BUCHAREST Feb 21 (Reuters) – The Romanian Football
Federation (FRF) made an official complaint on Tuesday after
being offered money to appoint a different referee for next
week’s friendly against Uruguay.
FRF media officer Paul Zaharia said the federation had
reported the matter to world soccer’s governing body FIFA and
Europe’s ruling authority UEFA after receiving an approach to
replace Hungarian Viktor Kassai.
“We received a phone call from abroad and it was followed by
an email from the same person,” Zaharia told Reuters.
“He asked us to release Viktor Kassai to officiate another
friendly and in exchange he offered us a donation of $20,000 and
also to provide FIFA referees for the game against Uruguay free
of charge.
“At the same time the same person sent an email to another
country’s federation inviting referees to officiate the match.”
The FRF, which said it did not want to disclose the name of
the person or the federation while the investigation was
ongoing, said the other federation had asked for an official
invitation to change referees.
“We expressed our gratitude for contacting us but explained
to them kindly that we don’t intend to replace the match
referee,” Zaharia said.
Kassai, 36, took charge of last year’s Champions League
final between Barcelona and Manchester United and also
officiated at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Romania will meet 2010 World Cup semi-finalists Uruguay at
the National Arena in Bucharest on Feb. 29.
Last year three Hungarian referees were banned for life by
FIFA over match-fixing in friendlies.
The Latvia-Bolivia and Bulgaria-Estonia games, played in the
Turkish resort of Antalya, produced a total of seven penalties.
(Writing by Angel Krasimirov in Sofia; Editing by Sonia Oxley;
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