Canadian Tosaint Ricketts sees his team go from UCL to relegation in an instant By Charles Posted on May 31, 2011 Comments Off on Canadian Tosaint Ricketts sees his team go from UCL to relegation in an instant 0 695 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Tosaint Ricketts' Timisoara team has serious financial problems.On the eve of Wednesday’s friendly with Ecuador at BMO Field, Canadian national-teamer Tosaint Ricketts got some bad news this morning. His Romanian club won’t be in the early rounds of the Champions League after all; in fact, it won’t even play in Romania’s top flight next season. FC Politehnica Timisoara was not granted a licence to play top-flight soccer in the 2011-2012 season because of financial problems. Timisoara finished in second place in the Romanian league last season, good enough for a spot in the third qualifying round of the Champions League. Vaslui, which finished in third spot, will now take Timisoara’s place. But the club has promised to fight the Romanian authorities on the relegation decision. The club has posted its financial ledgers on the front page of its website. In it, the club argues that the money spent by investors will be capitalized; that is, the investors now get chunks of the team rather than a return on their loans. Ricketts, a speedy striker from Edmonton, played 329 minutes of first-team football for Timisoara last season, scoring once and adding two assists. He was slowly working his way towards a spot in the regular lineup. Ricketts signed a three-year deal with the Romanian team in 2010.
