Former Romania midfielder Gheorghe Hagi says he will not attend national team matches in solidarity with his former team-mate Gheorghe Popescu, who was jailed for tax evasion and money laundering in March.

“I’ll not go to the national team matches while Gica Popescu is behind bars,” Hagi told local media yesterday, adding that local soccer authorities did little to help the former Romania captain.

“I’ll only watch them on TV as a form of protest.”

The court found Popescu and seven other soccer-related people guilty of damaging the state with €1.7m in unpaid taxes.

Yesterday, Hagi and some of his Romania team-mates visited Popescu to express their support and present their best wishes for his 47th birthday. Popescu was sentenced to three years and one month in prison.

Popescu, named player of the year in Romania six times, was among the favourites to become president of the domestic football federation in March.

In a career that included spells at PSV, Tottenham, Barcelona and Galatasaray, he was capped 115 times.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.