In The 1990s
After Communism collapsed the phenomenon of Blat was related to the development of informal economy. The media raised awareness about such apparent dealings though thus far never leading to serious investigations for corruption. Many football club owners, especially outside Bucharest, agreed to create an informal association between 3 or 5 owners with the aim of helping each other and involved other teams to join this "gang". That method consist in letting each of the involved teams to win the home matches, accepting to lose the away matches. The most prolific football club chief who was the creator of this cartel is Jean Padureanu (also known as The Lord), president of Gloria Bistriţa, also known in the Romanian media as the Father of Blaturi. The list includes Gheorghe Ştefan (also known as Pinalti), president of Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ, and Romeo Paşcu (also known as Breakdance), president of FC Braşov. Cornel Dinu also named DIVIZIA A as "championship of Jenel(Padureanu), Romel(Pascu)and Fanel(Stefan)" because these three chiefs had more influence in the decision of results. During 1999 and 2001 the team of Rocar owned by former Securitate officer and Ceauşescu bodyguard Gheorghe (Gigi) Netoiu was named as "champion of blaturi" in local media..
The period between 1992 and 2002 has been described by some as the "blat" era of Romanian football. After this period the Liga 1 clubs saw some of the poorest results for Romanian teams in European Competitions.
Read more about this topic: Match Fixing In Romanian Football