Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional

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 ...

league in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

and the highest level of the

Romanian football league system The Romanian football league system, also known as the football pyramid, refers to the system in Romanian club football that consists of several football leagues bound together hierarchically by promotion and relegation. The first three leagues ar ...

. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of

promotion and relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

from and to

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 ...

. The teams play 30 matches each in the regular season, before entering the championship play-offs or the relegation play-outs according to their position in the regular table. Liga I was established in 1909 and commenced play for the 1909–10 campaign, being currently 25th in

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

's league coefficient ranking list. It is administered by the

Liga Profesionistă de Fotbal Liga (Spanish and Portuguese: ''League'') or LIGA may refer to: Sports Basketball * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, women's professional basketball league in Spain Football Latin Amer ...

, also known by the acronym LPF. Before the 2006–07 season, the competition was known as ''Divizia A'', but the name had to be changed following the finding that someone else had registered that trademark. The best performer to date is Steaua București with 20 or 28 titles followed by longtime cross-town rival

Dinamo București A dynamo is a magnetic device originally used as an electric generator. Dynamo or Dinamo may also refer to: Places * Dinamo (Moscow Metro), a station of the Moscow Metro, Moscow, Russia * Dinamo (Yekaterinburg Metro), a station of the Yekaterin ...

with 18 trophies. Furthermore, of the remaining 21 clubs which came victorious in the competition, eight have won it on at least three occasions—

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 ...

(eight trophies), Venus București (seven),

Chinezul Timișoara Chinezul Timișoara was a football club that played both in the Romanian and the Hungarian championship during its existence. It was based in Timișoara, Romania (at the time of foundation Temesvár, Austria-Hungary). History The club was establ ...

and

UTA Arad Asociația Fotbal Club UTA Arad (), commonly known as UTA Arad or simply UTA (''Uzina Textilă Arad''; ), is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Arad, Arad County that competes in the Liga I. The team was founded in 1945 ...

(six each), Ripensia Timișoara, Universitatea Craiova and Petrolul Ploiești (four each), and

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 ...

(three).

Competition format

Starting with 2020, the Liga I has been expanded to a 16-team format. After each team plays the others twice for 30 fixtures, they are

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

by total points and then divided according to their position to enter either the championship play-offs or the relegation play-outs. At this stage, the points are halved and criteria such as

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

, goals scored etc. are erased completely. The six clubs which enter the championship play-offs play ten games, while the remaining ten in the relegation play-outs will only play each other once, resulting in nine fixtures. The championship play-offs winners are also crowned winners of the season's Liga I. The 9th and 10th positions in the play-out are relegated directly to the

, while the 7th- and 8th-placed teams will play a two-legged tie against the 3rd and 4th teams from the second league's table. From 2023/24, only 8th placed team will play a two-legged tie against 3rd placed team from second league's table. Also, the 1st and 2nd teams from the play-out phase will play a one-legged game between each other and the winner will face the last team that completed the play-off phase in a European spot. The winner of that one-legged match will play next season in the

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 ...

History

Early championships (1909–1921)

The first official national football tournament was organized in

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escapes death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Janu ...

by the recently founded

Romanian Football Federation The Romanian Football Federation (; FRF) is the governing body of football in Romania. They are headquartered in the capital city of Bucharest and affiliated with FIFA and UEFA since 1923 and 1955 respectively. The Federation organizes the men's ...

, then called the ''Association of Athletic Societies in Romania'' (). The final matches of the first Romanian Football Championship were held between December 1909 and January 1910 in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. The three pioneer clubs were Olympia and Colentina from Bucharest and United from

Ploiești Ploiești ( , , ), formerly spelled Ploești, is a Municipiu, city and county seat in Prahova County, Romania. Part of the historical region of Muntenia, it is located north of Bucharest. The area of Ploiești is around , and it borders the Ble ...

. Each team played a fixture against the other two clubs, totalizing a number of three matches disputed, with Olympia București being crowned as champions of the first Romanian Football Championship. In the following years, the tournament was structured into regional groups with the winners of each group participating in a playoff with the eventual winners being declared champions. From 1909 until 1921, the championship was organized as a cup with the winner being crowned as Champions of Romania, except for between 1916 and 1919, when the competition was suspended due to

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The champions of this period were Olympia and Colentina, each with two titles, and United, Prahova,

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

Unirea Tricolor București Unirea Tricolor București was a Romanian football (soccer), football football team, club from Bucharest, south-east Romania, founded in 1914 as Tricolor București. It was one of the most famous inter-war clubs in Romania. History Tricolor Bucu ...

and Româno-Americana, with one title each.

Divizia A (1921–2006)

The 1921–22 season marked the first time when a league consisting of seven teams was formed. The championship, which had been confined to several regional leagues, became a national competition in 1921 with the foundation of Divizia A and

Divizia B 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 football season. It is currently sponsored by Casa Pariu ...

. The inaugural Divizia A season was won by

. Before the 1931–32 season, the competition was dominated by Chinezul and Venus București, with Chinezul winning six championships and Venus two championships during the eleven seasons. The 1932–33 season saw the rise of another successful team, Ripensia Timișoara, which alongside rivals Venus, won eight of the following nine championships, before the competition was suspended in 1940 due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

The post-war years were dominated by

, CCA București and Petrolul Ploiești. The 1960s saw the gradual emergence of

, with the help from strikers Gheorghe Ene and Florea Dumitrache—both of whom became some of Divizia A's top all-time scorers. The 1970s saw the rise of

Dudu Georgescu Dudu Georgescu (born 1 September 1950) is a retired Romanian footballer who played as a forward and former coach. Club career Georgescu was born in Bucharest on 1 September 1950. He started his career at Progresul București, making his Divi ...

, from Dinamo București, who was Divizia A's leading scorer for four seasons between 1974 and 1978. He scored an impressive 156 goals and won the

European Golden Shoe The European Golden Shoe, also known as the European Golden Boot, is an award that is presented each season to the player with the most points in league matches from the top division of a European national league. The trophy is a sculpture o ...

award for the top scorer in Europe twice, in 1975 and 1977. Dinamo București also had two more European Golden Shoe winners in the 1986–87 season in the name of Rodion Cămătaru and in the 1988–89 season in the name of

Dorin Mateuţ Dorin may refer to: ; Romanian masculine given name *Dorin Chirtoacă *Dorin Dănilă *Dorin Drăguțanu *Dorin Goian * Dorin Junghietu *Dorin Recean *Dorin Rotariu Dorin Rotariu (; born 29 July 1995) is a Romanian professional footballer who pl ...

, with the latter being the last Romanian winner of the trophy. From the 1959–60 season all the way to the 1999–2000 season all the league championships were won by only seven teams: Steaua (16 titles), Dinamo (14 titles), Universitatea Craiova (4 titles),

FC Argeș 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 Pakis ...

and

(2 titles each), and Petrolul Ploiești (one title). Dinamo București was the first Romanian team to qualify into the European Champions Cup in the 1956–57 season of the competition and Universitatea Craiova was the last team from Romania to qualify in the 1991–92 season, before the competition changed its name to the UEFA Champions League. Romanian teams qualified to 35 of the 37 seasons of the European Champions Cup, with Dinamo București having thirteen appearances, Steaua București having ten appearances, Universitatea Craiova having four appearances, Petrolul having three appearances, UTA Arad and FC Argeş having two appearances and Rapid București having one appearance. The most important results for a Romanian team in this competition were achieved by Steaua București which won the trophy in the 1985–86 season, and reached the semi-finals in the 1987–88 season and another final in the 1988–89 season. Other important achievements include Universitatea Craiova which reached the quarter-finals in the 1981–82 season and Dinamo București which reached the semi-finals in the 1983–84 season. However, after the change of the format in 1992–93 to the current Champions League format, Romanian champions have achieved limited successes, with Steaua only reaching the group stage three times before the 21st century. The beginning of the 2000s were dominated by teams from the capital, with Steaua, Dinamo and Rapid winning all the league titles between 2000 and 2007.

Liga I (2006–present)

At the beginning of the 2006–07 season the competition was forced to change its name from Divizia A to Liga I due to a trademark dispute over the name. The change was made on 15 May 2006, and the

decided to also rename the lower leagues; thus Divizia B became

, Divizia C became

Liga III The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was call ...

, and so on. The 2006–07 season marked the 16th straight time a team from Bucharest won the championship, with Dinamo winning the title. Both 2007–08 and 2008–09 saw new title winners as

and

Unirea Urziceni Fotbal Club Unirea Urziceni, commonly known as Unirea Urziceni (), was a Romanian professional Association football, football Club (organization), club based in Urziceni, Ialomița County. Unirea became Divizia A Final Tables, national champions ...

were crowned champions for the first time. CFR Cluj won their second championship in 2009–10, while the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

saw another new winner, Oțelul Galați. Oțelul is the first and only club from the region of

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

to win a national title so far. CFR Cluj, the 2007–08 winner became the first Romanian team to qualify directly into the 2008–09 group stage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, and the first team other than Steaua to qualify to this stage since the beginning of the new Champions League format in 1992–93. The 2009–10 champions as well as

ones were guaranteed a direct qualification spot into the group stage as well. The best results in the group stage was obtained by CFR Cluj in the 2012–13 UEFA Champions League with ten points and third place in a group with

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, and

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

. The 2010s also brought new league winners in Liga I, with

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 ...

and Viitorul Constanța clinching the titles in 2015–16 and 2016–17 respectively. Since 2017 onwards, CFR Cluj won five consecutive Liga I titles, amassing a total number of eight national titles as of 2022. CFR Cluj obtained the best result of a Romanian team in the group stage in the 2019–2020 season of Europa League - 12 points. Also, CFR Cluj became the first Romanian team to qualify to UEFA Conference League group stage, when they obtained 4 points in the inaugural season (i.e. 2021–2022). In June 2022, Liga I officially changed its name into "SuperLiga" for sponsorship reasons, due to Romanian sporting bets agency Superbet sponsoring the competition.

Clubs

Wins by club

Bold indicates clubs currently playing in 2025–26 Liga I. Teams in ''italics'' no longer exist.

2024–25 season

The following 16 clubs are competing in the Liga I during the 2024–25 season.

Sponsorship

On 19 December 1998,

SABMiller SABMiller plc was an Anglo–South African multinational brewing and beverage company headquartered in Woking, England on the outskirts of London until 10 October 2016 when it was acquired by AB InBev for US$107-billion. It was the world's sec ...

bought the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

for four and a half seasons, becoming the first sponsor in the history of the competition. SABMiller changed the name of the competition to "Divizia A Ursus", to promote their Ursus beer. Starting with the 2004–05 season, European Drinks & Foods, a Romanian $1.3 billion

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

revenue company, took over as main sponsor and changed the league's name to "Divizia A Bürger", to promote their Bürger beer. On 11 May 2008, Realitatea Media bought the naming rights and changed the name of the competition to "Liga I Realitatea", to promote their

Realitatea TV Realitatea TV (, meaning "The Reality TV") is the former name of the Romanian news television channel Realitatea Plus. The channel began broadcasting in 2001 as a general-profile television and became the first Romanian news television in 2002. ...

station. In late 2008, European Drinks & Foods again bought the rights and the league was renamed as the "Liga I Frutti Fresh", after one of their soft drinks brand. For the 2009–10 season, the online betting firm Gamebookers purchased the league naming rights and renamed the division "Liga 1 Gamebookers.com". In July 2010, Bergenbier, a StarBev Group company, bought the

for four seasons and changed the name of the competition to "Liga I Bergenbier", to promote their Bergenbier beer. From the 2015–16 season, the French telecommunications corporation

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

became the main sponsor of the Romanian first league, after purchasing the league naming rights, for two years, and renamed the league in Liga 1 Orange. From the 2017–18 season, the international online gaming operator Betano became the main sponsor of the Romanian first league, after purchasing the league naming rights, for two years, and renamed the league in 'Liga 1 Betano'. For the 2019–20 season, the national online gaming operator Casa Pariurilor became the main sponsor of the Romanian first league, after purchasing the league naming rights, and renamed the league in 'Casa Liga 1'. For the 2022–23 season the operator of games in Romania Superbet is the sponsor of the leagues and the name changes to Superliga României.

Media coverage

In 2004, Telesport, a small TV network, bought the broadcasting rights for $28 million. The four seasons contract ended in the summer of 2008. Telesport sold some of the broadcasting rights for matches to other Romanian networks, including,

TVR1 TVR 1 (; spelled out as ''Televiziunea Română 1'', "Romanian Television 1") is the main channel of the Romanian public broadcaster TVR. The most important show of the channel is Jurnalul TVR, whose motto is ("The news journal as it should ...

, Antena 1, Național TV, and

Kanal D Kanal D (English: Channel D) is a nationwide television channel in Turkey that is part of Demirören Group. It was founded by Ayhan Şahenk and Aydın Doğan in 1993. The network has also run an international channel, Euro D, since 1996, whic ...

. On 31 March 2008, Antena 1 with

RCS & RDS Digi Communications N.V., also known as DIGI Group, is a Romanian telecommunications holding company, which also has businesses in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Belgium. The firm has current statutory seat in the Netherlands and headquarters of eff ...

outbid Realitatea Media and

in the broadcasting rights auction with a bid of €102 million for a three seasons contract. In 2011, the broadcasting rights were bought by

for their channels Digi Sport 1, Digi Sport 2 and Digi Sport 3. This channels aired broadcasting of seven of the nine matches from each stage of the championship. The other two matches were broadcast by Antena 1 (an

Intact Media Group INTACT is the first Romanian media group based entirely on a private local business. A considerable number of the most important brands in the audio-visual and print industry have been launched under this umbrella since its first product, Intact ...

channel) and Dolce Sport (a channel owned by

Telekom Romania Telekom Romania Mobile Communications S.A. is a mobile network company in Romania, wholly owned by OTE, which in turn is controlled by Deutsche Telekom, operating under Telekom brand. Telekom Romania Mobile had 3.5 million subscribers with 15% m ...

). In March 2014, LPF announced that the rights were sold for a five-year period to a company from the European Union, without specifying the company's name. A month later,

Look TV Prima Sport is a Romanian network of sports channels owned and operated by the media group Clever. The package includes four channels called Prima Sport 1, Prima Sport 2, Prima Sport 3, Prima Sport 4, and Prima Sport 5. It was launched in 2011, ...

and Look Plus were revealed as the TV stations that would broadcast the games from Liga I and

Cupa Ligii The Cupa Ligii () was Romania's secondary club football tournament. Like the Cupa României, it was played on a knockout (single elimination) basis. History It is unclear when the competition was first created, as there are no official recordi ...

between 2014 and 2019.

EA Sports

On 27 August 2019, Liga I signed a contract with

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

for the rights of the league for

FIFA 20 ''FIFA 20'' is a football simulation video game published by Electronic Arts as part of the ''FIFA'' series. It is the 27th installment in the series and was released on 27 September 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nint ...

. It was the first time that the Liga I had been featured in a sports video game. Liga I has been featured in every FIFA installment since then.

Records

Players

Managers

Referees

International competitions

Performance in international competitions

From the quarter-finals onwards.

UEFA ranking

UEFA League Ranking for the period of 2018–2023: * 24. ''(28)''

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

* 25. ''(27)''

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system. Twelve ...

* 26. ''(25)'' Liga I * 27. ''(24)''

First Professional Football League The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

* 28. ''(30)''

Slovak Super Liga The Slovak First Football League (), officially known as Niké liga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Slovakia and the highest level of the Football in Slovakia, Slovak football league system. It was formed ...

References

External links

Liga Profesionistă de Fotbal official website

Results and statistics from 1932 onwards at labtof.ro
{{Liga I top scorers 1

1909 establishments in Romania Sports leagues established in 1909

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Professional sports leagues in Romania