(CN) - A Romanian football club needs to show it does not promote discrimination after its outspoken owner went on a homophobic tirade, Europe's highest court ruled Thursday.
The ruling comes after Accept - an organization advocating for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights in Romania - complained to the National Council for Combating Discrimination about Romanian soccer club FC Steaua and one of its owners.
Back in 2010, Steaua's owner, millionaire George "Gigi" Becali, blocked the club from accepting the transfer of a player he believed was gay.
Becali told reporters that he would rather dissolve the club than allow a gay to play for Steau. He then clarified that he would pull in a junior player instead of hiring the star, referred to as "X" in the Court of Justice's ruling .
"Not even if I had to close [Steaua] down would I accept a homosexual on the team," Becali told reporters. "Obviously people will talk, but how could anyone write something like that and, what's more, put it on the front page."
Referring to football player X, Becali said: "maybe he's not a homosexual ... but what if he is? I said to an uncle of mine who didn't believe in Satan or in Christ. I said to him: 'Let's say God doesn't exist. But suppose he does? What do you lose by taking communion? Wouldn't it be good to go to Heaven?' He said I was right. A month before he died he took communion. May God forgive him. There's no room for gays in my family and [Steaua] is my family. It would be better to play with a junior rather than someone who was gay. No one can force me to work with anyone. I have rights just as they do and I have the right to work with whomever I choose."
Becali also denied that his comments were discriminatory.
"No one can force me to work with anyone," he told reporters. "I have rights just as they do and I have the right to work with whoever I choose. Even if God told me in a dream that it was 100 percent certain that X wasn't a homosexual I still wouldn't take him. Too much has been written in the papers about his being a homosexual. Even if [Player X's current club] gave him to me for free I wouldn't have him! He could be the biggest troublemaker, the biggest drinker ... but if he's a homosexual I don't want to know about him."
Becali has a long history of spewing anti-gay rhetoric. In 2006, he backed a campaign to "finish off all homosexuals in Romania," and a year later told journalists that "gays must be kept in enclosures."