Becali was a Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2012. In 2013, he was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal land trafficking.
He has held the presidency of the Romanian top club Steaua Bucharest for almost twenty years. In that role, he often made the news for xenophobic and homophobic statements.
Covid
Becali also has a clear opinion about the covid pandemic and the vaccines against the disease. He believes that Steaua’s vaccinated players ‘have no strength anymore’. He therefore wants to ban them from the club. “If you’re vaccinated, you don’t play anymore,” Becali said on Romanian TV.
“You’ll laugh at me, but I may be right,” he continued. “Vaccinated players lose their strength. That’s a scientific thing.”
Deac
“Haven’t you seen it at Cluj (another top club from Romania, ed.) and Rapid Bucharest? Players faint, sleep on the floor. Players with us are also affected, especially the older ones. Have you seen Ciprian Deac? no longer herself.”
Deac is a 36-year-old attacker from Cluj, who has already played 42 games this season. Including two 90 minutes against AZ in the group stage of the Conference League.
Becali also claims that his 35-year-old striker Claudiu Keseru ‘can no longer play at the highest level’ after being vaccinated.
Earlier, Becali also said that “vaccination is not good” and the vaccine “makes people sick.” “This is a vaccine to kill.”
Government
The Romanian government felt compelled to respond to Becali’s statements. “Vaccinated players are NOT losing their power,” reads a government page on Facebook, which was created specifically to inform people about covid and covid vaccines.
“Vaccination against covid does not affect the performance of football players. In contrast, there are enough studies that show that going through a covid infection can have long-lasting consequences (lung covid) and can affect the performance of athletes.”
The Romanian government has been campaigning for a long time against disinformation about covid and the vaccines against it. The country has a vaccination rate of less than 60%.
