Romanians offered money to change referee for friendly

BUCHAREST: The Romanian Football Federation (FRF) made an official complaint on Tuesday after being offered money to appoint a different referee for next week’s friendly against Uruguay.

FRF media officer Paul Zaharia said the federation had reported the matter to FIFA and UEFA after receiving an approach to replace Hungarian Viktor Kassai.

“We received a phone call from abroad and it was followed by an email from the same person,” said Zaharia.

“He asked us to release Viktor Kassai to officiate another friendly and in exchange he offered us a donation of US$20,000 and also to provide FIFA referees for the game against Uruguay free of charge.

“At the same time the same person sent an email to another country’s federation inviting referees to officiate the match.”

The FRF, which said it did not want to disclose the name of the person or the federationwhile the investigation was ongoing, said the other federation had asked for an official invitation to change referees.

“We expressed our gratitude for contacting us but explained to them kindly that we don’t intend to replace the match referee,” Zaharia said.

Last year, three Hungarian referees were banned for life by FIFA over match-fixing in friendlies.

The Latvia-bolivia and Bulgaria-estonia games, played in the Turkish resort of Antalya, produced a total of seven penalties.