RRI Sports Club

Romania relegates to the third division of European football

Florin Orban, 28.09.2022, 13:45

Romania defeated Bosnia and
Herzegovina 4-1 on Monday in Bucharest in a UEFA Nations League match, but
their win didn’t change the final standings in Group 3 of Nations League B.
Bosnia and Herzegovina had already secured their promotion to the first
division in the last but one leg, so they didn’t bring their top lineup for the
Bucharest match. Romania needed to win, but this would only have mattered if
Finland lost against Montenegro, which they didn’t, winning instead 2-nil in
Podgorica. Romania’s win therefore had no bearing on the final ranking.

The Romanian football side thus
finished fourth in the group, with the same amount of points as Montenegro, but
with a worse goal average. As a result, Romania will next year be playing in
the third division of the UEFA Nations League, with the likes of Malta, Andorra
and the Faroe Islands, as well as Sweden and Bulgaria.

In the edition of the Nations
League that just came to an end, before Monday’s match against Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Romania had only won one other match, namely against Finland in
Bucharest in June. Their play was generally poor, lacking direction and strength
and full of mistakes, which some football commentators blame on the team’s
manager Edward Iordănescu. Some also said the team lacks talent, especially
compared with the older generations of the Romanian national side. This, they
argue, can also be seen from the fact no Romanian player is in the starting
lineup of a top European club. So, it’s difficult to put together a great team
with little talent, but not impossible. Iordănescu made it a point of capping
young players, something whose effects would only be seen in time.

The president of the Romanian
Football Federation Răzvan Burleanu publicly stated his support for the current
manager and said he would propose that he stayed on at the helm of the Romanian
football side despite failing to achieve his goal in the Nations League and the
national side relegating to the third division. (CM)