who was Vasile Cipcigan, former Romanian international, falsely accused of murder

• GSP launches “Unknown histories”, a project that aims to reveal long-forgotten stories from the history of Romanian and international football. Sensational aspects, spicy details, old scandals with more or less known protagonists will be revealed.

First of all, the facts! In 1928, the respectable publication “Universul” committed one of the great errors in the history of the press: it published a story with accusations that were as serious as they were false. An accusation of murder against an important name, a player who played in the Romanian national team.

The first news about the alleged murder of Vasile Cipcigan

Two respectable publications in the interwar period, “Universul” and “Rampa”, offered a shocking news in September 1928. A Romanian international was accused of murder! Here are the details provided by “The Universe”.

A football player from Cluj arrested for killing a birjar

Cluj, September 5
On Tuesday evening, football player George Cipcigan together with his brother Iosif, returning from a party, took a bus to take them to Baciu Street, home.

Arriving at the gate of the house, the two brothers got into an argument with the birjar Martin Vigh and then the Cipcigan brothers started fighting the birjar.

After they hit him with sticks several times, the birjar fell unconscious. The two brothers, who were in the mood, only then realized the seriousness of the fact. They got on the goat, where they laid down the unconscious birjar and started the carriage.

On King Ferdinand road, a policeman stopped the carriage and took the birjar, who was still passed out, to the constituency, where he came to his senses for a few moments, giving the names of those who beat him. Then he lost consciousness again and was transported to the hospital, at 1 o’clock at night, he died.

The two Cipcigan brothers were immediately arrested. (“The Universe”, September 8, 1928)

And “Rampa” accused him

A telegraphic news item also appeared in the “Ramp.” Equally serious and erroneous. An additional piece of information appeared in this note: Cipcigan committed the murder after a match.

Cipcigan was arrested

The well-known player of the Romania team from Cluj, Cipcigan, was arrested. He is accused of killing a birjar. The aftermath of a craving, after a match”.
(“Ramp”, September 8, 1928)

In order to strengthen the identity of the “criminal”, the people from “Rampa” also put a caricature with the footballer Vasile Cipcigan. Pictures were rarely found in the press almost 100 years ago and often resorted to the more clumsy pencil “portrait” version.

What was true

How much truth did the news from “Universul” and “Rampa” contain? The crime did exist, the Cluj jeweler Martin Vigh (in other sources Anton Vigh appeared) was actually killed by a customer on September 5, 1928. This was the only correct detail in the respective news!

What was wrong

Let’s count the mistakes! The Cipcigan footballer was called Vasile, not George. Vasile Cipcigan had a brother named George. The brother “Iosif” mentioned in the news did not exist. The Cipcigan family never lived on Baciu street, in Cluj.

The details about the genealogical tree of the Cipcigan family were confirmed by the great-grandson of the former international, the well-known journalist from Cluj Tiberiu Fărcaș. Another puzzlement: if the beaten man was passed out, why was he taken to the police station and not to the hospital? The “universe” did not bother to discover.

Another error: the invoked footballer was never arrested during his life, but had an immaculate record.

“The confusion is also due to the uncontrolled news that was given to the media”

“Universul” was the only newspaper that recognized its mistake and published the true identity of the murderer. The next day, “Universul” tried to correct the error, correctly indicating the name of the murderer, a certain Ioan Cipcigan, without any connection with the footballer or his family. It was a mere coincidence of names.

The fatal blows were no longer inflicted by “sticks” but “by a heavy blow to the head with a spade.” The “Universe” recognized the mistake, but did not firmly point to a culprit, but sought an ambiguous explanation, blaming the “uncontrolled news that was given to the media”.

Who is the assassin of the Vigh birjar from Cluj

Cluj, Sept. 6
In the last issue, we showed that an assassination was committed in Baciu Street, the victim being the Vigh merchant. When the autopsy was performed on the body, it was found that death was caused by a strong blow to the head with a shovel. In Cluj, the news spread that the assassin was the well-known football player Vasile Cipcigan. In reality, he is not guilty of anything. The assassin’s name is Cipcigan Ioan, a railway official. The confusion is also due to the uncontrolled news, which was given to the press at the first moment. Birjar left five children orphans. The assassin claims that he was brutalized by the birjar, instead the birjar’s widow declares that her husband was a very peaceful man and did not treat anyone brutally. It was proven otherwise that the murderer, at the time of the crime, was drunk. (“The Universe” – September 9, 1928)

“Universul”, the largest newspaper in Romania

This incredible blunder was committed in the biggest newspaper in Romania at that time. The “Universul” was founded in 1884 by the Italian Luigi Cazzavillan and abolished in the early 1950s by the communist regime. In the 1920s and 1930s, during the period of maximum effervescence of the written press in Romania, “Universul” was one of the first publications (very likely, even the first!) to have local editions. Even this colossus of the Romanian media committed this mistake.

“Rampa” was another well-known publication that existed from 1910 to 1949. This publication mostly dealt with film and theater chronicles, but always had sports pages as well.

What punishment did the criminal get?

Another newspaper, “Curentul”, announced, on December 13, 1928, the punishment received by the real criminal.

Conviction of the Cipcigan murderer

Cluj. – The Cluj Court judged the murder case of the train conductor Ion Cipcigan yesterday. The accused, following an argument with the visitor Anton Vigh, hit him on the head with a hair, killing him on the spot. The accused in front of the court defended himself with the fact that he was tormented and did not realize what he was doing. After hearing the witnesses, the court, applying the provisions of Article 92, sentenced the accused to 10 years in prison. The convict appealed. (“The Current” – December 13, 1928)

What matches did the international Vasile Cipcigan play for the Romanian national team

Vasile Cipcigan (born in 1898, died in 1957), the one unjustly accused of murder, played twice in the Romanian national team. Both matches with Cipcigan among the “tricolors” ended in failures.

On May 1, 1925, Romania played, at the “Romcomit” stadium in Bucharest, the tenth match in history against Turkey. The guests won 2-1, and the press of the time attributed the failure to the experimental formula used.

Four years later, on May 10, 1929, Romania played the 20th game in history, on “ONEF”, against Yugoslavia (nowadays, any national team has, on average, ten games a year, then four years were needed to collect so many international matches).

The guests won 3-2, but Cipcigan can boast of having been part of the same team with legendary figures from the interwar period, such as William Zombory (goalkeeper – goalscorer), Ladislau Raffinsky, Emerich Vogl, Mihai Tanzer.

He played in the first international match after the Great Union

Another interesting detail about the forgotten hero of these lines. Victoria Cluj, the group to which Vasile Cipcigan was registered, was the first club in Romania to support an international friendly after the Great Union of December 1, 1918. On July 3, 1921, Victoria Cluj played at home against UTK, from Czechoslovakia, won by the guests 2-0. One of the standouts was Vasile Cipcigan.

How the game was played 100 years ago: defenders were called “beci”

We can only imagine how Vasile Cipcigan played, because there are no images from the matches back then. The photos show the face of a serious man, with the milling machine made abundantly with briantine, so that not a hair moves.

In the “precambrian” of football, there was no abuse of game systems like today, when everything is tacticized to the maximum and two or three modules change during a single game. Back then, all teams played 2-3-5. The defenders were “beci” (no – from back), the midfielders were “halfies”, and the five in the attack were divided into extremes, wholes and the classic “nine”.

Players rarely changed their position, but the Cluj international was an exception. Vasile Cipcigan appeared either in the position of inter or extreme. We can imagine him as a kind of Ciprian Deac from 100 years ago.

Cipcigan played until somewhere in the mid-thirties, so long after he had passed the 30-year mark. It was a feat at a time when it was rare for a footballer to remain at a high level past 30 years. Perhaps Cipcigan understood the meaning of “sporting life” before this phrase gained popularity.

Vasile Cipcigan, twice finalist in the national championship

Before the University and CFR Cluj, the one that held football supremacy in Cluj was Victoria, a team founded in 1920 by the students of the Commercial Academy in Cluj, which had its “home” in the Cluj Mănăștur district and which was disbanded in 1947, like most bands that didn’t have “healthy origins”.

For a short period, in 1928 (the same year with the terrible fake news about the alleged murder), Victoria Cluj merged with the University, calling itself Romania Cluj, but this construction was not wanted by the people of Cluj and did not last long. The merger did not last, but Victoria played for a while under the name Romania Cluj.

Let’s make a short foray into the early years of Romanian football. The first championships, those from 1909 until 1921 (except for the period 1916-1919, in which it was not played due to the first world conflagration), were some local competitions that were later assimilated as “championships”.

Starting with the 1921–1922 season, football began to settle down. But in the country that had just come out of the war and that had just reunited in the form of Greater Romania, it was difficult to achieve a championship on the entire expanse of the homeland.

Football was organized by geographical “leagues”. The teams that won these regional competitions then played in an eliminatory system, as in the Romanian Cup, for the designation of the national champion.

The first final of the Romanian championship in this formula was China Timișoara – Victoria Cluj 5-1. The goal of Cluj in the match played on September 17, 1922 was scored by Vasile Cipcigan himself.

In the following season, 1922 – 1923, the final was again Chinezul Timișoara – Victoria Cluj. The people of Banat also won, score 2-0. Those were the years when the Chinese had no rival and won 6 consecutive titles – 1922 – 1927, a record equaled only in the period 1993-1998 by Steaua. Vasile Cipcigan was also present on the field in the final of the 1923 championship.

It was not the last final lost by Cipcigan. In the 1928-1929 edition, he reached the final again, playing in the jersey of the Romania Cluj formation. His opponent was Venus Bucharest, who won 3-2. Three finals, all lost! So close to the title but never won it!

On September 11, 1932, Romania Cluj debuted in Division A, in its first season in the new formula, meeting Gloria CFR Arad at home, score 1-2. The first goal of the Romania Cluj team in Division A was scored by veteran Vasile Cipcigan, who was already 34 years old.

12matches and 3 goals Vasile Cipcigan collected in League 1 in the form of organization still known today, which started in 1932, when the Cluj player was already 34 years old

For Victoria / Romania Cluj, Vasile Cipcigan represented what Ciprian Deac would later represent for CFR Cluj or Remus Câmpeanu for U Cluj. An emblem!