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Romania honours Bucharest's finest

Romania's two UEFA Cup quarter-finalists, AFC Rapid Bucuresti and FC Steaua Bucuresti, have been decorated with the country's Order of Merit for Sport.

Romania's two UEFA Cup quarter-finalists, AFC Rapid Bucuresti and FC Steaua Bucuresti, have been awarded the country's Order of Merit for Sport for their outstanding footballing achievements in Europe this season.

Highest honour
The players, technical staff and medical teams of Romania's remaining European hopefuls received the accolade in a special ceremony overseen by Romanian president Traian Basescu. With the two teams from the capital due to face each other in the next round of the tournament, Basescu explained he wanted to honour the sides before they face off at the end of the month, although he still had the quandary of which side to present to first.

Rapid reward
"The performances and immense joy they have brought to the Romanian people obliged me to schedule this ceremony for today," he said. "I had to start with one of the sides and so I had to decide whether to go with the team with the highest domestic ranking, which would have been Steaua, or with alphabetical order, which would have meant going for Rapid. In the end I took into consideration was the number of points won in this season's UEFA Cup. As Rapid have totalled 22 points to Steaua's 21 I decided to present to Rapid first."

'Mutual respect'
Basescu went on to predict that one of the sides would be the eventual tournament winners, although he chose to avoid any further potential diplomatic problems by suggesting which team that might be. "I have a feeling that I have decorated this season's UEFA Cup winners but I don't know who," he continued. "I'm sure both teams have mutual respect for each other and I hope that both matches will be a great footballing spectacle, if only to prove that these players are true professionals."

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