Romanian national soccer coach Victor Piturca sacked after failure to qualify team at 2010 World Cup

Former national team coach Anghel Iordanescu said that he did not wish to comment on the dismissal but added that the local championship has at least five potential coaches for the now vacant position.

Former coach for the national team, Standard Liege's Ladislau Boloni declared for NewsIn that he regretted the FRF action as Piturca is not the sole person to be blamed for the poor results of Romania's team in the preliminary games for the World Cup. Boloni refused to make any comments on the possibility of coming back at the helm of the national team. 

Proposals for a new coach will be received until May 10. 

FRF general manager Ionut Lupescu declared that the federation will offer Piturca 250,000 euros to end the contract. Piturca had inked a contract until 2010, with an annulment clause of around 600,000 euros. 

Romania's star player Adrian Mutu, currently scoring for Italy's Fiorentina, thinks the dismissal of the coach was not necessary and says he regrets it. 

Team captain and currently Inter Milano player Cristian Chivu said that the team has to do its job regardless of who is appointed to replace Piturca.

Player for Romanian team FC Arges, Cristian Tanase declared that Piturca's dismissal comes as very bad news to him, especially as Piturca was the one to promote the young player for the national team. 

Victor Piturca was appointed coach at the national team to replace Anghel Iordanescu after the team scored a 1-1 with the representative of Armenia in the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Piturca helped Romania make it to the 2008 European Championship after a ten-year break. But our country was drawn in a group with stronger teams like Italy, France and the Netherlands and failed to qualify for the next round. 

In the current qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup, the Romanian team performed very badly and is currently ranking fifth in the group, with just four points after five games played. The chances of qualifying for the final tournament are almost null.