The 2017–18 Liga I (also known as Liga 1 Betano for sponsorship reasons) was the 100th season of the

Liga I The Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1, is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. Currently sponsored by betting company Superbet, it is officially known as the SuperLiga. It is the country's top ...

, the top professional league for Romanian

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

clubs. The season began on 14 July 2017 and ended on 2 June 2018, being the third to take place since the play-off/play-out format has been introduced. Defending champions Viitorul Constanța came fourth.

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1907 as ''Kolozsvári Vasutas Sport Club'', wh ...

became the new champions in the last fixture of the play-off, clinching their fourth league title after finishing one point above

FCSB Fotbal Club FCSB (), commonly known as FCSB, is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest. It has spent its entire history in the top flight of the Romanian league system, the Liga I. The original ''Steaua București'' footb ...

. Juventus București and

Sepsi OSK Sepsi may refer to: *László Sepsi (born 1986), Romanian footballer of Hungarian descent *Sepsi-78, a football club from Seinäjoki, Finland *ACS Sepsi SIC ACS Sepsi SIC Sfântu Gheorghe or commonly Sepsi SIC is a women's basketball professional ...

entered as the promoted teams from the

2016–17 Liga II The 2016–17 Liga II was the 77th season of the Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian football league system. The season began on 6 August 2016. A total of 20 teams contested the league. It was the first Liga II season with a single series. Th ...

, but only the latter managed to avoid relegation. Since Romania dropped from 15th to 17th in the

UEFA association coefficient rankings In European football, the UEFA coefficients are statistics based in weighted arithmetic means used for ranking and seeding teams in club and international competitions. Introduced in 1979 for men's football tournaments, and after applied in wome ...

, only the title winner qualified for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

Teams

The league consists of 14 teams: twelve teams from the

2016–17 Liga I The 2016–17 Liga I (also known as Liga 1 Betano for sponsorship reasons) was the 99th season of the Liga I, the top professional league for Romanian association football clubs. The season began on 22 July 2016 and concluded on 5 June 2017, bein ...

and two new teams from the

. Teams promoted to the Liga I The first club to be promoted was Juventus București, following their 3–1 win against

Balotești Balotești is a commune in the northwestern part of Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania. Two small rivers flow through this location: Cociovaliștea and Vlăsia. It is composed of three villages: Balotești, Dumbrăveni and Săftica. The commune is n ...

on 30 April 2017. Juventus will play in the

for the first time in their history. The second club to be promoted was

, following their 1–1 draw against

Mioveni Mioveni () is a town in Argeș County, Romania, approximately 15 km (9 miles) north-east of Pitești. , it had a population of 31,998. The town administers four villages: Clucereasa, Colibași, Făgetu and Racovița. History It was firs ...

on 3 June 2017. Sepsi will play in the

for the first time in their history. Teams relegated to the

Liga II The Liga 2, most often spelled as Liga II, is the second level of the Romanian football league system. The league changed its name from Divizia B just before the start of the 2006–07 Liga II, 2006–07. It is currently Sponsor (commercial), sp ...

The first club to be relegated was

Târgu Mureș Târgu Mureș (, ; hu, Marosvásárhely ) is the seat of Mureș County in the historical region of Transylvania, Romania. It is the 16th largest Romanian city, with 134,290 inhabitants as of the 2011 census. It lies on the Mureș River, th ...

, which were relegated on 19 May 2017 following a 0–1 defeat against Pandurii Târgu Jiu, ending their 3-year stay in the top flight. The second and final club to be relegated was Pandurii Târgu Jiu, which were relegated on 4 June 2018 following their 1–2 defeat against

Botoșani Botoșani () is the capital city of Botoșani County, in the northern part of Moldavia, Romania. Today, it is best known as the birthplace of many celebrated Romanians, including Mihai Eminescu, Nicolae Iorga and Grigore Antipa. Origin of the ...

, ending their 12-year stay in the top flight.

Venues

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Managerial changes

Regular season

In the regular season the 14 teams will meet twice, a total of 26 matches per team, with the top 6 advancing to the Championship round and the bottom 8 qualifying for Relegation round.

Table

Results

Positions by round

Championship play-offs

The top six teams from Regular season would meet twice (10 matches per team) for places in

2018–19 UEFA Champions League The 2018–19 UEFA Champions League was the 64th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 27th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. For the first ti ...

and

2018–19 UEFA Europa League The 2018–19 UEFA Europa League was the 48th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 10th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Olympic St ...

as well as deciding the league champion. Teams started the Championship round with their points from the Regular season halved, rounded upwards, and no other records carried over from the Regular season.

Table

Results

Positions by round

Relegation play-outs

The bottom eight teams from regular season will meet twice (14 matches per team) to contest against relegation. Teams start the Relegation round with their points from the Regular season halved, rounded upwards, and no other records carried over from the Regular season. The winner of the Relegation round finishes 7th in the overall season standings, the second placed team - 8th, and so on, with the last placed team in the Relegation round being 14th.

Table

Results

Positions by round

Promotion/relegation play-offs

The 12th-placed team of the Liga I faced the 3rd-placed team of the

. Notes: *

Voluntari Voluntari () is a town in Ilfov County, Muntenia, Romania. It is located at a distance of 1 km from the northern border of Bucharest (on the DN2 road towards Urziceni) and is thus frequently viewed as a suburb of Bucharest. The population ...

remained in

and Chindia Târgoviște remained in

Season statistics

Top scorers

:''Updated to matches played on 2 June 2018.''

Hat-tricks

⁴ Player scored four goals

Clean sheets

:''Updated to matches played on 2 June 2018.'' --> ¹

Florin Niță Florin Constantin Niță (; born 3 July 1987) is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Czech First League club Pardubice, on loan from Sparta Prague, and the Romania national team. He started his senior career at Con ...

was transferred to

Sparta Prague ) but refer to Spartans as "''Rudí''" ( en, The Dark Reds/The Maroons).'' Letenští'' , ground = Generali Česká pojišťovna Arena , capacity = 19,416 , clubname = Sparta Prague , image = Sparta Praha logo.png , image_size = 160px , fu ...

during the winter transfer window.

Discipline

:''As of 2 June 2018''

Player

*Most yellow cards: 14 **

István Fülöp István Fülöp (born 4 May 1958) is a Hungarian politician, member of the National Assembly (MP) for Mátészalka Mátészalka is a town in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, in the Northern Great Plain region of eastern Hungary. It is on the Kr ...

(

) *Most red cards: 2 **

Anatole Abang Anatole Bertrand Abang (born 6 July 1996) is a Cameroonian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Al Bataeh Club. Early life Abang was born in Yaoundé, and started his career with local side AS Fortuna de Yaounde. His rights ...

( Astra Giurgiu) ** Ionuț Cioinac ( CSM Politehnica Iași) **

Diogo Salomão Diogo Ferreira Salomão (born 14 September 1988) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a left winger for C.F. Estrela da Amadora. Club career Born in Amadora, Lisbon District, Salomão played for three teams as a youth, including ...

( Dinamo București) **

Kévin Boli Kévin Gnonher Boli (born 21 June 1991) is a professional footballer who plays for Romanian Liga I club Farul Constanța. Primarily a centre-back, he can also play as a full back. After starting his professional career with Sedan in the Fren ...

(

) **

Kamer Qaka Kamer Qaka (born 11 April 1995) is an Albanian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Macedonian club Shkëndija. Club career Early years / Norway Qaka was born in Peja, modern-day Kosovo, but when he was two years ol ...

( CSM Politehnica Iași) ** Mădălin Mihăescu ( CSM Politehnica Iași) **

Mihai Pintilii Doru Mihai Pintilii (born 9 November 1984) is a Romanian former professional footballer who serves as an assistant for Liga I club FCSB. A midfielder known for his combative playing style, Pintilii started out at Viitorul Hârlău and Auxerre L ...

(

) ** Gabriel Cânu (

ACS Poli Timișoara Asociația Club Sportiv Poli Timișoara (), commonly known as ACS Poli Timișoara, Poli Timișoara or simply ACS Poli, was a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Timișoara, Timiș County. The team was founded in 2012, the y ...

) **

Dragoș Balauru Dragoş Balauru (born 11 November 1989) is a Romanian footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Liga II club CSM Alexandria, which he captains. Personal life His brother, Dan Balauru is also a footballer. Honours Voluntari * Liga II: 2014� ...

(

)

Club

*Most yellow cards: 116 ** CSM Politehnica Iași *Most red cards: 9 ** Astra Giurgiu

Attendances

Champion squad

Awards

Best Team of the Championship Play-offs

Monthly awards

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liga I, 2017-18 2017-18 2017–18 in Romanian football ro