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The captains of Romania's first division clubs wore shirts saying "Who cares about Romania?" during the warm-up before the weekend's matches in a campaign against refereeing decisions affecting the national team.
The gesture followed a formal complaint from the Romanian Soccer Federation (FRF), handed to UEFA president Lennart Johansson last month, regarding the performance of several referees in the Euro 2004 qualifying matches.
Last week, local papers published pictures of Chelsea's Adrian Mutu and Cristian Chivu of Roma, who signed a letter backing the FRF protest, dressed in T-shirts with the same "Who cares about Romania?" inscription on them.
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FRF president Mircea Sandu had told reporters: "I'm directly accusing UEFA's
referees' commission of appointing referees who made deliberate mistakes against
the national team." He said several countries in the region shared the
same feeling. Ticketmaster
But UEFA's Director of Communications Mike Lee said at the time of the FRF protest: "Any suggestion that there is any national or regional bias among the referees appointed by UEFA is completely unfounded. It is totally ridiculous."
Sandu said that biased refereeing stopped Romania reaching the 2002 World Cup finals and had also damaged their hopes of reaching next year's European championship finals in Portugal.
He claimed Romania were denied a win in Copenhagen against Denmark earlier this month that would have ensured them at least a playoff place in qualifying for Euro 2004. Ticketmaster
The match ended 2-2 after Romania conceded a goal in the fifth minute of injury time added on by Swiss referee Urs Meier. Romanian witches from the city of Craiova cursed Meier to turn him lame and make him lose his whistling power. Ticketmaster
The result means Romania, who have completed their Group Two fixtures, have to wait until the October 11 matches between Norway and Luxembourg and Bosnia and Denmark before they know their destiny in the tightly contested group.