The 2020–21 Liga I (also known as Casa Liga 1 for sponsorship reasons) was the 103rd 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 21 August 2020 and ended on 19 May 2021.
CFR Cluj were winners and three-time defending champions. It was the sixth season to take place in the play-off/play-out format, and the first since the
2005–06 season to feature 16 teams.
The play-off/play-out rule was also altered, with the first six teams at the regular season qualified for the play-off tournament and the last ten for the play-out. The first six teams played two matches against each other as before, but in the play-out the teams only played once against each other. At the end of the play-out, the first two places (or the 7th and 8th overall) played a single match on the ground of the lower ranked team, and the subsequent winner played the last team ranked on a
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. The winner of the latter encounter qualified for the 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](_blank)
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 consists of 16 teams: 13 from the
2019–20 Liga I, two teams from the
2019–20 Liga II, and the winner of the
2019–20 promotion/relegation play-off.
Teams promoted to the Liga I
The first club to be promoted was
UTA Arad, following their 1–1 draw against
FC Argeș on 2 August 2020. UTA returned in 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 ...
after 12 years of absence.
The second club to be promoted was
FC Argeș, following their 1–1 draw against
UTA Arad on 2 August 2020. FC Argeș returned in 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 ...
after 11 years of absence.
Teams relegated to the
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 ...
No teams were relegated from the
2019–20 Liga I.
Initially, two clubs would have been relegated at the end of the
2019–20 Liga I season, with a third playing a relegation play-off with the 3rd-placed team from the 2019–20 Liga II. The first club to have been relegated would have been
Chindia Târgoviște, following a 0–1 defeat on 2 August 2020 against
Politehnica Iași, ending their 1-year stay in the top flight. However, owing to the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
on the
previous season, the league table was frozen on 6 August 2020 and no teams were directly relegated. Instead, Chindia Târgoviște played
a promotion/relegation play-off against
CS Mioveni and kept their Liga I spot after a 3–1 aggregate result.
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
Positions by round
Play-off round
The top six teams from Regular season will meet twice (10 matches per team) for places in
2021–22 UEFA Champions League,
2021–22 UEFA Europa League, and
2021–22 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-off table
Positions by round
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
Positions by round
European play-offs
In the semi-final, the 7th and 8th-placed teams 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 ...
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
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 semi-final
European play-off final
Promotion/relegation play-offs
The 13th and 14th-placed teams 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 ...
faces the 3rd and 4th-placed team of the
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 ...
.
First leg
Second leg
Season statistics
Top scorers
:''As of games played on 20 May 2021''
Top assists
:''As of games played on 23 April 2021''
Hat-tricks
;Notes
(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team
Double
;Notes
(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team
Clean sheets
:''As of games played on 23 April 2021''
Discipline
:''As of games played on 16 February 2021''
Player
* Most yellow cards: 9
**
Ousmane Viera (Hermannstadt)
* Most red cards: 2
**
Ondřej Bačo (Gaz Metan Mediaș)
**
Alexandru Benga (UTA Arad)
**
Valentin Gheorghe (Astra Giurgiu)
**
Gabriel Matei (FC Argeș)
Team
* Most yellow cards: 74
** Hermannstadt
** Gaz Metan Mediaș
* Most red cards: 6
** Botoșani
* Fewest yellow cards: 34
** Universitatea Craiova
* Fewest red cards: 0
** CFR Cluj
Champion squad
Awards
Liga I Team of the Season
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Liga I, 2020-21
2020-21
2020–21 in Romanian football
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