Liga I (women's football)

The Liga I is the top level women's football league in Romania. The champion team qualifies for UEFA Women's Champions League.

Liga I

Founded	1990 as Divizia A 2006 as Liga I 2013 as Superliga 2017 as Liga I
Country	Romania
Confederation	UEFA
Number of teams	14
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Liga II
Domestic cup(s)	Romanian Women's Cup
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League
Current champions	Olimpia Cluj (10th title) (2019–20)
Most championships	Olimpia Cluj (10 titles)
Website	frfotbal.ro
2020–21 Liga I

After the fall of communism, organised women's football started to take off, and the founded clubs were distributed into 2 leagues - Divizia A with 12 teams and Divizia B with 30 teams grouped into 3 series, following a tournament called Cupa Libertății.[1] In 2006, the league was rebranded as Liga I along with its male counterparts, since the name Divizia A was found to already be trademarked.[2]

The top league was renamed Superliga for 4 seasons between the 2013–14 season, when the league-system was restructured, and until the 2016-17 season. Between these seasons, the name Liga I was given to the second-tier league.

Format

The league started with 12 teams at its creation in 1990. It has suffered various format changes since. In some years, a play-off was held to decide the champion. For the 2011–2012 season, the league was split into East and West divisions. Teams played each other twice with the top two teams advancing to the championship round. In 2012–13 the teams were split into three divisions, after which the top two teams each advanced to the championship round. Points from the regular season were reset to zero for that round. Starting from 2013-14 and until 2015–16 eight teams played each other twice- and the top four teams played the championship play-off, while the bottom four played a relegation play-off. The last two places in the relegation play-off got relegated.[3] For 2016–17 the league was expanded to 10 teams, with no play-off. A play-off was reintroduced in the 2018–19 season, but since the 2019–20 season the league was expanded to 12 teams, dropping the play-off altogether.[4] Due to the 2019–20 edition being frozen halfway thanks to the 2019-20 Coronavirus pandemic, no teams were relegated and the league is being expanded to 14 teams temporarily for the 2020–21 season.[5]

Winners

The following is a list of all Romanian women's top football league winners.[6] The national champion is presented with the Romanian League trophy, and the top three teams currently receive gold, silver and bronze medals from the Romanian Football Federation.

Ed.	Season	Champions	Runner-up	Third place	No. Teams	System
1	1990–91 Divizia A	ICIM Brașov			12
2	1991–92 Divizia A	CFR Craiova
3	1992–93 Divizia A	ICIM Brașov
4	1993–94 Divizia A	Fartec Brașov
5	1994–95 Divizia A	Fartec Brașov
6	1995–96 Divizia A	Interindustrial Oradea
7	1996–97 Divizia A	Motorul Oradea
8	1997–98 Divizia A	Motorul Oradea
9	1998–99 Divizia A	Conpet Ploiești
10	1999–2000 Divizia A	Conpet Ploiești
11	2000–01 Divizia A	Regal București			7[7]
12	2001–02 Divizia A	Regal București	Șantierul Naval Constanța	Motorul Oradea	7	2 divisions (West/South) with 3/4 teams each- playing a double round robin. First two places in each division qualify to the final tournament (single-leg semifinals and finals).
13	2002–03 Divizia A	Clujana Cluj	Șantierul Naval Constanța	Smart Sport Bucharest	8	2 divisions (West/South) with 4 teams each- playing a sextuple round robin. First two places in each division qualify to the final tournament (single-leg semifinals and finals).
14	2003–04 Divizia A	Clujana Cluj	Crișul Aleșd	Pandurii Târgu Jiu
15	2004–05 Divizia A	Clujana Cluj	Pandurii Târgu Jiu	Motorul Oradea
16	2005–06 Divizia A	Clujana Cluj	Pandurii Târgu Jiu	CSȘ Târgoviște	8	2 divisions (West/South) with 4 teams each- playing a double round robin. First two places in each division qualify in the Championship play-off (4 teams playing a single round-robin).
17	2006–07 Liga I	Clujana Cluj	Pandurii Târgu Jiu	CSȘ Târgoviște	9	Double round-robin. First 4 teams qualify in the Championship play-off (single round-robin).
18	2007–08 Liga I	Clujana Cluj	CSȘ Târgoviște	Smart Sport Bucharest	8	Double round-robin.
19	2008–09 Liga I	Clujana Cluj	Ripensia Timișoara	CSȘ Târgoviște	12	Double round-robin.
20	2009–10 Liga I	FCM Târgu Mureş	Sporting Craiova	Clujana Cluj	12	Double round-robin.
21	2010–11 Liga I	Olimpia Cluj	FCM Târgu Mureş	Real Craiova	13	Double round-robin.
22	2011–12 Liga I	Olimpia Cluj	FCM Târgu Mureş	Real Craiova	20	2 divisions (East/West) with 10 teams each- playing a double round robin. First two places in each division qualify in the Championship play-off (4 teams playing a double round-robin).
23	2012–13 Liga I	Olimpia Cluj	FCM Târgu Mureş	CFR Timișoara	18	3 divisions (East/West/South) with 6 teams each- playing a double round robin. First two places in each division qualify in the Championship play-off (6 teams playing a double round-robin). Third place in each division qualifies in the Superliga qualification play-off (3 teams playing a double round-robin). Last two places in each division qualify in the play-out (2 Groups of 4 teams playing a double round-robin).
24	2013–14 Superliga	Olimpia Cluj	FCM Târgu Mureş	Real Craiova	8	Double round-robin. First 4 teams qualify for the Championship play-off (double round robin), while the last 4 teams play in the Relegation play-off (double round-robin).
25	2014–15 Superliga	Olimpia Cluj	ASA Târgu Mureş	Heniu Prundu Bârgăului	8	Double round-robin. First 4 teams qualify for the Championship play-off (double round robin), while the last 4 teams play in the Relegation play-off (double round-robin).
26	2015–16 Superliga	Olimpia Cluj	ASA Târgu Mureş	Năvobi Iași	8	Double round-robin. First 4 teams qualify for the Championship play-off (double round robin), while the last 4 teams play in the Relegation play-off (double round-robin).
27	2016–17 Superliga	Olimpia Cluj	Năvobi Iași	CFR Timișoara	10	Double round-robin.
28	2017–18 Liga I	Olimpia Cluj	Vasas Femina Odorhei	CFR Timișoara	10	Double round-robin.
29	2018–19 Liga I	U Olimpia Cluj	Fortuna Becicherecu Mic	Heniu Prundu Bârgăului	10	Double round-robin. First 3 teams qualify for the Championship play-off (double round robin), next 3 teams qualify for a mid-table tournament (double round-robin), while the remaining teams play in the play-out (double round-robin).
30	2019–20 Liga I	U Olimpia Cluj	Universitatea Galați	Fortuna Becicherecu Mic	12	Double round-robin planned, but only single round-robin completed due to the 2019-20 Coronavirus pandemic.
31	2020–21 Liga I				14	Double round-robin.

Record Champions

Titles	Team
10	U Olimpia Cluj
7	Clujana Cluj
4	Fartec Brașov (includes ICIM; change of patron company)
3	Motorul Oradea (includes Interindustrial; change of patron company)
2	Conpet Ploiești Regal București
1	CFR Craiova FCM Târgu Mureș

References

1. Celălalt fotbal (PDF)
2. Cotidianul, Divizia A a fost mitraliată (The "A Division" was gunned down), accessed on 3 February 2007 Archived 12 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
3. "New system for women's football" (in Romanian). ziare.com. 9 August 2013. Retrieved 9 February 2014.
4. frf.ro, Începe noul sezon al Ligii 1 feminin! (The new season of the women's Liga I starts!), accessed on 22 August 2019 Archived 22 August 2019 at Archive.today
5. "Liga 3 nu se reia: fără retrogradări, serii de 18 formații în sezonul viitor! Decizii similare pentru futsal și fotbal feminin" [The third league will not resume: no relegations, series of 18 teams in the next season! Similar decisions for futsal and women's football]. frf.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 21 May 2020. Archived 21 May 2020 at Archive.today
6. "Romania - List of Women Champions". RSSSF. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
7. RSSSF

External links

• Official Site
• League at women.soccerway.com