God, they say, works in mysterious ways, but he can rarely have indulged in such curious machinations as he has in dragging Steaua Bucharest to the top of the Romanian table. After years of giving sight to the blind, the evidence of the past few weeks would suggest he's started taking it away again, specifically from those referees who might otherwise have awarded penalties against Steaua, whose president Gigi Becali is a hard-line Christian nationalist. And so, as Romania celebrated Orthodox Easter last weekend, Becali could reflect on two glorious resurrections as his team, as he had promised they would, overtook CFR Cluj at the top of the table.
To recap, briefly: Cluj is the largest city in Translyvania, an area with a significant ethnic Hungarian population. Thanks to an investment of around €30m from the ethnic Hungarian businessman Arpad Paszkany, CFR went unbeaten through the first half of the season and, at the winter break were top of the table, eight points clear of Dinamo Bucharest. Paszkany vowed that if Cluj won the title, he would spend another €100m to ready them for the Champions League.
Steaua, meanwhile, were struggling, two points further back. Gheorghe Hagi quit as coach after his seesaw relationship with Becali tipped once again into hate but, after the brief reign of the Italian Massimo Pedrazzini, Steaua welcomed the return of the former centre-forward and crowd favourite Marius Lacatus as coach. Still, there seemed little reason for Cluj to worry and their chairman Ion Muresan continued loudly to predict that his side would have the title wrapped up with several games of the season still remaining.
That might have been what everybody else was thinking but given Becali is a bull perpetually in search of a red rag, it was deeply unwise. Steaua responded by bringing in a bunch of South Americans. The Peruvian forward Andres Mendoza arrived from Dundee, the Colombian forward Jose Moreno from Independiente and Dayro Moreno, one of the great hopes of Colombian football, from Once Caldas. "I will do everything in my power to knock CFR off the top of the table," warned Becali. "CFR are a Hungarian team and they can never represent Romania. It would bring shame on the Romanian people if the Hungarians won the title."
Even then Muresan didn't heed the fairly explicit threat and continued with his bluster. As Steaua lost their first game of the spring season at Iasi, it looked like it might not matter, but Becali's influence runs deep. Steaua went on to win their next 10 league games and even the most blinkered fan would acknowledge they have had the benefit of a number of refereeing decisions.
When the sides meant in Bucharest on March 2, Steaua won 3-1, but only after Cluj had been denied two clear penalties.
"You're a thief," said Muresan.
"I'm just a smart guy," replied Becali.
A fortnight later Steaua beat Unirea 1-0 at home, Mahamadou Habibou scoring the 82nd-minute winner from an offside position. "We'll be top of the table by Easter," Becali vowed. "God wants Steaua to win, not Cluj."
They have, admittedly, been much improved since the winter break, while Cluj have stuttered, partly because Steaua have been paying large bonuses to their opponents. But the issue of refereeing cannot be ignored. Soap opera has become distasteful farce. A number of the foreign players at Cluj have spoken of their disillusionment. After all, it can't be easy playing against referees and God.
CFR's home defeat to Pandurii allowed Steaua to go top, but then Poli Timisoara held Steaua to a draw in Bucharest to allow CFR to pull level again. Still Muresan kept up his assault. "I've never spoken to such a stupid man as Becali," he said. "He's crazy. He deserves to be in a prison or an asylum. He's destroying Romanian football, destroying its credibility."
The worst instance came six weeks ago, in Steaua's derby away to Rapid. Rapid led 1-0 with 17 minutes to go and seemed comfortable, only for a lighter to be thrown from the stands and, presumably following a divine trajectory like a stone from David's sling, smacked the referee Alexandru Deaconu on the head. Surrounded by Steaua players he was rushed to the dressing-room, where he decided to abandon the game, knowing the Disciplinary Committee of the Romanian Football Federation (FFR) would award Steaua a 3-0 win.
Conspiracy, never far below the surface in Romania, reared its head. Deaconu, the son of an FFR official, was once a youth-team player at Steaua. Not only that, but he went on to become a sergeant in the Romania army, which retains traditional links to Steaua. That raised suspicions, which were heightened when a newspaper published photographs of Deaconu and his assistants meeting in secret at a petrol station three days before the game. Perhaps they were just friends who met privately to discuss fuel prices, but the story offended somebody sufficiently that the journalist who wrote the story was sacked.
On Saturday, Steaua took the lead after 76 minutes, conceded an equaliser two minutes later, but were reprieved when Dayro Moreno struck an 83rd-minute winner from another offside position. "God doesn't mind being offside," said Becali. At the same time Mioveni, in the relegation places, earned a Romania record bonus of €13,000, half of it paid by Becali, for holding CFR to a goalless draw.
So Steaua, as Becali promised they would, went into Easter two points clear. All that stands between them and the most tainted championship in years, it would seem, is Dinamo, whom they meet next Sunday. Their bitterest rivals will not be bought off, and that is Cluj's chance. The question is, is hatred stronger than God?
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