The 2021–22 Liga I (also known as Casa Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons) is the 104th 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 ...

clubs. The season started on 15 July 2021 and is scheduled to end in May 2022. It is the sixth to take place since the play-off/play-out rule has been introduced, and the second since the 2005–06 season to feature 16 teams.

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

are the four-time defending champions. The play-off/play-out rule is the same as in the previous season, the first six teams at the regular season will qualify for the play-off tournament and the last 10 for the play-out. The first 6 teams will play two matches against each other (as before), but in the play-out, the teams will play only one match against each other. At the end of the play-out first two places (7th and 8th) will play a single match on the ground of the 7th place ranked team, subsequently the winner will play against the last team ranked on a

UEFA Europa Conference League The UEFA Europa Conference League (abbreviated as UECL) is an annual football club competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. Clubs qualify for the competition based on their ...

spot in the play-off, only the winner of this second encounter will qualify for UEFA Europa Conference League.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 will be relegated directly 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 ...

, on the other hand, the 13th and 14th places will play a promotion/relegation play-off against 3rd and 4th places from Liga II.

Teams

The league consists 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, following their 0–0 draw against

Miercurea Ciuc Miercurea Ciuc (; hu, Csíkszereda, ; german: Szeklerburg) 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 Ri ...

on 13 May 2021. FC U Craiova returned in the

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

Rapid București Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a '' cascade' ...

, following their 1–3 defeat against FC U Craiova 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 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 fir ...

, following their 2–1 win against

Hermannstadt Sibiu ( , , german: link=no, Hermannstadt , la, Cibinium, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Härmeschtat'', hu, Nagyszeben ) is a city in Romania, in the historical region of Transylvania. Located some north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Ci ...

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 based in the city of Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. Founded in 1921 in Ploiești as ''Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română'', it spent th ...

, which were relegated on 19 May 2021 following their 0–1 defeat against Viitorul Constanța, 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 Viitorul Constanța), chairman

Gheorghe Popescu Gheorghe "Gică" Popescu (; born 9 October 1967) is a Romanian former professional football who played as a defender. He notably played in La Liga where he is a former captain of FC Barcelona. He played for a string of European clubs in tha ...

and Farul Constanța owner

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

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 FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

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

Positions by round

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

and 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League 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-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.

European play-offs

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

plays a one-legged match on the ground of the better placed team (7th place). In the final, the winner of the semi-final will encounter the team ranked on the last

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 semi-final

European play-off final

Promotion/relegation play-offs

The 13th and 14th-placed teams of the

faces the 3rd and 4th-placed team of the

Season statistics

Top scorers

:''As of games played on 30 October 2021''

Top assists

Clean Sheets

:''As of games played on 29 October 2021''

Discipline

Team

Champion squad

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liga I, 2021-22 2021-22 2021–22 in Romanian football

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...