Bucharest: sports minister wants Romanian quota for teams
Romania's Minister of Sports Eduárd Novák has signed a decree requiring that at least 40 percent of the members of teams participating in official national sport competitions be Romanian athletes from the next competition season onwards. The National Council for Combating Discrimination has warned that the decree may violate the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights. Controversy in the national press.
We wouldn't want other countries to have this rule
Gazeta Sporturilor shares the National Council's concerns about the decree:
“It violates the freedom of movement for workers to some degree. And if it does not violate it, then this decree definitely restricts it. The act is illegal and could be punished with sanctions that could go as far as the excluding our teams from continental competitions. Let's be honest and admit that we wouldn't like it either if an EU minister were to ban Romanian IT specialists from working in his country! In the Netherlands or in Germany, for example. Of course, that would bother us.”
The right direction
The initiative is certainly worth considering, says Mediafax:
“The best example is the women's handball team CSM Bucharest - a team that receives a lot of municipal funding and is equipped with stars from all over the world, but is not doing as well as the investors expected. Minister Eduárd Novák's decision deserves criticism, especially since it was announced out of the blue and some clubs have already made their transfers and calculations. But the grumpy club bosses, especially those financed with public money, should reign in their indignation - if they want Romanian sport to actually get on its feet and score a goal now and then.”