Romania Liga 1 Bitcoin Sports Betting
Founded in 1909, the Liga 1 is the highest football league in Romania. The league has 14 active teams that compete for domestic and international cups. Fans of the league are now able to bet on teams like CFR Cluj, Astra Giurgiu, and Viitorul Constanta to name a few. For your convenience, we have provided the latest betting odds below.
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League 1 is the highest league in Romanian football. It was founded in 1932 as Divizia A and started playing in the 1932/33 season. Previously, the Romanian football champions were determined in cup tournaments after the founding of the Romanian Football Association in 1909 and, from 1921, with regional qualification tournaments and a nationwide final round in the knockout system.
Prior to the 2006/07 season, Divizia A was renamed to League 1, as the name had to be changed due to registration as a trademark.
Rules
Currently (2018/19) 14 teams are playing in league 1. The number has been reduced by four compared to the previous season. The teams in the last two places are relegated directly, while the two first-placed teams in the two seasons of league 2 are promoted. The third last must go to the relegation. The league 1 champion is entitled to take part in the UEFA Champions League qualification. The teams in second and third place will compete in the UEFA Europa League. Depending on who wins the cup, the fourth-placed team may also be allowed to take part in the Europa League.
If two or more teams are level on points at the end of the season, it is not the goal difference that decides, but the direct comparison.
History
Football was introduced to Romania at the end of the 19th century by foreign workers who earned their living in factories in major Romanian cities such as Bucharest, Ploiești or Craiova during industrialisation. At the beginning of the 20th century they began to organise themselves into associations. Thus in 1904 Olympia Bucharest was founded by German and Romanian workers, United Ploiești in 1909 by Dutch and American workers and Bucharest FC by German workers. Later, besides workers, students also joined the clubs, so that in 1909 the idea was born to found their own association, The Association of Football Clubs.
Romantic era (1909-1921)
The period before the First World War and the period up to 1920 is known as the romantic era. At this time, the games were not yet played in leagues, but regular cup tournaments – usually one in spring and one in autumn – took place. One of these cup tournaments was again chosen to determine the Romanian football champion. Since the territory of Romania at that time essentially comprised the historical region of Wallachia, the tournaments are now called Wallachian cup tournaments.
The first tournament organised by the Football Association was the Cup of the Romanian Football Association (Cupa Asociațiunii Române de foot-ball), which was held in 1909/10 and 1910/11. In 1910/11 he was also known as the Hans-Herzog-Pokal (Cupa Hans Herzog) and his winner was crowned the champion of Bucharest, who was subsequently called upon to nominate the Romanian champion. In the spring of 1912, 1913 and 1914 it was held again, whereby only the last two competitions were declared championships by the later historians. In the 1911/12 season, the Alexandru Bellio Cup (Cupa Alexandru Bellio), which was held once again in the autumn of 1913, served to determine the champion. Since at the beginning of the 20th century the working time was often twelve hours on six days a week, there were not many opportunities for sporting competition between the clubs, so that the few games extended over a period of several months and matches could not be held partly due to lack of time.
From 1915, two new cup tournaments replaced the two previous competitions. The Jean Luca P Niculescu Cup (Cupa Jean Luca P Niculescu) was held in the spring of each year until 1921 (from 1916 to 1918 there were no tournaments at all, as many foreigners had left Romania). In 1915 and 1916 the cup was used to determine the Romanian champion. In autumn the Harwester Cup (Cupa Harwester) was held and in the years 1919 and 1920 used to determine the champion (of the following year).
Only teams from Ploiești and Bucharest took part in the tournaments – apart from the sporadic participation of Oltenia Craiova. This was due to the fact that travelling at that time was very time-consuming, as the only means of transport available was the railway. While Bucharest and Ploiești are only 60 kilometres apart, Craiova was already 250 kilometres away.
Romanian Football Championship (1921-1932)
The Treaties of Trianon and St. Germain in 1920 granted Romania Transylvania, Bukovina and part of the Banat, thus doubling its territory. This also necessitated a reform of the gambling operations, as a league operation was not yet possible due to a lack of infrastructure. Beginning with the 1921/22 season, the Romanian football champion was determined according to a new mode: First, the best teams of a region were determined in regional tournaments. These champions determined the Romanian champion between July and September. This final round took place in a knockout system, whereby in the event of a draw, a repeat match was played on the opponent’s pitch.
After the first edition had identified the participants in the final competition in seven regions, more and more teams were added year after year, so that more and more qualifying tournaments were set up to keep the distances to be covered within limits. From 1926, a new level was added between the regional tournaments and the national finals, with winners in some regions first having to face winners from neighbouring regions to compete in the finals. In this way, the effort required to travel was reduced. From 1930 onwards, the regional tournaments were grouped into five geographical groups, which could send their champions to the final round of the Romanian championship:
- The northern area covered the north-west of the country with the centres of Cluj and Oradea.
- The West included the southwest of Romania with the centres Craiova, Arad and Timișoara.
- The central area included the centre of the country with the cities Brașov, Sibiu and Târgu Mureș.
- The area east comprised the northeast with the regions Bukowina, Moldova and Bessarabia.
- The area south comprised the Great Wallachia and the Dobruja.
The 1920s were marked by Chinezul Timișoara, which won the championship six times in a row – a record that was only set in the 1997/98 season by Steaua Bucharest and is still unsurpassed today. After Chinezul had lost their best players due to financial problems and could no longer maintain their level, the years from 1927 to 1932 were marked by constant changes at the top. Due to the mode (regional elimination, no second legs) many masters failed early. It was not until 1932 that a reigning champion, UDR Reșița, managed to reach the final again.
Professional League (1932-1945)
Only amateurs were allowed to take part in the Romanian Football Championship. As a result, the best players emigrated abroad or could not participate in the match with their professional clubs such as Ripensia Timișoara. This and the fact that more and more clubs were founded and participated in the game, led to the system being abandoned in 1932 and a league system being introduced. All teams were allowed to participate – regardless of whether they were amateurs or professionals.
The professional league started in 1932 with Divizia A, which was played in two groups of seven and eight teams the following year. In 1934 the Divizia B was introduced as the second highest national league, so that at the end of the 1933/34 season there were relegated teams for the first time. After Divizia C was founded in 1936, the current system of three national leagues existed for the first time, although Divizia C was only played irregularly until 1963.
From 1934, Divizia A was played in a group, eliminating the previous championship deciding game. There were no direct relegators, the last placed player played relegation matches against the first placed player of the Divizia B. The first placed player was the first to be relegated. With the exception of the 1937/38 season, the number of teams was left at twelve, only the relegation rules were changed in favour of Divizia B, with several teams relegating directly from the 1938/39 season onwards.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the game was increasingly restricted from 1940 onwards. After the clubs from the northwest had to leave the league due to the Second Vienna Arbitration of 1940, the game was interrupted in 1941 due to the fighting, and from 1942 on again with regional eliminations and a national final round. These tournaments, known as the Bessarabia Cup, do not count as official championships. In the year 1944 the play was finally stopped completely.
The 1930s were dominated by Ripensia Timișoara and Venus Bucharest, who won all championships from 1932 to 1940. Of the changing competitors, only Rapid Bucharest should be mentioned here, which won the Romanian Cup six times in a row during this period.
Communist era (1946-1990)
After the Second World War, in 1946, the teams continued to play in the same line-up as in the decisions of the 1940/41 season, with the teams from the territories previously handed over to Hungary (Kreischgebiet and Transylvania) being reintegrated into the leagues in which they had played in the 1939/40 season.
In the post-war period, Romania came under the influence of the Soviet Union and thus received a communist government. As a result, all companies were nationalised – including the professionally run football clubs, all of which had to join a ministry, a public institution or a trade union. Clubs that refused were forced to dissolve. This changed the club landscape in Romania abruptly and the former professionals became state amateurs. New associations were founded so that each institution had its own association.
Thus, in the 1940s and 1950s, many associations were formed or passed on from institution to institution, resulting in a large number of name changes. Clubs of the Romanian army like Steaua Bucharest or AS Armata Târgu Mureș, clubs of the Ministry of the Interior like Dinamo Bucharest or Dinamo Pitești (today FC Argeș Pitești), clubs of the state railway company like Locomotiva Bucharest (today Rapid Bucharest) or Locomotiva Timișoara, Clubs of scientific institutions such as Universitatea Craiova or Politehnica Timișoara, clubs of light industry such as Progresul Bucharest (later temporarily Național Bucharest) and clubs of the oil industry such as Petrolul Ploiești dominated Romanian football for decades.
Due to the central control, small clubs had to pass players to the top clubs again and again so that these successes could also be achieved in the European Cup – a company that only succeeded in 1986 when Steaua Bucharest won the European Cup of Champions. This principle meant that it was not uncommon for smaller clubs to quickly establish themselves in the league, but for outstanding results to be followed by a rapid crash.
In the first years after the war, the number of teams was gradually reduced to twelve. From 1950 to 1956 Romania, like many Eastern Bloc countries, took over the calendar year from the Soviet Union as the game year, but returned to the 1957/58 season at the end of the summer season. Starting with the 1959/60 season, Divizia A was initially played with 14 teams, from 1968 the league size was 16 teams and from the beginning of the 1973/74 season 18 teams were played.
The communist era was dominated by Dinamo Bucharest and Steaua Bucharest, who were the only clubs to belong to Divizia A at that time. Dinamo have won the championship 13 times and the runners-up 16 times and are just as successful as Steaua, who won the championship 14 times and the runners-up 7 times. In contrast to Steaua, who were hardly able to win any titles in the 1960s and 1970s, Dinamo is the only Romanian club to have always been among the national leaders. At the end of the 1980s, both sides dominated the league at will, scoring more points in 1987/88 and 1988/89 than ever before.
Outstanding successes in international football were only recorded in the 1980s. Universitatea Craiova began by reaching the semi-finals of the 1982/83 UEFA Cup, before Dinamo Bucharest reached the semi-finals of the European Cup of Champions a year later. In the second half of the 1980s, Divizia A were among the best in Europe. Steaua Bucharest not only won the 1986 European Champions Cup, but also made it to the final in 1988/89 and reached the semi-finals in 1987/88. In 1990, Dinamo also made it to the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
After the end of communist rule in the winter of 1989/90, Romania became a democratic market economy. Divizia A was not spared this development either. In 1990, numerous national players and other top players moved abroad and joined not only the leading European clubs but also second division clubs abroad, as there was much more to earn there than in Romania. This led to a great loss of strength in the Romanian league, which could not maintain its value in European comparison. It was not until the mid-2000s that the trend was reversed and League 1 is now once again one of the ten best leagues in Europe.
In the 1990s, most of the former state clubs were taken over by domestic and foreign investors. Many were left behind or dissolved because of their close involvement with the communist system. The clubs were initially unable to meet investors’ expectations and were on the verge of financial collapse or could no longer prevent it at the expense of a few years in lower leagues. As a result, in the 2000s, clubs that had been far removed from the league ten years earlier entered league 1.
The leading clubs from Bucharest, such as Dinamo, Steaua and Rapid, made the fastest transition from a planned to a market economy. Their connections to Romania’s strong men quickly provided them with the financial means to ensure their long-term survival. With the exception of the 1990/91 season, they have dominated Romanian football ever since, winning all the league titles until 2007. It was also two of these three clubs (Rapid and Steaua) who reached the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the 2005/06 UEFA Cup, respectively, and thus recalled Romanian football internationally.
The 1990s were dominated by Steaua Bucharest, who won six consecutive championship titles, setting the record for Chinezul Timișoara from 1922 to 1927. In the 2000s, the leading clubs took turns as champions, which is also due to the fact that the best players always move abroad.