Article by Maria Olteanu – Published on Saturday, 28 February 2026 22:33 / Updated on Sunday, 01 March 2026 00:47
Farul – CFR Cluj 1-2. Gică Popescu (58 years old), the president of Farul, had an extremely harsh speech, dissatisfied with the manner of refereeing, after Farul lost on Saturday evening at home in round number 29 of the Superliga.
The “Mariners” had no chance in the play-offs before this match, and after the match they blamed the fact that they did not receive two penalty kicks. There was a big scandal at Ovidiu, and the white-blue official raged live on TV, not understanding why the VAR room did not intervene.
Gică Popescu was extremely outraged and announced that if it happens again that his team is disadvantaged by arbitration, he will remove it from the field, assuming the risk of failure at the “green table”.
The reaction of Gică Popescu, after the refereeing mistakes in Farul – CFR Cluj
“I'm keeping my wits about me, but I don't want to end up taking the team off the field. I will, believe me I will if it happens again! These mistakes make you desperate, we need points, let's not get into that danger zone in the table.
You can't make such a decision, I'm at the end of my patience after the two matches, I don't understand, the referee may be wrong, maybe he's in a bad position, the referee may also have reasons, but the VAR, why is there still VAR?
To have called him and see, to have said the referee that it is not, OK! There are two matches one after the other: in Pitesti, the best Romanian referee doesn't give a foul, the player should have been sent off, he did a trick, now we come home and have two penalties.
How much common sense should we have and endure mistakes against us?! I don't know what it is, in order to have good referees you have to make a scandal, like Mr. Coman, swear at the referees, violent reactions to the referees.
I want us to have a certain proper dress and common sense and fair play, but I drive you to despair. It can't be, I'm losing points, don't make me think of other donkeys, excuse me, I'm thinking of all kinds of nonsense!
He doesn't see the referee, he doesn't see the linesman, he doesn't see the VAR, was the TV screen blurry? Come on guys, the center and neither the VAR, not once, twice… this is bad intention, how much can we bear?!
Then you go outside, you make statements, you are called to the commissions to suspend you, because you are right. I saw Avram, he said we were right, not once, but twice. Why do we still have VAR? We end up taking the team off the field, I take the team off, goodbye, we lose 3-0, the same thing, I make you end up in such a situation”, said an extremely angry Gică Popescu, after the match, on “Digi Sport Special”.
VIDEO with one of the controversial arbitration phases in Farul – CFR Cluj
Images from Farul – CFR Cluj 1-2
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