The 2021–22 Liga I (also known as Casa Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons) was the 104th season of the

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

, 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 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

clubs. The season started on 15 July 2021 and ended in May 2022. It was the seventh to take place since the play-off/play-out format has been introduced, and

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

was four-time defending champion. After the conclusion of the regular season, teams were divided according to their place to enter either the championship play-offs or the relegation play-outs.Liga 1 trece de la 14 la 16 echipe! Dinamo a fost salvată de la retrogradare, ultima clasată Chindia Târgoviște va juca barajul de menținere/promovare cu CS Mioveni. Se schimbă modul de promovare din Liga 2, însă din sezonul următor
liga2.prosport.ro The teams ranked 15th and 16th at the end of the play-out tournament were directly relegated, while the 13th and 14th places played a promotion/relegation play-off against 3rd and 4th places from

Liga II The Liga 2, most commonly 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 football season. It is currently Sponso ...

Teams

The league consistsed of 16 teams: 12 from the

2020–21 Liga I The 2020–21 Liga I (also known as Casa Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons) was the 103rd season of the Liga I, the top professional league for Romanian association football clubs. The season started on 21 August 2020 and ended on 19 May 2021. CFR ...

, two teams from the

2020–21 Liga II The 2020–21 Liga II (also known as 2020–21 Liga II Casa Pariurilor) was the 81st season of the Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian football league system. A total of 21 teams contested the league, instead of 20, due to the no relegation r ...

, and the winners of the 2020–21 promotion/relegation play-off. Teams promoted to the Liga I The first club to be promoted was

FC U Craiova 1948 FCU 1948 Craiova Fotbal Club, commonly known as FC U Craiova 1948 or simply FC U Craiova, is a Romanian professional Association football, football club based in Craiova, Dolj County, that competes in the Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian ...

, following their 0–0 draw against

Miercurea Ciuc Miercurea Ciuc (; ; ) is the county seat of Harghita County, Romania. It lies in the Székely Land, a mainly Hungarian-speaking ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, and is situated in the Olt River valley. The city administers three ...

on 13 May 2021. FC U Craiova returned in the

after 10 years of absence. The second club to be promoted was

Rapid București Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

, following their 1–3 defeat against

FC U Craiova FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Pakist ...

on 17 May 2021. Rapid returned in the

after 6 years of absence. The third club to be promoted was

Mioveni Mioveni () is a town in Argeș County, Romania, approximately north-east of Pitești. , it had a population of 29,317. The town administers four villages: Clucereasa, Colibași, Făgetu, and Racovița. History Mioveni was first mentioned in a ...

, following their 2–1 win against

Hermannstadt Sibiu ( , , , Hungarian: ''Nagyszeben'', , Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'' or ''Hermestatt'') is a city in central Romania, situated in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the ...

on 2 June 2021, in the promotion/relegation play-offs. Mioveni returned in the

after 9 years of absence. Teams relegated to the

The first club to be relegated was Politehnica Iași, which were relegated on 15 May 2021 following a 0–1 defeat against

, ending their 7-year stay in the top flight. The second club to be relegated was

Astra Giurgiu Asociația Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu (), commonly known as Astra Giurgiu or simply Astra, was a Romanian football club last based in the city of Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. Founded in 1921 in Ploiești as ''Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română'', it spe ...

, which were relegated on 19 May 2021 following their 0–1 defeat against

Viitorul Constanța ''Viitorul'' ("The Future") was a daily newspaper published in the Kingdom of Romania, out of Bucharest, as a central organ of the National Liberal Party (PNL). It was formed just months after peasants' revolt of March 1907, being originally li ...

, ending their 12-year stay in the top flight. The third club to be relegated was

, which were relegated on 2 June 2021 following their 1–2 defeat against

in the promotion/relegation play-offs, thus ending their 3-year stay in the top flight. Other changes In June 2021, Gheorghe Hagi (owner of

), chairman Gheorghe Popescu and Farul Constanța owner

Ciprian Marica Ciprian Andrei Marica (; born 2 October 1985) is a Romanian former professional footballer who played as a centre forward. He is a minority shareholder of Farul Constanța. Club career Dinamo București Marica's first professional club team w ...

announced in a press conference that their two clubs have merged;

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club Farul Constanța therefore took Viitorul's place in the first league from the 2021–22 Liga I season.

Venues

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Managerial changes

Regular season

In the regular season the 16 teams will meet twice for a total of 30 matches per team, with the top 6 advancing to the Championship play-offs and the bottom 10 qualifying for the relegation play-outs.

Table

Results

Play-off round

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

2022–23 UEFA Champions League The 2022–23 UEFA Champions League was the 68th season of Europe's premier club Association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 31st season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions ...

and

2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League was the second season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played at Fortuna Arena in Prague, Czech Republic. It was won ...

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

Play-off table

Play-out round

The bottom ten teams from the regular season meet once to contest against relegation. Teams started the play-out 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 finish 7th in the overall season standings, the second placed team – 8th, and so on, with the last placed team in the Relegation round being 16th.

Play-out table

European play-offs

In the semi-final, the 7th and 8th-placed teams of the

typically play a one-legged match on the ground of the better placed team (7th place). However the 7th place team, Sepsi, has already qualified to the Europa Conference League as Romanian Cup winners, so the semi-final was not played. In the final, the 8th place team will play the team ranked in the last

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual association football, football competition organised since 2021 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European foot ...

spot in the play-off tournament. The winner of the final will enter the second qualifying round of the UEFA Europa Conference League.

European play-off final

Promotion/relegation play-offs

The 13th and 14th-placed teams of the

faced the 3rd and 4th-placed teams of the Liga II.

First leg

Second leg

Season statistics

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

;Notes (H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Top assists

Clean sheets

Gazeta Sporturilor Monthly Football Awards

Player of the Month

Manager of the Month

Discipline

Team

Champion squad

Awards

Liga I Team of the Season

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liga I, 2021-22 2021-22 1 ro