Steaua wiretaps published

19 December 2008 20:15

Anti-corruption prosecutors on Friday made public transcripts of tapped telephone conversations of the owner of top Romanian side Steaua Bucharest, Gigi Becali, seen here in 2004, accused of corruption.

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Anti-corruption prosecutors on Friday made public transcripts of tapped telephone conversations of the owner of top Romanian side Steaua Bucharest, Gigi Becali, accused of corruption.

According to the transcripts, Becali offered cash sums of several thousand euros to players from five clubs as an incentive when playing Steaua's top title rivals Cluj.

In the conversations Becali is heard talking to the main shareholder of Universitatea Craiova, Adrian Mititelu, about "sorting out the Cluj problem" and providing a "case" - presumed filled with cash - for players of Cluj's city rivals Universitatea Cluj.

"If I tell you what is in the case you won't believe me - one and a half million," Becali is reported to say. "But its's not enough, frankly. Give them at least two," responds Mititelu.

"There's two. One and a half to the team and five (hundred thousand) to (club chairman) Toni (Dobos)."

But despite the apparent attempt to buy the players off Universitatea lost to Cluj, who won the title and it appears no cash changed hands.

Following a tip off, however, prosecutors detained five people at the game in possession of a case containing 1.7 million euros and Becali was hauled up on corruption charges.