Former and current tennis players sue Romania’s central bank

Several former and current Romanian tennis players, including Ion Tiriac, Ilie Nastase and Simona Halep have sued Romania’s National Bank (BNR). They want the Arenele BNR tennis venue, located in central Bucharest, to re-enter the sports circuit, namely to be transferred from BNR to the Romanian state, in order to be modernized and used for competitions. They filed their action yesterday at the Bucharest Court, reports local Economica.net. The tennis venue is currently owned by the central bank, following a protocol from 1991. However, Tiriac, Nastase and Halep are challenging the validity of the document transferring the tennis venue to the BNR. Moreover, they are asking the central bank to pay EUR 2 million damages for having taken the tennis venue out of the sports circuit. BNR has previously agreed to return it to Romania’s Youth and Sports Ministry for EUR 35 million. The central bank took over the venue in 1991 for only USD 233,000. The arena, which hosted the BRD Bucharest Open and the Nastase-Tiriac Trophy in recent years, needs refurbishing and can’t be used for international competitions anymore. editor@romania-insider.com