UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Romanian football team Steaua Bucharest for involvement in match fixing. The governing body of European football has begun proceedings under its admission criteria for European competitions, citing the articles relating to influencing or arranging the outcome of matches, at a national or international level.

Steaua's case will be heard by UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Body on June 21 at the House of European Football in Nyon, near Geneva, Switzerland, in a closed session.

Turkish team Beşiktaş faces the same charges and the club's case will also be examined in the same session on June 21 in Nyon. UEFA specifies match fixing involving Beşiktaş and two officials in the 2011 Turkish Cup competition, but does not give any details on when or where Steaua's transgressions took place. However, Steaua's owner Gigi Becali was recently convicted by the Romanian courts for attempting to fix a match, as well on other charges of corruption and kidnapping.

Although UEFA does not refer to Becali's recent conviction, the timing seems auspicious. In May 2008, Gigi Becali tried to give a EUR 1.7 million bribe to the football players of U Cluj, and transported the money in a briefcase, which has given the case its nickname “The Briefcase Case.” The money was supposed to convince the football players to win a game against CFR Cluj, in a match that was decisive for the Romanian football championship. Football club Steaua, whose financier Gigi Becali is, would have won the championship if U Cluj had won the decisive match.

The decisions of the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body will be released sometime in the week starting June 24, according to UEFA.

editor@romania-insider.com