look his interlocutors in the eye without getting angry. If we are referring to handball, then the native must speak well, Romanian, and the official language of the IHF and EHF, English. A foreign language is properly mastered when you can joke about it in conversation, even if your accent is not Oxford.

– Who do you support for president in the April 24 election and why?
– Me, even if I'm not running. In the last 5 years, after I ended my activity in the financial field and started a new activity, in the field of sports, I set up a micro-enterprise, I learned new things. One important thing is to respect the collaborators, to try to earn the respect they give you, as well as the trust to work together on a project, on an activity for the good of the athletes. That's why he doesn't want me to offend my partners and charge value judgments. I will certainly be open to work with whoever is chosen, but I respect the intelligence of the more than 230 voting members in choosing the most serious and hardworking, capable of building a professional team. I want a vengeful president who only looks forward from day one, from his inauguration to his last day in office.

“I did not defend the honest enough”

– Do you think that the members of the CA are to blame for the problems in Romanian handball?
– Yes, now I will speak in my personal name, as part of the group that formed the CA of FRH 4 years ago. I think I wasn't good enough at imposing certain ideas on changes to procedures or regulations, I didn't communicate well enough with those who didn't share the same opinion. I didn't always deal with the really important issues and slipped into less useful conflicts. I gave in after the first year to the insistence on appointments in some positions, passing over important topics in my area of ​​expertise too easily. When it came to technical issues, although I listened to the experienced, professional coaches, I was not strong enough to make my voice heard. We didn't protect the honest ones enough, regardless of whether they were athletes, coaches or officials, the modest, docile and non-conflictual ones sometimes had to lose in front of the bully of people who, temporarily occupying important positions at a technical or organizational level, made mistakes and in this way generated incredibly high tensions around them, an unbearable work atmosphere. However, the very large number of candidates for a mandate in the CA in Friday's elections proves that sometimes, those in the opposition have shown that being a member of the CA is not just an etiquette, a formality or a fad.

The elections for the 15 seats in the FRH Board of Directors will take place on Friday, April 24, when the new president will also be elected. Constantin Din, Sorin Dinu, Bogdan Voina and Cristian Potora are running for the position of president. The representatives of the 242 sports structures with the right to vote will vote in the elections.