The Diplomat Hall of the Athene Palace Hilton Hotel hosted on Monday evening the official presentation of the new joint stock company Fotbal Club Rapid SA, the descendant of AFC Rapid enterprise. The non-profit organisation AFC Rapid, of which Mircea Lucescu is a member, holds 70 per cent of the stock in the new venture, with the remaining 30 per cent of the stock owned by seven shareholders, of whom five are private individuals, Jean Valvis, Florin Talpes, Dan Ostahie, Dan Laurentiu Fati and Dinu Gheorghe, and two are legal entities - Ana Holding and ISAF (the Railway Signaling and Automations Company).

The non-profit enterprise contributed with the federative rights over the players, which are estimated at EUR 13 M, whereas the new stockholders came up with EUR 5,571,400. The players will be the exclusive property of the joint stock company, no longer co-owned by other companies or having a loaned status, while their federative rights will be registered in the company's records as mobile intangible assets. Such registration, a first in Romanian football, means that each footballer represents an actual investment subject to amortisation throughout their contract with the club.

The surprise came when the shareholders' list was read. Among them is the Executive President of Rapid, Dinu Gheorghe. Mircea Lucescu, thought to have been one of the shareholders, only remains one of the 21 founding members of UFC Rapid who contributed to the building of the Pro Rapid sports base some years ago.

As deputy Premier George Copos, Rapid’s "grey cardinal", only attended the meeting for a few minutes, the evening’s hosts were Jean Valvis, the proponent of the FC Rapid SA project and Dinu Gheorghe, the club's Executive President.

"We want a corporative management, a joint stock company with a future strategy guaranteed by a team. We will guarantee for two years a net budget of EUR 6 M, regardless of performance and player sales. We will follow up on the Manchester United model and look forward to list the club on the Exchange, which we plan to do in 2009, at the latest," Jean Valvis said, adding that "Mr. Copos said that each time we play abroad we do it in a cathedral, not a stadium, and he is right. Granted we have a team playing in the quarter-finals, I say we also need commensurate material resources. Personally, I will work towards this end."

Dinu Gheorghe, the Executive President of FC Rapid and a stockholder in FC Rapid SA, also announced he would negotiate a new contract, for another 3-4 years, with Razvan Lucescu, starting from this summer.

"We have not yet had a discussion over the value of Razvan Lucescu’s contract. What is important is for him to agree in summer to continue for a number of years. As far as I know, he would not say no. It’s my task to get him to carry on. We thought of a contract of three to four years, in order to have a normal cycle of 3-4 years, to allow the reaching of certain targets set out by stockholders," Dinu Gheorghe said.

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