What the newspapers say: April 17, 2009

Romania’s football industry seems feeble at the moment as scandals break one by one, newspapers on Friday read. Elsewhere in the news, a ten story building foundation appeared in Herastrau, Bucharest’s biggest park. Last but not least, Romanian peasants gave up production and sell Turkish vegetables under a Romanian label.

Romania’s football industry seems too feeble to resist corruption scandals, Evenimentul Zilei reads. The wave of discoveries, arrests and accusations that hunt football club owners generated an unseen reaction from Romania’s Football Federation head, Mircea Sandu.

He declared that he cannot distance himself from the organism that, after the Revolution generated scandal, corruption, counter-performance and violence. He accused the press that they seek to hunt him down and urged prosecutors to stop investigating good people like Steaua football owner Gigi Becali or FC Arges owner Penescu.

Mircea Sandu declared that they should have acted more wisely and that these scandals should wake up everybody: referees, owners and observers. Sandu went on defending Gigi Becali, arguing that what he did was to feed people and offer them jobs and his is by no means a social menace.

In this vein, Cotidianul reads that anti-graft prosecutors found a CD named „bribe” in which FC Arges owner Cornel Penescu taped himself as he offered bribe to the head of referees, Gheorghe Constantin currently detained just as him. Anti-graft prosecutors searched Penescu’s office when they found the incriminating CD.

Elsewhere in the news, Cotidianul reads about a new cement foundation able to hold a ten story building in Herastrau, Bucharest’s biggest parks. Mayor Sorin Oprescu is outraged but his measures anemic.

The newspaper reads that all information lead to a company called Domino 94 Impex controlled by Bartolomeu Finis, a former client of the Social Democratic government. According to the head of the Nautical Club in Herastrau Liviu Doara the terrain pertains to Domino 94. He declared that the company holds seven acres from the park.

District 1 mayor Andrei Chiliman declared that the foundation is illegal and that he did not approve it. His statements are confirmed by Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu. Oprescu added that the construction was made on a private property for a land purchased 17 years ago and that it is currently under analysis.

Also about frauds, at a lower level, Romanian peasants decided to give up production and sell Turkish vegetables under Romanian labels, Romania Libera reads. The paper reads about the good old Dabuleni melons, that in most of the cases are actually bought in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The phenomenon spread in the last years across the country even if it is illegal. The newspaper interviewed some of them to find out their main reasons. For one, it seems that they shifted gears due to the bizarre behavior of Romanian buyers. On the one hand, Romanians are looking for Romanian fruits and vegetables but they want their fruits to look perfect.

Secondly, Romanian farmers cannot afford to invest in their own production due to the disloyal competition and are not able to recover their spending.