Genoa’s long international break took the club to Bucharest, where Dan Sucu opened Rapid Giulesti for a friendly involving the two sides he has placed at the centre of his football plans. For the Rossoblu president, who owns 90 per cent of Rapid Bucharest, the occasion also brought a chance to address Genoa’s difficult start and the work he believes remains necessary off the pitch.
A president looking beyond the immediate storm
Genoa sit second from bottom after taking one point from their first five league matches, a return well short of the ambitions expressed after the club’s investment in the squad. Sucu accepted that the opening has fallen below expectations, but argued that the season should not be judged before the team has had time to respond.
- He said Genoa had made significant investments and were targeting a more ambitious league position.
- The president pointed to a group containing nine international players.
- He reaffirmed his backing for the World Cup-winning coach, saying that confidence in the manager is shared throughout the club.
- Sucu said sporting matters should be left primarily to those with greater technical expertise, while his own role is to secure suitable investment and seek additional partners.
He stressed that he does not intend to place further pressure on the team by setting out detailed targets while results remain poor. His belief is that Genoa can still reach the level envisaged when the squad was assembled.
Legal disputes and the search for new investment
Sucu said he had never treated Genoa as a short-term commercial operation. While he remains open to bringing in new partners, he insisted that his own interest has not come before that of the club and that he is not among owners who buy clubs with resale in mind.
Much of his time in Genoa, he said, has been consumed by legal issues inherited from earlier administrations. In his description, the situation he encountered was complicated both financially and legally, leaving him to spend months fighting cases that have taken time away from building the club’s future.
“Business is not conducted in court,” Sucu said, explaining that the disputes have been a major obstacle. Even so, he said the picture is becoming clearer and that he has already held discussions with a number of possible investors.
He drew a personal comparison with his upbringing in Romania under Nicolae Ceausescu, saying he dislikes being trapped in discussion of the past rather than concentrating on the present. For Genoa, the next phase in his view is to move beyond the problems left behind and create a stronger platform, though he felt this was not the right moment to make grand promises after such a poor beginning to the campaign.
Rapid, Chivu and a personal allegation
The Bucharest friendly underlined the connection between Sucu’s two clubs. Rapid are an established force in Romania and currently stand second in the league, while Genoa’s visit gave the Italian side a change of setting during the international window.
Sucu also confirmed that he had previously tried to appoint Cristian Chivu as Rapid coach. He approached the former defender before Chivu moved to Parma, at a stage when Chivu had worked only in youth football.
- Sucu described Chivu as a thoughtful, serious and well-prepared figure.
- He believed Chivu would have done very well in Bucharest.
- With Chivu’s career having moved on, Sucu acknowledged that such a move now appears unlikely.
The Rapid and Genoa owner was also asked about allegations linking him to Ceausescu’s former regime. He rejected them emphatically, saying the competent commission had established that he had never collaborated with the dictatorship.
Sucu said the claim had caused him deep pain. As president of the Romanian employers’ confederation Concordia, he said, he has become accustomed to attacks from different directions, including personal ones, but maintained that the accusation had been conclusively answered.
No room for relegation thinking
For all the uncertainty around Genoa’s early league position, Sucu refused to discuss what might change should relegation occur. He said dwelling on that possibility would only invite bad luck.
He nevertheless offered a restrained assessment of his own time at the club. Sucu said he is always his own harshest judge and accepts that improvements can be made, but would give his Genoa experience so far a mark of seven out of ten. The immediate task is less about that score than ensuring that the football side produces the recovery he expects, while the boardroom work continues between Genoa and Bucharest.
