top professional Romanian football division

Football league
The Liga 1, most frequently spelled as the Liga I ( romanian pronunciation : [ ˈliɡa ɨnˈtɨj ] ; First League ), is a romanian professional league for men ‘s association football clubs. presently sponsored by betting company Casa Pariurilor, it is officially known as the Casa Liga 1. [ 1 ] It is the state ‘s peak football competition, being contested by 16 clubs which take separate in a promotion and delegating organization with the Liga II. The teams play 30 matches each in the regular season, before entering the championship play-offs or the relegation play-outs according to their position in the regular table.

The Liga I was established in 1909 and commenced play for the 1909–10 campaign, being presently on the twenty-ninth rate in UEFA ‘s league coefficient ranking list. It is administered by the Liga Profesionistă de Fotbal, besides known by the acronym LPF. Before the 2006–07 season, the competition was known as Divizia A, but the name had to be changed following the find that person else had registered that trademark. [ 2 ] The best performer to date is FCSB with 26 titles, [ note 1 ] followed by longtime crosstown rival Dinamo București with 18 trophies. Furthermore, of the remaining 21 clubs which came triumphant in the competition eight have won it on at least three occasions— Venus București, Chinezul Timișoara, Petrolul Ploiești, Ripensia Timișoara, UTA Arad, Rapid București, Universitatea Craiova, and CFR Cluj. The latter only became signally successful in the twenty-first century and is the most decorate club outside of Bucharest .

history [edit ]

early championships ( 1909–1921 ) [edit ]

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 : Asociațiunea Societăților Atletice din România ). The final matches of the beginning romanian Football Championship were held between December 1909 and January 1910 in Bucharest. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] The three pioneer clubs were Olympia and Colentina from Bucharest and United from Ploiești. Each team played a repair against the early two clubs, totalizing a number of three matches disputed, with Olympia București being crowned as champions of the first base romanian Football Championship. [ 3 ] In the keep up 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 achiever being crowned as Champions of Romania, [ 3 ] except for between 1916 and 1919, when the contest was suspended due to World War I. [ 6 ] The champions of this period were Olympia and Colentina, each with two titles, and United, Prahova, Venus, Unirea Tricolor București and Româno-Americana, with one title each. [ 3 ]

Divizia A ( 1921–2006 ) [edit ]

The 1921–22 season marked the first clock time when a league consist of seven teams was formed. The championship, which had been confined to respective regional leagues, became a national contest in 1921 with the foundation of Divizia A and Divizia B. The inaugural Divizia A temper was won by Chinezul Timișoara. [ 7 ] Before the 1931–32 season, the competition was dominated by Chinezul and Venus București, with Chinezul winning six championships and Venus two championships during the eleven seasons. [ 3 ] [ 7 ] The 1932–33 season saw the rise of another successful team, Ripensia Timișoara, which alongside rivals Venus, won eight of the postdate nine championships, before the competition was suspended in 1940 due to World War II. [ 3 ] [ 7 ] The post-war years were dominated by CCA București, UTA Arad and Petrolul Ploiești. The 1960s saw the gradual emergence of Dinamo București, 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 originate of Dudu Georgescu, from Dinamo București, who was Divizia A ‘s lead scorekeeper for four seasons between 1974 and 1978. He scored an impressive 156 goals and won the European Golden Shoe award for the peak scorer in Europe doubly, in 1975 and 1977. [ 8 ] [ 9 ] Dinamo București besides had two more european Golden Shoe winners in the 1986–87 season in the name of Rodion Cămătaru and in the 1988–89 temper in the list of Dorin Mateuţ, with the latter being the last romanian achiever of the trophy. [ 8 ] From the 1959–60 temper all the direction 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 București, FC Argeș and UTA Arad ( 2 titles each ), and Petrolul Ploiești ( one title ). [ 3 ] Dinamo București was the first romanian team to qualify into the european Champions Cup in the 1956–57 temper of the competition and Universitatea Craiova was the last team from Romania to qualify in the 1991–92 season, before the contest changed its name to the UEFA Champions League. romanian teams qualified to 35 of the 37 seasons of the european Champions Cup, with Dinamo București having thirteen appearances, Steaua București having ten appearances, Universitatea Craiova having four appearances, Petrolul having three appearances, UTA Arad and FC Argeş having two appearances and Rapid București having one appearance. The most authoritative results for a romanian team in this contest were achieved by Steaua București which won the trophy in the 1985–86 season, and reached the semi-finals in the 1987–88 season and another final examination in the 1988–89 season. [ 4 ] other significant achievements include Universitatea Craiova which reached the quarter-finals in the 1981–82 temper and Dinamo București which reached the semi-finals in the 1983–84 season. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] however, after the change of the format in 1992–93 to the current Champions League format, romanian champions have achieved limited successes, with Steaua only reaching the group stagecoach three times before the twenty-first hundred. The beginning of the 2000s were dominated by teams from the capital, with Steaua, Dinamo and Rapid winning all the league titles between 2000 and 2007. [ 3 ]

Liga I ( 2006–present ) [edit ]

At the begin of the 2006–07 season the contest was forced to change its name from Divizia A to Liga I ascribable to a trademark quarrel over the name. [ 2 ] The change was made on 15 May 2006, and the romanian Football Federation decided to besides rename the lower leagues ; frankincense Divizia B became Liga II, Divizia C became Liga III, and so on. [ 2 ] The 2006–07 temper marked the 16th square time a team from Bucharest won the championship, with Dinamo winning the championship. Both 2007–08 and 2008–09 saw fresh title winners as CFR Cluj and Unirea Urziceni were crowned champions for the first gear time. [ 3 ] CFR Cluj won their second base championship in 2009–10, while the 2010–11 saw another new winner, Oțelul Galați. Oțelul is the first and only club from the region of Moldavia to win a national title indeed far. CFR Cluj, the 2007–08 winner became the inaugural romanian team to qualify immediately into the 2008–09 group stage of the UEFA Champions League, and the first team other than Steaua to qualify to this degree since the beginning of the new Champions League format in 1992–93. [ 12 ] The 2009–10 champions a well as 2010–11 ones were guaranteed a direct qualification blot into the group stage adenine well. [ 13 ] The best results in the group stagecoach was obtained by CFR Cluj in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League with ten points and one-third locate in a group with Manchester United, Braga, and Galatasaray. The 2010s besides brought modern league winners in Liga I, with Astra Giurgiu and Viitorul Constanța clinching the titles in 2015–16 and 2016–17 respectively. [ 14 ] Since 2017 onwards, CFR Cluj won four straight Liga I titles, amassing a full number of seven national titles as of 2021 .

competition format [edit ]

Starting with 2020, the Liga I has been expanded to a 16-team format. After each team plays the others twice for 30 fixtures, they are ranked by sum points and then divided according to their position to enter either the backing play-offs or the relegation play-outs. At this stage, the points are halved in two and criteria such as goal difference, goals scored etc. are erased wholly. The six clubs which enter the backing play-offs gambling ten-spot games, while the remaining ten in the relegation play-outs will only play each other once, resulting in nine fixtures. The backing play-offs winners are besides crowned winners of the season ‘s Liga I. The 9th and 10th positions in the play-out are relegated immediately to the Liga II, while the 7th- and 8th-placed teams will play a two-legged tie against the 3rd and 4th teams from the second league ‘s table. besides, the 1st and 2nd teams from the play-out phase will play a one-legged game between each other and the achiever will face the last team that completed the play-off phase in a european spot. The winner of that one-legged meet will play adjacent season in the UEFA Europa Conference League. [ 15 ]

Clubs [edit ]

Wins by club [edit ]

Bold indicates clubs presently playing in 2021–22 Liga I. Teams in italics nobelium long exist. Teams in neither bold or italics are existing past winners of the championship that play in Romania ‘s lower leagues .

2020–21 season [edit ]

The following 16 clubs are competing in the Liga I during the 2020–21 season .
On 19 December 1998, SABMiller bought the name rights for four and a half seasons, becoming the first sponsor in the history of the contest. SABMiller changed the name of the competition to “ Divizia A Ursus ”, to promote their Ursus beer. [ 17 ] Starting with the 2004–05 season, european Drinks & Foods, a romanian $ 1.3 billion USD gross company, took over as main patron and changed the league ‘s name to “ Divizia A Bürger ”, to promote their Bürger beer. [ 18 ] On 11 May 2008, Realitatea Media bought the identify rights and changed the name of the competition to “ Liga I Realitatea ”, to promote their Realitatea television receiver place. [ 19 ] In late 2008, European Drinks & Foods again bought the rights and the league was renamed as the “ Liga I Frutti newly ”, after one of their soft drinks trade name. [ 20 ] For the 2009–10 season, the on-line betting firm Gamebookers purchased the league naming rights and renamed the division “ Liga 1 Gamebookers.com ”. [ 21 ] In July 2010, Bergenbier, a StarBev Group company, bought the name rights for four seasons and changed the name of the rival to “ Liga I Bergenbier ”, to promote their Bergenbier beer. [ 22 ] From the 2015–16 season, the french telecommunication pot Orange became the independent presenter of the Romanian first league, after purchasing the league naming rights, for two years, and renamed the league in Liga 1 Orange. [ 23 ] From the 2017–18 season, the external on-line bet on operator Betano became the independent sponsor of the Romanian inaugural league, after purchasing the league naming rights, for two years, and renamed the league in ‘Liga 1 Betano ‘. For the 2019–20 season, the home on-line gambling operator Casa Pariurilor became the chief sponsor of the Romanian first league, after purchasing the league naming rights, and renamed the league in ‘Casa Liga 1 ‘ .

Media coverage [edit ]

In 2004, Telesport, a small television net, bought the circulate rights for $ 28 million. The four seasons narrow ended in the summer of 2008. Telesport sold some of the air rights for matches to other romanian networks, including, TVR1, Antena 1, Național television, and Kanal D.

On 31 March 2008, Antena 1 with RCS & RDS outbid Realitatea Media and Kanal D in the circulate rights auction with a command of €102 million for a three seasons condense. [ 24 ] In 2011, the air rights were bought by RCS & RDS for their channels Digi Sport 1, Digi Sport 2 and Digi Sport 3. This channels aired broadcast medium of seven of the nine matches from each stage of the championship. The other two matches were broadcast by Antena 1 ( an Intact Media Group channel ) and Dolce Sport ( a distribution channel owned by Telekom Romania ). In March 2014, LPF announced that the rights were sold for a five-year period to a company from the European Union, without specifying the company ‘s name. [ 25 ] A calendar month later, Look TV and Look Plus were revealed as the television stations that would broadcast the games from Liga I and Cupa Ligii between 2014 and 2019. [ 26 ]

EA Sports [edit ]

On 27 August 2019, Liga I signed a contract with EA Sports for the rights of the league for FIFA 20. It is the first time that the Liga I is featured in a sports video-game. [ 27 ]

Records [edit ]

Players [edit ]

 Player obtained Player obtained romanian citizenship and represented Romania internationally

 

Player obtained romanian citizenship, but did not represent Romania internationally

 

Player obtained romanian citizenship, but did not represent Romania internationally

Managers [edit ]

Referees [edit ]

International competitions [edit ]

See besides [edit ]

References [edit ]

  1. a b cUEFA and LPF attribute the league titles won up to 2003 by the historic Steaua București to FCSB. The CSA Steaua București sports club, which refounded their football team in 2017, also asserts the ownership of the 21 trophies from that period and won them in a domestic court case—this would make the latter team the most successful one in Romania and leave FCSB with only five titles.