“CSM? Robbery on public money!”: the failure of the club financed by the Capital City Hall, explained as in the book EXCLUSIVE

The meeting scheduled at the CSM, on Tuesday, 72 hours after the elimination with Metz, after a double round-trip defeat, produced a short statement that does not need comments.

Cristina Neagu earns over 20,000 euros per month at CSM. PHOTO: Facebook

“CSM Bucharest is the best team in Romania, under similar budget conditions, with a plus only when attracting sponsorships. The situation of the women’s handball team was presented to the Board of Directors! Through everything we have undertaken in recent years, through everything we undertake in the future, we will try to overcome the current threshold of results in the Champions League. The team is preparing for the last matches of the season, which will bring a new title for our club!“, transmitted the formation financed by the Capital City Hall.

At this moment, the Facebook page of the CSM “roar” by the reactions of angry people who rightly believe that they are taken for fools after such a reaction.

In an attempt to find the reasons for the team’s stagnation in the Champions League quarters, “Adevărul” got in touch with two specialists in the field. Journalist Marius Huțu (welovesport.ro) and coach Gheorghe Tadici (HC Zalău).

“Leafa is going, and the pressure of results does not exist”

At the beginning of the dialogue, Marius Huțu emphasized that at CSM Bucharest, a club with an annual budget of approximately 3.5 million euros, there is an infrastructure problem.

“The CSM does not have its own hall, it moves “with the tent”. Metz, for example, has its own 5,000-seat stadium and has never won the Champions League. Okay, that’s not the main cause of CSM’s Champions League failures, but it’s a detail that matters. Because this foundation is very important from my point of view, if you want to win the Champions League“, stated the journalist from welovesport.

“Those at CSM have been in a comfort zone for several years. The pressure of results is pressing and not too much. I mean, they got eliminated or they qualified, that’s about it. They don’t mind. OK, the fans are angry, but looking at the club’s statement on Tuesday, it doesn’t seem to matter much what the fans say anymore“, continued Marius Huțu.

Marius Huțu, always present at the big world handball competitions. PHOTO: Facebook

When asked how some female players can be held accountable for their salaries, the handball expert gave a clear answer: “This thing starts with management. From what it imposes, what it demands at the beginning of each season. But it seems the people in charge are happy. Leafa works, no one bothers us and that’s it. We’ll try again next year, put in another file“.

Marius Huțu noted that, this year, CSM stopped, again, in the quarterfinals of the League, although the team was a truly stellar one: “In recent years, there have been injuries, but they haven’t had the right integers. This season, on the other hand, they had two full-backs on the right, they also had backup in Cristina Neagu, they also had two centers, because Omoregie has also recovered. There are three individual world champions in the group, three other gold medalists at the European Championships. In the current squad of the CSM there are at least ten players with a medal in a final tournament. I don’t know if there is any other team in Europe, with so many medalist handball players in the team, at the present time. Unfortunately, it seems that CSM is just a sum of individuals and not a team“.

Huțu also commented on the situation of coach Adrian Vasile. Who, almost certainly, will leave CSM after the last match of this season. “From my point of view, Adrian Vasile has no future at CSM. It may come back in a few years. But now, first of all, he no longer has credibility in front of the fans. He had four years at his disposal to succeed at least once in the League and he failed to move on. And, very important: he did not adapt his team’s style to what is played in northern Europe! He stayed in Cristina Neagu’s style and I don’t know if this style fits with winning the Champions League. Cristina is a very important player, she can help enormously, but I think that, nevertheless, the game must be built differently than Cristina Neagu“.

The welovesport journalist also explained why you can’t expect Neagu (35 years old) to bring you the Champions League trophy almost single-handedly: “The problem is that, in all the important matches, Neagu was the first violin, and CSM Bucharest lost! In the last four years, in six of the eight matches played in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, Neagu was CSM’s main scorer. Unfortunately, the team has six defeats in these eight games. How do you explain this?! That’s why I say that I don’t know if it’s enough to build Cristina Neagu’s game to win the Champions League“.

Gheorghe Tadici, for a lifetime in handball. PHOTO: The Truth Archive

“They lack determination”

Gheorghe Tadici (72 years old) is among those who have been accusing, for almost a decade, the waste of public money in performance sports. We are talking about a Romanian anomaly, which does not only happen at CSM Bucharest, but at many clubs.

“It is very difficult to explain CSM’s failure in the League, while you are not inside, involved in the preparation process. On the other hand, if they consider that their goals are to win the title in Romania, the cup and the Supercup, then there is no need to make investments at the level of the ones now. Attention: there is a lot of public money! At the present time, there is a competition between the Town Halls and the County Councils, and this problem has been perpetuated for many years. This waste of public money is against handball, against Romanian sport. It’s a real robbery with public money, what’s happening in our country, at the present time, in sports! For hospitals, for pensioners, there is no money, but there is money for those who <> for nothing in sports“, told us the former selector who won the world silver with the national team in 2005.

Tadici also emphasized that the anomaly of financing performance sports from public money is widespread in Romania, not only at CSM Bucharest: “From this point of view, I agree with the people from the CSM! Because the financing of sports from public money also happens at the Ministry of Transport, and at the Ministry of the Interior, but also at many County Councils and Town Halls in other cities. Basically, I’m referring to clubs with budgets of over 2.3 million euros per year. There are some exaggerated things to play in a domestic championship or a European cup. And CSM Bucharest, the team that represents us in the Champions League, no longer has an identity! When you have 10, 12 foreign players in the team, what is the Romanian identity of this team? What does it have to do with the community it represents?“.

The renowned technician also explained the failure suffered by CSM, round-trip, with Metz: “First, they lacked determination. I am referring to the determination that the foreign handball players from CSM have, when they are with their national teams. Basically, we train them, pay them, provide them with luxurious conditions and they don’t give their lives on the field, when they play for CSM“.

The management conference is coming up

Despite the dry statement, thrown on social networks, a conference is being prepared at the CSM, however, in which the management will provide concrete explanations for yet another elimination suffered in the Champions League quarterfinals. Very likely, on this occasion, the separation from coach Adrian Vasile will be announced.