Romania unveil training centre

Opening ceremony
The centre in Mogosoaia, near the capital Bucharest, was inaugurated at a ceremony by UEFA President Lennart Johansson and the FRF president Mircea Sandu. The FRF had received €1.6m through the HatTrick Investment Programme for this second step of the project. The first part consisted of building two football pitches with floodlights, a stand of 800 covered seats and a fully-equipped dressing room area.

Development centre
The second and final part consisted in the building of an artificial pitch, accommodation, catering and meeting facilities, for what will now be used as a development centre for youth players, coaches and referees, as well as for training camps of Romanian national teams of all categories.

State of the art facilities
"I am delighted to be here and officially inaugurate these state-of-the-art facilities, which will offer optimal conditions for the development of football in Romania," said Mr Johansson after unveiling a commemorative plate in front of the building.

Skills and knowledge
"I am also particularly pleased to see that, thanks to the funding of the UEFA HatTrick programme, youth players, coaches and referees along will now have the opportunity to further develop their skills and knowledge in this football-passionate country.

Emulating the golden generation
Mr Sandu added: "I hope that thanks to this project, our national teams will emulate the golden generation made famous by Gheorghe Hagi, Gheorghe Popescu, Dan Petrescu and their team-mates.

Long-term vision
"I had this vision starting with 1992, when I visited the headquarters of the Belgian FA. After that, I studied the centres of Clairefontaine (France) and Coverciano (Italy)," he added. "It would have been much harder for us to build it without the support of UEFA, thanks to its HatTrick programme."

UEFA flood help
On behalf of UEFA, Mr Johansson has also offered €51,000 to the FRF, to help with reconstruction work following recent flooding in the western part of the country.