Romania has received, in addition to a huge fine, the punishment of playing a match without spectators, following the serious incidents that occurred 9 days ago at the game against Kosovo in the Nations League.
Back then, the guests abandoned the game at the National Arena in the 92nd minute, with the score tied at 0-0, later losing by a 3-0 decision at the green table a few days later, after a firm ruling by the UEFA Disciplinary Committee. The same Committee that imposed a huge fine of 128,000 euros on Romania, along with the match behind closed doors.
UEFA then provided an explanation to understand in which competition this punishment will be served. Unfortunately, the response was unequivocal, right from the first game in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers: "Please note that the suspension will apply to the next official match where Romania is the host," as stated in the response from the Nyon authority, given to Fanatik newspaper.
The Romanian national team will start the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in March, but those matches will be under FIFA's jurisdiction, while the suspension was imposed by UEFA, the organization that oversees matches in the Nations League or EURO qualifiers. For this reason, the Romanian Football Federation (FRF) is waiting for the reasoning behind the decision, which should clearly stipulate the conditions under which the suspension to play a match without spectators must be served.
The Federation in Bucharest hopes to transfer this suspension from the current situation to the first match of the next edition of the Nations League in 2026. There is even a precedent involving our national team. After the game against Finland, the last one in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, which ended 1-1, UEFA imposed a suspension to play a match behind closed doors. FRF then convinced UEFA not to have the stadium suspended during the World Cup 2018 qualifiers but at the first match of the next UEFA competition.
Thus, the "tricolorii" played without spectators in the Nations League group stage match against Montenegro in Ploiesti on September 7, 2018. On that occasion, the "tricolorii" drew 0-0.
The draw for the preliminary groups of the 2026 World Cup will take place on December 13 in Zurich. The last time Romania participated in the World Cup was in 1998 in France. We were eliminated in the round of 16 after a 0-1 defeat to Croatia.
D.A.