Former FIFA referee Adrian Porumboiu has a clear favorite in the current Romanian refereeing. In a dialogue on “Prietenii lui Ovidiu” about the past and present of the “whistlers”, he says that Marian Barbu is by far the best Romanian referee and ironizes Istvan Kovacs: “It's fashionable, but it's retro fashion”.
– Mr. Porumboiu, how are today's referees?
– Many categorize me as having I don't know what eminences compared to some who refereed me when I had a team. Today's referees are some good, some very good and one excellent.
– What is that excellent one?
– Barbu Marian is excellent. He is a referee who has everything…
Marian Barbu
– The one from Făgăraş.
– From Făgăraş, from Tara Oașului where he is from. Well done to him, he is a good referee and I would entrust any match played on a field, not only in Romania, to him without any reservations. That's my opinion, but it's objective.
– You don't know him personally?
– No, no, no. Marian Barbu is number 1. By far. Place number 1 and about 30 free places follow, and the others follow.
Adrian Porumboiu: “While I refereed, there were no matches with mistakes like there are now”
– And Istvan Kovacs? That Istvan Kovacs is fashionable.
– It's fashionable, but it's retro fashion, as you judge, not for anything else. He had a good lane, he had a “back”… I don't know if the name of Kokkalis, of the general secretary of UEFA, some of these things that kept him, and with Burleanu, he was “pumped”, bravo to him, tells you something. To referee very well at the Championship… at the World Championship. It's good, it represents Romania!
– How many Cup finals have you refereed?
– The first final was Poli Timisoara with Steaua and it was played on “Regie”. Overtime, overtime, 11 meters. And when the kicks were taken from 11 meters, a cameraman, God knows from which television, entered… he entered the field and was filming from the field. When I saw him, I saw him on the fourth shot. Let me throw him out now… He was on the scorer's side, on the assistant's side… To kick him out, I refrained, because I was making fun of myself: “Well, four and four, eight shots were executed, and that one over there was filming from that side.”
Adrian Porumboiu PHOTO GSP Archive
– And?
– And after… after the match, the next day, the late George N. Gherghe called me to the Federation, he put the tape on me: “It is not possible, FIFA referee, to allow…”. The biggest mistake belonged to the assistant, he had to see. So did I, I didn't give it to him and it was my fault. I was suspended for three stages. Those three stages of suspension were held, because I allowed them, I allowed the cameraman to film from the field.
– Was that the biggest suspension?
– Yes, that's it, that's it, that's it… I didn't have anything else… I didn't have. There was an administrative error, but I had no mistakes. They were of this inherent, human kind. TI say this and I am also one of those who, I pray, were not born, many of them, who comment and use all kinds of insults. There were three-part matches out of 160 matches, while I refereed, there were no matches with mistakes like there are now.
