List of Romanian football champions

The Romanian football champions (Romanian: campionii României la fotbal) are the winners of Liga I, Romania's premier annual association football league competition. The title has been contested since 1909 in varying forms of competition. The reigning champions Steaua Bucureşti has won a record 26 championship titles, thus making it the most prolific team in the Liga I.[1] The second most successful team in the league is Dinamo Bucureşti with 18 championship titles. The Steaua-Dinamo rivalry, also known as the Eternal Derby, is the biggest one in the Romanian football championship, and between the two teams, they have won the championship 44 times and finished as runners-up another 33 times during the 93 completed seasons. The third most prolific team was Venus Bucureşti which won all of its titles during the early editions of the championship, winning eight trophies before its dissolution in 1949.[2] Since the first edition in 1909–10, the league was won by 22 teams representing 11 cities, with nearly two-thirds of all editions (59 titles) being won by teams from the Bucharest. The 2007–08 champions CFR Cluj were the first team outside Bucharest to win the championship in 16 years.
The first Romanian Football Championship was held between December 1909 and January 1910 and included three teams, two from Bucharest and one from Ploieşti. The title was decided using a knock-out format, with Olympia Bucureşti being the inaugural winners.[3] The knock-out format was used until the 1921–22 season, when a league consisting of seven teams was formed. The regular regional leagues season was followed by a final tournament featuring the first placed teams of each region.[3] The championship was suspended due to the World Wars from 1916 to 1919 and 1941 to 1946. The competition kept the name Divizia A from 1921 until 2006 when it was changed to Liga I following a trademark dispute.[4] Between 1955 and 1992, the winner of the championship qualified into the European Champion Clubs' Cup, which was the predecessor of the current UEFA Champions League. The most successful Romanian team to enter this competition is Steaua Bucureşti, who won the trophy in the 1985–86 season and played the final in the 1988–89 season.[5][6] For the first time in history, the crowned champion from the 2007–08 season of Liga I qualified directly into the UEFA Champions League group stage, which continued until the UEFA Champions League 2011–12 season.[7]
Contents
History
Early championships
The first official national football tournament was organized in 1909 by the recently founded Romanian Football Federation, then called the Association of Athletic Societies in Romania (Romanian: Asociaţiunea Societăţilor Atletice din Romania). The final matches of the first Romanian Football Championship, were held between December 1909 and January 1910 in Bucharest.[8][9] The three pioneer clubs were Olympia and Colentina from Bucharest and United from Ploieşti. Each team played a fixture against the other two clubs, totalizing a number of three matches disputed, with Olympia Bucureşti being crowned as champions of the first Romanian Football Championship.[8][10] In the following years, the tournament was structured into regional groups with the winners of each group participating in a playoff with the eventual winners being declared champions. From 1909 until 1921, the championship was organized as a cup with the winner being crowned as Champions of Romania,[8][10] except for between 1916–1919, when the competition was suspended due to World War I.[3] The champions of this period are Olympia, Colentina and Venus, each with 2 titles, and United, Prahova and Româno-Americana, each with one title.[8][10]
Divizia A
The 1921–22 season marks the first time when a league consisting of seven teams was formed. The championship, which had been confined to several regional leagues, became a national competition in 1921 with the foundation of Divizia A and Divizia B. The inaugural Divizia A season was won by Chinezul Timişoara.[11] Until the 1931–32 season, the competition was dominated by Chinezul and Venus Bucureşti, with Chinezul winning six and Venus two championships during the 11 seasons.[8][11] The 1932–33 season saw the rise of another successful team, Ripensia Timişoara, which alongside rivals Venus, won eight of the following nine championships, before the competition was suspended in 1940 due to World War II.[8][11]
The post-war years were dominated by CCA Bucureşti, UTA Arad and Petrolul Ploieşti. The 1960s saw the gradual emergence of Dinamo Bucureşti, with the help from strikers Gheorghe Ene and Florea Dumitrache—both of whom became some of Divizia A's top all-time scorers. The 1970s saw the rise of Dudu Georgescu, from Dinamo Bucureşti, who was Divizia A's leading scorer for four seasons between 1974 and 1978. He scored an impressive 156 goals and won the European Golden Shoe (for top scorer in Europe) twice, in 1975 and 1977.[12][13] Dinamo Bucureşti also had two more European Golden Shoe winners in the 1986–87 season in the name of Rodion Cămătaru and in the 1988–89 season in the name of Dorin Mateuţ, with the latter being the last Romanian winner of the trophy.[12] From the 1959–60 season all the way to the 1999–2000 season all the league championships were won by only seven teams: Steaua (16 titles), Dinamo (14 titles), Universitatea Craiova (4 titles), Rapid Bucureşti, FC Argeş and UTA Arad (2 titles each), and Petrolul Ploieşti (one title).[8] The beginning of the 2000s were dominated by teams from the capital Bucharest, Steaua, Dinamo and Rapid winning all the league titles between 2000 and 2007, with Steaua and Dinamo winning three titles each, and Rapid one.[8]
Dinamo Bucureşti was the first Romanian team to qualify into the European Champions Cup in the 1956–57 season of the competition and Universitatea Craiova was the last team from Romania to qualify in the 1991–92 season, before the competition changed its name to the UEFA Champions League. Romanian teams qualified to 35 of the 37 seasons of the European Champions Cup, with Dinamo Bucureşti having 13 appearances, Steaua Bucureşti having 10 appearances, Universitatea Craiova having four appearances, Petrolul having three appearances, UTA Arad and FC Argeş having two appearances and Rapid Bucureşti having one appearance. The most important results for a Romanian team in this competition were achieved by Steaua Bucureşti which won the trophy in the 1985–86 season, and reached a semifinal in the 1987–88 season and another final in the 1988–89 season.[14][15][16] Other important achievements include Universitatea Craiova which reached the quarter finals in the 1981–82 season and Dinamo Bucureşti which reached the semi finals in the 1983–84 season.[17][18] However, since the change of the format in 1992–93 to the current Champions League format, Romanian champions have achieved limited successes, with Steaua reaching the group stage in 1994–95,[19] 1995–96,[20] 1996–97,[21] 2006–07,[22] 2007–08,[23]2008–09,[24] and 2013–14, CFR Cluj also reaching the group stage in 2008–09 (the only year with two Romanian teams reaching the group stage),[24] 2010–11 and 2012–13, Unirea Urziceni in 2009–10[25] and Oţelul Galaţi in 2011–12.
Liga I
At the beginning of the 2006–07 season the competition was forced to change its name from Divizia A to Liga I due to a trade mark dispute over the name Divizia A.[4] On May 15, 2006, the Romanian Football Federation decided to rename the first league from Divizia A to Liga I, which also affected the lower leagues; thus Divizia B became Liga II, Divizia C became Liga III, and so on.[4] The 2006–07 season marked the 16th straight time a team from Bucharest won the championship, with Dinamo winning the title. Both 2007–08 and 2008–09 saw new title winners as CFR Cluj and Unirea Urziceni, respectively, were crowned as champion for the first time.[8][26][27] CFR Cluj won their second championship in 2009–10, while the 2010–11 saw another new winners, Oţelul Galaţi.
The 2007–08 winners, CFR Cluj became the first Romanian team to qualify directly into the 2008–09 group stage of the UEFA Champions League, and the first team (other than Steaua) to qualify to this stage since the beginning of the new Champions League format in 1992–93.[28] The 2009–10 champions as well as 2010–11 ones were guaranteed a direct qualification spot into the group stage as well.[29] The best results in the group stage was obtained by CFR Cluj in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League with 10 points and third place in a group with Manchester United, S.C. Braga and Galatasaray.
Winners
Romanian Football Championship
Season[8] | Winner[8] | Runner-up | Third Place | Note |
---|---|---|---|---|
1909–10 | Olympia București (1) | Colentina Bucureşti | United Ploieşti | [30] |
1910–11 | Olympia București (2) | United Ploieşti | Colentina Bucureşti | [31] |
1911–12 | United Ploiești (1) | Olympia Bucureşti | Colentina Bucureşti | [32] |
1912–13 | Colentina București (1) | Cercul Atletic București | Bukarester FC | [33] |
1913–14 | Colentina București (2) | Bukarester FC | Cercul Atletic București | [34] |
1914–15 | Româno-Americană București (1) | Prahova Ploiești | Bukarester FC | [35] |
1915–16 | Prahova Ploiești (1) | Bukarester FC | Colțea București | [36] |
1916–19 |
|
[A] | ||
1919–20 | Venus București (1) | Tricolor Bucureşti | Colțea București | [37] |
1920–21 | Venus București (2) | Tricolor Bucureşti | Prahova Ploiești | [38] |
Divizia A
Liga I
Performances
Performance by club
The teams in Bold play in the 2015–16 season of Liga I.
The teams in Italics no longer exist.
Performance by city
The following table lists the Romanian champions by cities.
City | Titles | Winning Clubs |
---|---|---|
![]() |
|
Steaua (26), Dinamo (18), Venus (8), Rapid (3), Colentina (2), Olympia (2), Româno-Americana (1), Unirea Tricolor (1) |
![]() |
|
Chinezul (6), Ripensia (4) |
![]() |
|
Petrolul (4), United (1), Prahova (1) |
![]() |
|
UTA (6) |
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|
Universitatea (4) |
![]() |
|
CFR (3) |
![]() |
|
Argeș (2) |
![]() |
|
CA Oradea (1) |
File:ROU BV Brasov CoA.svg Brașov |
|
Colțea (1) |
![]() |
|
Reșița (1) |
![]() |
|
Unirea (1) |
![]() |
|
Oțelul (1) |
![]() |
|
Astra (1) |
See also
- Football records in Romania
- Football in Romania
- List of football clubs in Romania by major honors won
- Romanian football league system
Footnotes
- A. ^ Between 1916 and 1919 there was no competition held and no champion declared.
- B. ^ No sources are available for this period.
- C. ^ Between 1941 and 1946 there was no official competition held.
- D. ^ Won 6 of the 26 titles under the name of CCA Bucureşti.
- E. ^ Won 4 of the 6 titles as ITA Arad and Flamura Roşie Arad.
- F. ^ Won its title under the name of UD Reşiţa.
References
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External links
- Official website (Romanian)
- Romanian Football Association (Romanian)
- Romania – List of Champions, RSSSF.com
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