“What the hell?! Did he call you? Are you scared?!”

To describe the tensions between the Bucharest teams, Andone used the word “hate”.

“I came to Dinamo in '83, this rivalry with Steaua was transmitted. When you get to the dressing room, you feel the fans, everything. The generals who came to the team to be ambitious… Hatred was transmitted! Beat Steaua and that's it! You can finish 2nd, no problem, but you beat Steaua! Which one!

Psychological training was being done, they came one by one from the ministry, from the club. Everyone would come and start: «10 minutes to tell you something too – you have to beat them, that my father, that that one, that the other…». You've never seen anything like it! The first year you sit, you watch, then you get into this fever.

With Belo, with whom I reconciled at the national team, how many cliches we didn't have… it was a brook. Colleagues are sending it to you… Now, there's no chance of that rivalry ever coming back. Look, it was,” Andone said on GSP's “2 to 1” podcast.

Ioan Andone rekindles a monstrous rivalry: “Since Valentin came, everyone has moved aside”

Asked which of Romania's greats had a greater influence before the Revolution, the dynamist Andone points his finger at Steaua: “I say that, since Valentin Ceaușescu entered (no – the eldest son of the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu)from the '80s, they had more influence.

They were afraid of Valentine. Otherwise, the Ministry was strong. But all the ministers stepped aside when Valentin came, and Postelnicu, and Homoștean: “Take it easy, we're not messing with this!”. And I could see, there were influences on the referees, at the Federation”.

Scandalous reaction to Ion Crăciunescu, during the derby: “God blew my mind, I felt sorry afterwards!”

Later, Andone referred to the derby with sparks from March 1989, Steaua – Dinamo 2-1. What the former defender of Dinamo still claims today: that Ion Crăciunescu, the referee of the match, eliminated two players from Dinamo, Vaișcovici and Cămătaru. Steaua prevailed in the end and thus won the title.

“Crăciunescu… how come, two players out, when they beat us 2-1 in overtime?! Play 8 on 10 in the field?! I told him: “Well, let your child die!”. I was sorry, I apologized after… God forbid! Until then, I'm really crazy, God had taken my mind!

But… Cămătaru, Crăciunescu's teammate at Craiova's youth team, pushes the ball further, 3-4 meters, gets the second yellow and out, in the first half! Leave me alone! I told them on the field [lui Crăciunescu]: “Well, did he call you? Are you afraid?'. I was telling him directly on the field! What the hell?! But, no, that's how the wind was blowing, and we had families”, is the story of Ioan Andone.

It's the match in which “Fălcosul” showed obscene gestures towards the official stand in Ghencea, where the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party were. Andone would be suspended for 3 months. He says he was “lucky”.

“I was going to the stands, I was making gestures, because a referee brings you into this situation. As a referee, you have to be balanced in a derby, not steal. Then he was going to suspend me… I didn't think, my child was two years old, he was sending me who knows where…

I was lucky, I was playing for Dinamo, in the national team, where Emeric Ienei preferred me instead of Bumbescu, with whom Imi had won the Champions Cup. Curious! I stayed from March to June, suspended for 3 months, I was lucky. In those days, you had to be lucky,” added Ioan Andone, guest on the GSP “2 to 1” podcast.

How Crăciunescu defended himself

In 2020, in an interview given to GazetaIon Crăciunescu denied Ioan Andone's accusations: “I met Valentin twice, face to face, in my entire life.

If one person, mind you, only one!, comes forward and says that Valentine ever asked or forced her to do him a favor, then I'm never talking about football again in this life“.

In the period 1985-1989, Ion Crăciunescu was the most delegated referee at the derbies between Steaua and Dinamo

“2 to 1” with Ioan Andone, Friday, from 18:00. The main topics addressed:

• the terrible Steaua-Dinamo rivalry before '89;
• the violent conflict with Ion Crăciunescu;
• the curious absence from the Dinamo – Liverpool return;
• the offer to go to Steaua;
• name the greatest Romanian footballer you have seen;
• pomina episodes from the 1981 World Youth Championship;
• where Andone won a career best;
• the coach who shocked him: “A fool!”;
• what solutions does Ioan Andone have for the revival of Romanian football;
• how does he see the continuation of the Dinamo project;
• what does he say about Gică Hagi the selector.

About Ioan Andone:

• he started football at Corvinul, where he made his debut in the first league at the age of 19 (105 matches, 15 goals);
• became a symbol of Dinamo. Transferred in 1983, played for 7 seasons in red and white, collecting 255 matches and 35 goals in the first league;
• as a Dinamo player, he won two Romanian championship titles and 3 Cups, being part of the team that reached the semifinals of the European Champions Cup in 1984;
• from the position of coach of Dinamo, he won a champion title in the 2003-2004 season, 3 Romanian Cups (2003, 2004, 2005) and the Supercup, in 2005;
• the end of his football career caught him in Spain (Elche) and Holland (Heerenveen);
• he made 55 appearances for the national team (scoring two goals), participating in Euro 1984 and the 1990 World Cup;
• member of the famous national team that in 1981 won bronze at the World Youth Championship in Australia;
• as a technician, he also recorded remarkable success at CFR Cluj, which he made two-time champion – he also won a Cup – and with whom he performed in the Champions League groups;
• otherwise, he also coached clubs such as Sportul, U Cluj, Farul, Omonia Nicosia, CSKA Sofia, Rapid, Aktobe;
• in 2017 he retired from coaching, to occupy management positions at FC Voluntari and now at Corvinul Hunedoara.