Estonia, in the first round, followed a 4–3 against Mallorca from Spain and Ceahlaul impressed again. In the third round nemțenii faced Austria Wien and after a 2–2 in Piatra Neamț, "the Yellow and Blacks" succumbed at Wien, on the Franz Horr Stadium, 0–3, goals scored by Wagner, Leitner and Dospel. A proverb says: "What got up has to go down" and that's exactly what happened to Ceahlăul in the early 2000s. Frequent changes of coaches (11 in 4 years) from: Mircea Nedelcu to Florin Halagian and from Florin Marin to Marin Barbu, Viorel Hizo and Marius Lăcătuș and the partial change of generations led to poor results: 2000–01 – 11th, 2001–02 – 8th, 2003–04 – 14th. Ceahlăul relegated in 2004 after 11 years and 10 seasons in the first league, with Viorel Hizo in the first part and Marius Lăcătuș in the second part at the team's lead. But just before this disastrous season had a rage of pride and finished on the 5th place at the end of the 2002–03 and signing up for a new participation in the UEFA Intertoto Cup. This time the results were far away from the 1995, 1999 and 2000 campaigns, the team being eliminated from the first round by Tampere United of Finland. Despite its notable performances Ceahlăul was also a very controversial team during this period, especially due to his president, Gheorghe Ștefan, the person who binds the highest performances of the football from Piatra Neamț. Ștefan, who is nicknamed "Pinalti", because he always demanded a penalty (with Moldavian accent) and always had to comment on the referee's evolution, had also been repeatedly accused of being together with Jean "Tata Jean" Pădureanu (Gloria Bistrița president) the father of the "Football Cooperative", a group of teams known for match fixing in the 1990s. Along with Ceahlăul were involved teams such as: Gloria Bistrița, FC Brașov, Steaua București or Dinamo București. Despite the fact that nothing has ever been officially investigated, statements of players, coaches, or even presidents testify for the strange matches from that period, as well as on-the-spot reports. The so-called "reciprocities" consisted in the fact that teams deliberately offered points between themselves to help with various purposes: winning the championship, qualifying in the European Cups or avoiding relegation. The enormous pressure put on the referees, match by match, brought to the city and Ceahlăul the nickname of "Kosovo", a war