BAROMETRUL Informat.ro - INSCOP Research - Edition IX, April 2026. Chapter 4: The national football team's coach | 71.85% of Romanians have a good or very good opinion about the appointment of Gheorghe Hagi as the coach of the national football team.

BAROMETER Informat.ro - INSCOP Research - Edition IX, April 2026

Chapter 4: The National Football Team Coach. Qualification for the European Championship 2028

According to the BAROMETER Informat.ro – INSCOP Research, edition IX, conducted between April 1-7, 2026, 7 out of 10 Romanians have a good opinion (very good or fairly good) about the appointment of Gheorghe Hagi as the coach of the Romanian national football team.

BAROMETER Informat.ro – INSCOP Research is a monthly opinion poll conducted by INSCOP Research on behalf of the news platform Informat.ro in partnership with the think tank Strategic Thinking Group.

BAROMETER Informat.ro – INSCOP Research aims to bring to the public's attention topics of interest to stimulate national conversations about various subjects and essential public policies for the present and future of Romania, based on the opinions of Romanians in partnership with prestigious think tanks and academic institutions. It is an initiative through which we aim to contribute to the strengthening of democracy by using scientific and credible tools that bring the voice of citizens to the forefront of public debate.

Methodology: Data was collected between April 1-7, 2026. Research method: interview via questionnaire. Data was collected using the CATI method (telephone interviews), with a simple stratified sample volume of 1100 people, representative of significant socio-demographic categories (gender, age, occupation) for the non-institutionalized population of Romania, aged 18 and over. The maximum margin of error for the data is ± 3%, at a confidence level of 95%.

The graphical presentation of the data is available here.

Remus Ștefureac, director of INSCOP Research: "The appointment of Gheorghe Hagi generates a broad social consensus, rarely encountered in the Romanian public space. It is a perception based on his symbolic capital and on his status as an emblematic personality of Romanian football. There is a clear differentiation of opinions between segments that are culturally closer to football and those that are more distant, which shows that interest and involvement in this field are unevenly distributed socio-demographically. The enthusiasm for Gheorghe Hagi's appointment as coach does not fully translate into confidence regarding the future performance of the national team, suggesting a separation between the symbolic support for the leader and the realistic assessment of the results. Although a majority is emerging that believes the national team will qualify for the 2028 European Football Championship, it remains fragile, with the public being cautious regarding expectations about sports performance."

The National Football Team Coach

71.85% of Romanians have a good or very good opinion about the appointment of Gheorghe Hagi as the coach of the Romanian national football team (about 40.7% of Romanians have a very good opinion, while 31% have a fairly good opinion). Only 4.3% of Romanians have a very bad or fairly bad opinion about this appointment (2.7% have a fairly bad opinion, and 1.6% have a very bad opinion). 23.4% of Romanians have no opinion on this subject, and 0.5% do not respond.

They have a good opinion about Gheorghe Hagi's appointment as the coach of the Romanian national football team in a higher proportion than the rest of the population: PSD and PNL voters, men, people aged 45 to 59, residents of Bucharest and rural areas, public sector employees. USR voters, women, young people under 30, and residents of large urban areas have no opinion on this subject in a higher proportion than the rest of the population.

Qualification for the European Championship 2028

49.9% of Romanians believe that the national football team will qualify for the European Championship in 2028 (14.5% of respondents answered "definitely yes," and 35.4% "probably yes"). 30.6% of survey participants do not believe that the national football team will qualify for the European Championship in 2028 (15.2% answered "probably not," and 15.4% "definitely not"). 19.4% do not know or cannot assess whether the national football team will qualify, and 0.1% do not respond.

They believe that the Romanian national football team will qualify for the European Championship in 2028 in a higher proportion than the rest of the population: PSD and AUR voters, people with primary education. USR voters, men, people aged 45 to 59, those with higher education, residents of Bucharest and large urban areas, public sector employees consider in a higher proportion than the average that the Romanian national football team will not qualify for the European Championship.