“It's just a little bit of what I earn!”

– Mr. Ștefan, the first question is about heating. Tell me, you are a lawyer. How did you get into football?
– This year marks 20 years. In 2006 I was a lawyer…

– You have a little more and retire!
– Eh, I'm not retired from this special, so to speak. In 2006 I arrived at the Romanian Football Federation. I had a lawyer friend, he told me that Mircea Sandu was looking for someone to collaborate with on the legal side. I went, I met him and he said to let him go to work. So in 2006 I arrived at the Federation.

– So you are from the “old guard”, with Mircea Sandu.
– You can also call him that if it's relevant. I was definitely part of his team as well.

– And you worked at the Federation until when? Until 2013?
– We argued a few times. We fought a few times. I worked 2006-2007, in 2007 we broke up for a year, came back in 2008, stayed until 2009 and a few months in 2013.

“Gino Iorgulescu is on the barricades!”

– You have been with the League since 2013, with the arrival of Gino Iorgulescu as president.
– Exactly.

– By the way, how is Gino Iorgulescu doing?
– I say he is doing well and is in the League. He's on the barricades.

– Tell me, is he a good boss? Is he easy to work with?
– I say yes. It's one of the best collaborations I've had in football. As I said, I also worked with Mircea Sandu, I worked with several clubs, I worked with players, with players' agents… He is a very good person to work with and a person who, so to speak, respects this idea of ​​sharing duties and letting those who have been given those duties do the work they are responsible for.

– But why did you fight with Mircea Sandu?
– In 2007 there was a discussion related to Poli Timișoara, in 2009 there was a discussion related to Pandurii Târgu Jiu. I had other perspectives in the legal area and in order not to escalate, I preferred to separate each time, to let things settle down.

“I have a salary of 15,000 euros in the League! It's really little”

– Did you leave or did he fire you?
– No, he never kicked me out either in 2007 or 2009. Let's say that I left or, please, to be elegant, let's say that it was a mutual separation.

– Is it better in the League than it was in the Federation?
– Here it somehow depends on the assignments. The Romanian Football Federation somehow has a much more important strategic component for the development of Romanian football, while the League is more of an actor in the economic area. So if you want to produce a relevant change in Romanian football, you need the Federation rather than the League.

– What is your salary at the League?
– It's the salary you saw in the press, it's a salary of around 15,000 euros.

– Isn't that much?
– I say that compared to my professional skills and the money I was earning in law in 2013 when I came to the League, it's really little.

– And now you have settled with the lawyer? So you don't have any process left, nothing?
– No, because it is a legal provision that creates a state of incompatibility between practicing the profession of lawyer and what it means to be a salaried position. So if you choose to be salaried within an entity, you can no longer practice law, with a few notable exceptions: publishing, teaching and so on.

“They are salaries that somehow reward the quality of people”

– There was a lot of discussion about the president's salary, Gino Iorgulescu, which is a big salary. But the man explained that part of the money was the money he produced and then…
– If we refer to what means the revenues that the Professional Football League has, surely these salaries are somehow oriented towards what means the financial performance that we achieve from 2013 onwards.

Gino Iorgulescu at the Fanatik Gala / photo: Silviu Enache

– But in general all salaries are high in the League?
– I say that they are salaries that somehow reward the quality of people and the work they do within the entity.

– How many employees does the League have?
– Around 25 employees. There are a few more collaborators, that's why I said around 25 employees, that is, there are some who have collaboration contracts and not employment contracts.

– You ask me…
– Let me tell you one more thing, and here I feel sorry for him. If you sit next to him and watch a football game, he has a perspective that is more like artificial intelligence than human intelligence. That is, he sees the extraordinary game and unfortunately for him no one consults him anymore.