The punch that Cristian Chivu dealt to one of the players of Bari and the transcripts of the conversations between Adrian Mutu and Constanţa mobster Nuredin Beinur, did more harm to the image of Romania"s football team than all their lousy games of these past few years did.

Looking at these players, reading about them and listening to them talk makes you feel like you do not want to get involved in an environment like theirs, ruled by money, uncontrolled behavior and petty interests. It"s hard to imagine what these people stand for. They are hardly examples for the children looking for athletic glory. With the way these players are acting, it comes as no surprise that the sponsors of the domestic football clubs are getting increasingly hard to come by and that serious businesspeople don"t to have anything to do with the king of sports. It"s amusing to hear some club owners talk about taking their companies public, when everything they do seems to be done so amateurishly. While on the surface, there is a difference between what the players do and what the owners of their clubs do, underneath it all there is a connection, as the actions of each side have a decisive influence on the others. It is impossible to grow harmoniously in a flawed environment, it is unnatural.

An entire host of football players, whose talent is indisputable, have come to be more known for what they do outside the field than on it. While relatively unknown for their achievements in the field, Adrian Cristea, Niki Mitea, Dacian Varga, Cristi Tănase (the list is very long) are notorious for their "love" affairs. Ill advised by their shady friends, users of fluids and substances of dubious origin and by ladies of dubious worth, many of the "valuable" footballers demand large amounts of money as well as respect, without giving anything in return. While in the case of Chivu we coul