A year ago, we were dueling with Rapid București, on “Marele Oval”, the old Păltinișanu. It was a 0-0 fad on the field, but brilliant in the stands, where the purple brothers and the cherries frantically supported their favorites. There was more and more talk on TV about coronavirus, cases, DSPs, but we were preparing for the trip from Chiajna. It was, however, the beginning of an extremely strange period, one that none of us had faced before.

At the club level, two extremely complicated months followed, in which we tried to find solutions to keep our fans (locked in the house) connected to Poli, connected to what we want to do. But what did I want to do and where were we going? We didn’t know too well either, but we tried to organize ourselves quickly and offer quality actions. Let’s intertwine the “football-related” events, dedicated to fans, with social responsibility actions. The latter were aimed at medical staff, highly tested at the time.

But what would a retrospective of those months look like now?

March 12, 2020 – Politehnica, community team – Politehnica volunteers offered their support to the elderly, who can not help themselves

March 15, 2020 – declaration of a state of emergency – Ioan Mera, our captain, urged us all to #stamincasa

March 16, 2020 – the state in the house urged us all to find new activities, in the privacy of the home. We offered you a whole list of activities in the online environment, only good for filling the time spent with family

March 21, 2020 – we join a global initiative, through Alin Manea, on the occasion of World Down Syndrome Day

March 24, 2020 – Octavian Benga, the head coach at the time, sent a message to all fans

March 24, 2020 – the entire planet was beginning to get used to “work-from-home”. Druckeria volunteers provided pro bono advice to anyone in need of help in the home office

March 30, 2020 – we are moving our support to virtual football, with the announcement of a Poli – Rapid match at FIFA. All proceeds were to be donated to Victor Babeș Hospital

April 2, 2020 – Denis, our junior, wears a blue T-shirt for the over 30,000 people with autism in Romania, in an action on the occasion of the International Autism Awareness Day

April 5, 2020 – The “boys with levers” played a “double round” with Rapid Bucharest ESports (1-1 and 1-3). The result was less important, as long as almost 5,000 lei were raised as a result of this action, from the purchase of virtual tickets

April 12, 2020 – we launch an exceptional collaboration with Brauhaus Sincu, resulting in a special craft beer, offered – at that time – only to official members

April 13, 2020 – we are in the middle of a campaign to distribute protective visors to family doctors in Timișoara and Timiș County, as well as to the staff of Covid medical units

April 19, 2020 – on Easter evening we dueled friendly with comrades from Nordkurve Monchengladbach, also on consoles. The result was, again, completely irrelevant. The most important was the fact that the event generated total revenues of over 7000 euros, an extremely important support in difficult times, coming from our friends

April 22, 2020 – white-purple sunglasses were just one of the products introduced on the shop at that time. We tried to supplement the club’s income through online shopping, at a time when everyone was focused on ordering products online.

April 26, 2020 – I was living, in front of the monitors, dramatic moments in a Politehnica – Pandurii II, recalled by #POLICLASIC. It was an initiative through which we tried to bring back to the fans, in real time, a match day. We have lived, in this way, memorable games in our recent history. Because we all missed football, we missed the full Science and the equipment with the silhouettes of the fans!

April 27, 2020 – Druckeria volunteers worked from home and strengthened the image of Timișoara Politehnica on all online communication channels

April 28, 2020 – Politehnica Timișoara club launches a statement addressed to football decision makers and not only, regarding the challenges raised by the period we were going through at that time

May 1, 2020 – we launch the anniversary raffle “May 1”, on the occasion of the 57th anniversary of El Monumental – Dan Păltinișanu. We won over 70 special prizes for the lucky ones who bought raffle tickets. It was a new action meant to support the club’s budget, extremely affected at that time

May 4, 2020 – we announce that we will duel virtually with friends from Olimpia Satu Mare, on the occasion of the 99th anniversary of the club. We also urge the fans to buy virtual tickets, to help the club from Satu Mare

May 8, 2020 – we urge the little cops to practice their artistic talent and help us color the “King of Football”

May 15, 2020 – the state of emergency was rising in Romania and we were all starting to think about how we could return to a certain normalcy and how we could see Poli on the grass again. Not before seeing her on screen again, in “10 years after / Politehnica Timișoara ESports – Ajax Amsterdam ESports”, a gala duel, reissue of the Europa League match 2009 // 2010

 

It was a strange period, but full of interaction between the club and the fans. We tried to adapt, innovate and support by all methods Politehnica. I kept a constant communication with the fans, I worked on the club’s image, I prepared the “The Last Card” campaign, which proved to be a success and I covered the financial needs of the club in an extremely difficult economic period.

We were guided throughout this period by the motto “Mandatory before!” and we did everything we could to overcome all obstacles, as we always did.