Sport - FC Universitatea Craiova

Fotbal Club Universitatea Craiova  is a Romanian professional football club from Craiova. They became the first Romanian football team to reach the semi-finals of a European tournament, during the UEFA Cup in 1982–83.

The football history in the city of Craiova began in the year 1921, when the first teams were founded; "Craiovan Craiova" and "Rovine Grivita Craiova".

In the year 1940, the two teams from Craiova merged, resulting in one of the most successful Romanian football teams in the Interwar period; “FC Craiova” , which was also the first team from the city of Craiova winning the Romanian championship in the season 1942–1943. However the title was not officialised by the Romanian Football Federation because of World War II.
Finally in 1948 “Universitatea Craiova” took life at the initiative of a group of students and professors, a team which latter would become one of the most popular and successful teams from Romania.


Craiova Maxima


In the 1982/1983 season, the team has had the best performance of the club's history. Under the management of Constantin Oţet and Nicolae Ivan, Universitatea Craiova reached the semifinals of UEFA Cup, after defeating some of the best known clubs in European football, such as AC Fiorentina (runners-up in Italian Serie A), Girondins Bordeaux (France), and FC Kaiserslautern (Germany). In the first European Cup semifinal ever played by a Romanian club, Universitatea played against Benfica (Portugal), two times European Champions and three times European Champions finalists. After two draws the Portuguese side advanced to the final on aggregate away goals. The generation of players who reached the UEFA Cup semifinals in 1983 was nicknamed Craiova Maxima and included Ilie Balaci and Rodion Camataru, but also Stefanescu, Zoltan Crişan, Geolgau, Beldeanu, Donose, Lung etc.

Universitatea Craiova after 1991

In 1991 Universitatea Craiova won for the last time the Championship and the Romanian Cup, under Sorin Cârţu as coach. In the years following, Craiova became a middle-table team, with rather poor performances. At the end of the 2004–2005 season they had been relegated to the second football division for the first time in the club's history, returning to the first league after the following season.

On 20 July 2011, the club was temporary excluded by the Romanian Football Federation,[1] after they have not withdrawn their sports dispute with former coach Victor Piţurcă from a civil court, according to article 57 of the FRF statute, which states that the Football Federation solves all the sports lawsuits.[2] However, the article allows running into civil courts disputes regarding employment contracts.[3] The exclusion decision is still subject to approval at the next FRF meeting. All of the squad players have become free agents and left to other clubs. An investigation was started by the National Anticorruption Directorate on 22 October 2011, against the heads of the Romanian Professional Football League and of the Football Federation, as well as against the Executive Committee members of the FRF, on charges of official misconduct in the case of Universitatea Craiova's exclusion.

Honours

Domestic
Liga I
Winners (4): 1973–74, 1979–80, 1980–81, 1990–91
Runners-up (5): 1972–73, 1981–82, 1982–83, 1993–94, 1994–95
Romanian Cup
Winners (6): 1976–77, 1977–78, 1980–81, 1982–83, 1990–91, 1992–93
Runners-up (5): 1974–75, 1984–85, 1993–94, 1997–98, 1999–00
Liga II
Winners (2): 1963–64, 2005–06
Runners-up (1): 1960–61
Liga III
Winners (1): 1957–58

European
UEFA Cup
Semi-finalists (1): 1982–83
participated in 4 editions of the European Champions' Cup
participated in 14 editions of the UEFA Cup
[edit]Friendly
Ciutat de Barcelona Trophy
Runners-up: 1978
Norcia Winter Cup Italy
Winners: 2003

Information source: Wikipedia

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