Marian Iancu

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Marian Alexandru Iancu (born 11 July 1965 is a Romanian businessman, president of the UK based Oil-company Balkan Petroleum,^[1] (in short, BKP), as well as president of Romanian football club FCU Politehnica Timişoara.

1 Career
2 Transfer policy
3 Controversy
4 References

[edit] Career

Iancu, through BKP, acquired Politehnica in the winter of 2005 from Anton Doboş and set up to build a squad capable of mounting a challenge against the top Bucharest teams. He has often gone into disputes with George Becali and Mihai Stoica from Steaua Bucharest, as well as Constantin Iacov from FC National Bucharest, becoming famed for the tone of his messages, which ranged from purely official, to sarcastic slang.

[edit] Transfer policy

2004/2005

Immediately after the taking over the club's reigns, Marius Popa, Gigel Coman, Gabriel Caramarin, Gabriel Canu (all from FC National Bucharest), Ovidiu Petre (Galatasaray) and Viorel Moldovan (Servette) joined Poli on permanent deals, with Cosmin Contra moving on a six-month loan from Atletico Madrid. The significant moves on the transfer market were accompanied by the arrival of coach Cosmin Olăroiu, also from FC National. The immediate aim of saving the team from relegation was accomplished halfway through the remaining season.

2005/2006

In the summer of 2005, Iancu continued to invest important sums of money into the transfer market, and bought the likes of Australian defender Jonathan McKain (FC National) and Romanian First League top scorer Gheorghe Bucur (Sportul Studentesc). As results failed to show, he went on to sack Olaroiu before the winter break and hired ex-Romania coach Gheorghe Hagi. The team went on to buy another impressive amount of players, with Mihăiţă Pleşan and Ifeanyi Emeghara garnering most of the spotlight.

2006/2007

Hagi's reign was unsuccessful though and the end of the season also marked a turning point in the club's transfer policy. Summer of 2006 saw the first players leave from Poli, with Gigel Coman and Ovidiu Petre going to Steaua Bucharest. In exchange Poli received Andrei Cristea and also bought Ştefan Grigorie and Dan Alexa from Dinamo Bucharest.

The winter transfer period saw a number of over ten players being put on the transfer list, although only some of them actually left the club. Iancu changed his aim from high-profile, expensive stars to cheap and out of contract players, with Artavazd Karamyan and Peter Omoduemuke joining Poli after their contracts with Rapid Bucharest, respectively Partizan Beograd expired.

2007/2008

With the arrival of Dušan Uhrin jr. came another wave of arrivals and departures from the club. A series of transfers to Bucharest clubs got media coverage, as Ifeanyi Emeghara and Mihaita Plesan, two of the team's important players, were sold for lucrative deals to Steaua Bucharest, while Silviu Izvoranu left for Dinamo Bucharest and Stefan Grigorie transferred to Rapid. Poli bought a new batch of out of unexpensive or out of contract players, such as Cristian Dancia and Stelian Stancu (Steaua Bucharest), but also acquired for a a hefty some of money the services of Slovenian internationals Dare Vršič and Dejan Rušič. Ionel Ganea came from Rapid.

In addition to this, a number of 15 players from the second team were loaned to FCM Reşiţa in order to help the club gain promotion to the first league, in what Mr. Iancu has called a project to revitalize football in Banat.

During the winter transfer window, the club announced the signings of Balázs Borbély and Miloš Brezinský for a rumored sum of two million Dollars^[2]. Elvio Raul Martinez, Tiberiu Bălan and Carlos Milhazes were also brought the Poli, on loan. However, Marian Iancu decided to make an unpopular move in selling Gabriel Torje to arch-rivals Dinamo Bucharest, for a fee of two million Euros and a future percentages^[3]. Peter Omodumuke and Ionuţ Matei e sold on to Ceahlăul Piatra-Neamţ, Dancia and Adrian Ilie were sold to Universitatea Cluj and Politehnica Iaşi respectively, while Sorin Rădoi and Andrei Cristea were loaned to the same teams.

[edit] Controversy

Marian Iancu is currently under accusation by Romanian courts for fiscal irregularities regarding his involvement in the selling of the oil-refinery RAFO Onesti and has been imprisoned twice since the start of the investigation.

Iancu is also infamous for having spat on a reporter after a court hearing. He immediately apologized for his behaviour, stating that such things are bound to happen if reporters don't know when to stop harassing people.^[4]