Ilie Nastase

Bucharest: Former player Ilie Nastase resigned on Tuesday as president of the Romanian tennis federation (FRT) after local media accused the organisation of fraud at last weekend’s Davis Cup match against France.

Newspapers criticised him for spending too much money on the match which Romania lost 0-5.

“I have been defeated by the justice system and the press in Romania,” he told Realitatea TV. “I have decided to resign because there is no reason for me to be active in Romanian sports.

“I’ll probably leave Romania for another country as nobody needs me here.”

Nastase, a major star in the 1970s and Romania’s best ever player, held the position for eight years.

On a television show late on Monday, he admitted making a telephone threat to a journalist because critical newspaper reports last week were creating tensions with his wife.

A Romanian daily carried articles last week ahead of the France match, claiming that the federation had wrongly overcharged for accommodation and for material for the tennis courts. Reports suggested that federation officials may have been pocketing money.

The daily cited Romanian federation d ocuments saying the body had asked local administrative officials to pay 37,000 euros ($53,760) for a second-hand playing surface for the match when the real cost was 25,000 euros.

Nastase, a former world No.1 denied any wrongdoing.

His resignation coincided with a court ruling denying him permission to set up a tennis academy in Bucharest. The decision came after a five-year legal battle.

He said the court in the western city of Timisoara had prevented him from buying land for a tennis academy after the current owners, also a sporting club, had objected to the deal. The court said a government decision allowing the federation to purchase the land was not valid.

“I’m very upset as a local court denied me the right to build a tennis school named ‘Nastase Academy’,” said Nastase.