Bucharest City Hall may finance new football team that will play on National Arena

CSM Bucharest a local sports club financed by the Bucharest City Hall, may establish a new football team, which will play on National Arena. The club has asked Bucharest mayor Gabriela Firea to approve the founding of the new football team, CSM Bucharest manager Alin Petrache told local Adevarul.ro. CSM Bucharest is considering taking over a troubled local football club, such as Rapid Bucharest or Sportul Studentesc and building the new team on it. CSM Bucharest wants to have a full football club, with a senior team as well as children and youth teams, according to Petrache. Steaua and Dinamo are the biggest football clubs in Bucharest. Steaua and Dinamo are also the names of the two biggest sports clubs in Bucharest, which are active in dozens of sports and have thousands of athletes. Founded ten years ago, CSM Bucharest currently has some 1,400 members and aims to reach 15,000 members in the next 3-4 years, which would make it one of the biggest sports clubs in Romania. The club plans to reach this objective by developing new sports sections and has asked the City hall to double its budget from EUR 10 million to EUR 20 million. The club currently has athletics, basketball, handball, volleyball, rugby, chess, and motorcycling sections and plans to launch yachting, kayaking, football, water polo, and fencing. The CSM Bucharest women’s handball team, which won the EGF Champions League earlier this year, is the club’s most successful branch. The club also has a strong women’s volleyball team. Alin Petrache, CSM Bucharest manager, was previously the president of Romania’s Olympic Committee – COSR, but he resigned due to Romania’s poor results at the 2016 Rio Olympics. editor@romania-insider.com