kostun

Steaua Stadium - some facts As it is with 99% of the stadiums in Romania, the Ghencea Stadium does not belong to the Steaua Football Club but to Steaua Sportive Club which is a distinctive entity, namely a branch of the Romanian MoD(Ministry of Defence). Effectively the stadium is the property of the state and Steaua F.C. which has been sold a long time ago and now belongs to a private individual, George Becali, pays a monthly rent to be able to play there and so does Unirea for the CL campaign. This is why the stadium looks so bad, the MoD is on a tight budget every year and cannot afford to put money aside from the highly necessary expenses of the Army (ex. for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan) just to make us Steaua fans happy. Further more, the stadium being in the public property, it is illegal for it to be sold and even illegal for a private organisation or person to modify it (build on it) in any way. It required a Goverment decision signed by the Prime Minister just for Steaua F.C. to be able to add some facilities for the "upper class" attendants, facilities which are truly elite but unfortunately unique in what is otherwise a decrepit stadium. Irony is, once the facilities were added out of the owner's (George Becali) pocket, since they modified a public property of the state, were considered just like a donation to the state and they became part of the property of the state. Of course, there is no compensation in place for Steaua F.C. or the owner and Steaua F.C. STILL has to pay the monthly rent, which increases with every year that passes. Things being as described, no one in their right mind would continue to throw away like that millions of euros. There's a plan to make the stadium UEFA Elite (60.000 all seater, roof an all sides etc.) but it would require a 40-60 million euro investment when the yearly budget of Steaua is less that 20 million a year. So the stadium will stay like it is now for a very long time with only urgent repairs being done (out of the pocket of Steaua F.C., of course) since the government is investing in the national team's stadium which is being rebuild now to host the 2012 Europa League final awarded to Bucharest. One more thing, even if 60 million euros sounds like peanuts money for the national budget you need to remember that if Steaua gets the money, the other clubs which are in the same situation (ex. Dinamo - stadium belongs to the Interior Ministry (police) , Rapid - stadium belongs to the Ministry of Transportation etc.) will scream for funds too and pretty quickly millions needed will become billions needed. Crappy stadium aside I hope at least you enjoyed your time in Bucharest. NO ONE, Romanian or not, can't possibly truly enjoy a football game in that stadium, unless sitting at the boxes or at least the main stand.

Romanian TV reports that Rangers fans in the away section attacked the Romanian police. They are warned that unless they stop the match will be suspended because of their fault.

Watch for Antonio Semedo on Unirea's right wing, he's the player who can win it or lose it for Unirea tonight. He's the sort of player who either let's his team play in 10 by not showing up or scoring a brace.

Speaking of your 4-5-1, Unirea's playing a 4-2-3-1 which can be easily viewed as a 4-5-1 too.

Game to be played, no big issues with the pitch, Romanian press is quiet about the whole thing so nothing to worry.

Actually that's Mihai Stoica, Unirea's General Manager.

Wow, you really didn't like school that much, didn't you? FYI, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Romanians and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romany_people. So Romanians = Latins (I'm not 100% sure but even a 4th grader like you should've heard of the Roman Empire) and romany = gypsy = clothes peg sellers (in other words, indians). Guessing also you've got more indians from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan than all Eastern Europe put together too ... .

Exactly. I think he's being polite. He's not polite. It's a mind-game. He needs Rangers to believe that they are the favourites for the game in Bucharest. He likes being the underdog, Unirea loves playing on the counter. He's hoping Rangers will come to Bucharest to have their pride restored, throwing themselves in attack ... so that he can surprise them on the break.

Good morning to all Rangers fans. Not trying to rub salt in your wounds or anything but I've tried to warn you in my posts that Unirea are not a team to be bullied into submission or dismissed as almost amateur. They beat us this season already at our own home ground and we were very far behind them in the table last season. And we're mighty Steaua, the most successful team ever to come out of Eastern Europe! Unfortunately, as you've probably realised for yourselves, history doesn't play for you. It's the players. And it has to be said that now Unirea looks like having better players than you do. They certainly have better players than we have. And for sure a better coach too. What amazed me the most last night was the fact that Unirea looked, how do you like to put it in Scotland, "piss poor". You can ask Muff, I think he'll agree they were continuing their below average display from the Vaslui game. Unirea used to play far better at the beginning of the season and Dan is renowned for making his team be as consistent as possible during the season. Having said that I think that Unirea will come back on form pretty quickly and they will play a lot better in November in Bucharest. So Rangers MUST raise their game A LOT to have any hope of getting something from that game. Remember, you'll be playing on neutral soil, Unirea is definantly not at home in Ghencea. They'll be like Morton playing their home games at Ibrox because their stadium is not being up to the UEFA rules. Last, as an objective outside observer, I can safely say that this season Rangers looks on par with the rest of Scottish football. We destroyed Motherwell, a small Czech team killed Aberdeen, Hearts was brushed away by Dinamo Zagreb and Falkirk succombed to real minnows, Liechtenstein team Vaduz. I won't mention your great rivals, the "scum", you know very well they are in pieces too. I'm sorry to see a tradition club like Rangers who used to provoke shivers down any team's spine at Ibrox being so well beaten at home in two succesive games, it reminds me of our own club's downfall in the last 2 seasons. Hope you come back to the better good old days from next season.

Wow, Unirea is really shaky, they seem to continue the awful display from the game with Vaslui. What happens to Rangers though?!

Last minute good news for Rangers ... Unirea's first choice goalkeeper,Gedrius Arlauskis, has picked up an injury in training and he will not play tonight. Daniel Tudor, his not-so-good replacement is the only goalkeeper in Unirea's team and there's no time to bring someone else from Romania. If something happens to Tudor before/during the game, Unirea will be in trouble!

Last night Unirea played their worst game of the season yet. They were well beaten at home by a good team of the Romanian championship, FC Vaslui, 2-1. In their defence, it was pouring, the pitch was extremely muddy and out of their 5 Romanian internationals, 3 were rested for the Rangers game, 1 entered as a late substitute and only the captain of Unirea played from the start. One of Unirea's forwards, a Romanian U23 international, is injured and won't play in both games against Rangers. As for the game itself, Unirea opened the score quickly, in the 7th minute, and then played the waiting game, being satisfied with only stopping Vaslui's attacks. They had just another big chance to score but it was missed. After the break Vaslui completely dominated the game and out-passed Unirea for the full 45 minutes of the second half. The 2 goals were the logical result of their ball possession and relentless attacks. Former Rangers player Ian Durrant was in the stands on behalf of Walter Smith to watch Unirea's game. He didn't say anything to the press after it, just left. And last, all the interviews with Unirea's players and their coach had the same tone. Accidents happen, our thoughts were far away to Tuesday's game where we need to win or worse case scenario, draw. Every one of them seemed to be aware of the fact that who gets the/(most of the) points from these 2 games will qualify at least for the Europa League while the other team is destined to finish 4th in the group.

Henri Coandă International Airport (also called Otopeni) - near Bucharest, bus/train connection to the railway central station in Bucharest Aurel Vlaicu International Airport (also called Baneasa) - located within the city of Bucharest itself Otopeni is the main airport, used by most airlines. Baneasa is used by the low-cost airlines but has the advantage of actually being within the city limits.

Tickets are 4-30£ (please see my thread http://forum.rangersmedia.co.uk/index.php?...0&start=100 ). As for pints, it depends on the brand and place but you can expect between 0.5 - 1.5£ a pint.

Well, that's pretty much their view of you too, only that for them you're a pond with 4 points fishes. They would like to get out of this group and don't care if it's 2nd or 3rd place.