Mark Wotte: tough start with Craiova

"Universitatea Craiova had a terrible start of season, losing two games out of two, and this beloved club is in deep trouble in the standings, lying in 15th place, one that offers a trip to the second division at the end of the season.

A recent interview offered by Mark Wotte to the Dutch press revealed a coach rather intrigued by the things saw so far in Liga I and motivated by the club's perspective, rather than scared by Craiova's fears of relegation. He dribbled with elegance an episode that would have angered anyone else: Craiova had the most clear penalties in the world against the rivals from Dinamo and ended up losing that game by one goal, yet Wotte thought that is enough to consider this a mistake, "while in Romania the press talked about this episode for three days". He also had no reaction regarding the huge scandal that surrounds his team, after club owner decided to move it from its town, as part of a fight with the mayor, and avoided to speak about the poor performances of the team's best players, starting with topscorer Florin Costea.

This guy is definitely from another planet: some call it Holland, others the Netherlands..."

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Steaua down five places to 45th in IFFHS rankings

Steaua Bucharest is down five places to 45th, with 167.5 points, in February rankings of football clubs by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) issued today (Weds).

Steaua remains the highest-ranked Romanian team. CFR Cluj, in first place in the top Romanian league, is 69th, with 143.5 points, while FC Timisoara is up five positions to 80th, with 133 points.

Dinamo Bucharest is up to 85th from 94th, with 127.5 points.

Romania has another three teams in the top 250 - Vaslui in 91st, with 123 points, Unirea Urziceni in 105th, with 118.5 points, and FC Brasov in 239th, with 80.5 points.

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Mutu faces prosecutors in sibutramine doping case

The fate of Romanian football star Adrian Mutu will be decided today (Weds).

He will appear before Italian Olympic Committee anti-doping prosecutors in Rome in the sibutramine doping case.

Mutu, 31, currently playing for Italian club Fiorentina, will defend himself, saying he didn't know pills for losing weight that he had been taking had contained the banned substance as their label hadn’t mentioned it. The pills were said to be 100 per cent natural, according to the label.

The Italian National Anti-doping Court indefinitely suspended Mutu in February after he had failed anti-doping tests.

Mutu tested positive for sibutramine in tests carried out on 10 January after a match with Bari and on 20 January after a match with Lazio. Mutu scored two goals in the match against Lazio Roma that Fiorentina won by a score of 3-2. His team thereby qualified for the Italy Cup semi-finals.

Sibutramine is an anorectic or appetite suppressant that reduces a person’s desire to eat.

Last year, Mutu was ordered to pay Chelsea more than 14 million GBP in compensation for having tested positive for cocaine in 2004 while playing at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge.