Romanian football star admits role as informer

GHEORGHE "Gica" Popescu, the former captain of Romania's national football team, yesterday admitted being an informer for the country's secret police during the communist era.

The admission came three days after he denied the allegations, calling a newspaper report that he had been a Securitate informant "a big lie".

In an interview with the daily Evenimentul Zilei yesterday, Popescu said he wrote four notes informing on team-mates and colleagues while he was playing at Universitatea Craiova.

The defender was in a Romanian team that qualified for three consecutive World Cups starting in 1990 and for two European Championships.

When the allegations surfaced, 41-year-old Popescu said he had only promised in 1985 to "defend the national interests" during the regime of the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

In the latest interview, he defended his actions under communism. "Even if I wrote notes, I wrote good things," he said. "I praised people."

Ceausescu's Securitate relied on 700,000 informants to keep tabs on its 22 million people.

Security services kept tabs on athletes, and players involved in international competition were reportedly asked for details of conversations with foreigners.