It took almost seven years for the case to come before Romania’s appeals court for a final decision, but on Monday the court handed down harsh prison sentences to eight senior executives and management figures found guilty of irregularities in the transfer of football players abroad.

The court jailed former Barcelona star Gica Popescu for three years and one month for tax evasion and money laundering. The decision came just a day before Popescu was supposed to be elected president of Romania’s Football Association, FRF.

The other parties jailed are former chairmen of top football clubs Rapid and Dinamo, as well as Steaua official Mihai Stoica, and agents Ioan Becali and Victor Becali. They were jailed for 34 years and three months in total.

According to prosecutors, irregularities occurred in the international transfers of 12 football players between 1999 and 2005, which cheated the state of 1.7 million euro in taxes while four clubs lost around 10 million euro due to the registry of fictitious sums in the books.

The sentences issued by the Court of Appeal are final and thus cannot be appealled.

The football officials will join Gigi Becali, who is currently serving a jail sentence for corruption in a land exchange deal. Becali is the owner of the Steaua football club.

‘This is the end of a case that puts football corruption in Romania under the spotlight. Hopefully this will be also the beginning of a new era for the game, but I am afraid the decision comes a bit too late,” sports journalist Catalin Tolontan said.

Many football clubs in Romania are debt-ridden and facing insolvency, with staff and players going unpaid for months.

Romanian football has a long history of teams seeking “rewards” for dropping points against particular opponents.

Points gifted by a draw or defeat are then often “returned” at a later date in the season. The principle of “you win at home, I win at home” has come to dominate domestic football, undermining the standing of the game.

Cases of match fixing and illegall transfers of players were often exposed by the media.