Clubul Sportiv Sporting Liești, commonly known as Sporting Liești, is a

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 ...

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 ...

club based in

Liești Liești is the third-largest commune of Galați County, Western Moldavia, Romania on the confluence of the Siret River, Siret and Bârlad River, Bârlad rivers, very close to Tecuci (28 km) and Galați (52 km). It is composed of two vill ...

Galați County Galați () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Moldavia region, with the capital city at Galați, between latitude, 45°25'N and latitude, 46°10'N latitude, longitude, 27°20'E and longitude, 28°10'E longitude. It borders the counties of Vaslu ...

. The team currently competes in

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 ...

, the third tier of

Romanian football Football is the most popular sport in Romania.. The Romanian Football Federation ( or FRF), a member of UEFA, is the sport's national governing body. History The pre-war period The Bucharest architect Gheorghe Radu Stănculescu discovered i ...

History

Led by Doru Buciumeanu since the summer of 2011, Sporting won the Liga IV – Galați County in the 2011–12 season but lost the promotion play-off against

CSM Moinești Club Sportiv Municipal Moinești, commonly known as CSM Moinești, or simply as Moinești, is a Romanian amateur football club based in Moinești, Bacău County, founded in 1948 under the name of ''Petrolul Moinești''. The club was declared ban ...

, the winner of Liga IV – Bacău County, 0–5 on neutral ground at Municipal Stadium in

Huși Huși (, Yiddish//''Hush'', , German language, German: ''Hussburg'') is a municipiu, city in Vaslui County, Romania, former capital of the disbanded Fălciu County in the historical region of Western Moldavia, Romanian Orthodox Church, Romanian O ...

. However, promotion came at the end of the following season, after winning the county league for the second time in a row and defeating FC Gârceni, the Vaslui County winner, 5–3 at Letea Stadium in

Bacău Bacău ( ; , ; ; ) is the main city in Bacău County, Romania. With a population of 136,087 (as of 2021 census), Bacău is the 14th largest city in Romania. The city is situated in the historical region of Moldavia, at the foothills of the ...

. Sporting’s debut in

was tough. Buciumeanu was replaced by Valentin Kramer three rounds before the end of the regular season, with the team finishing 9th. Sporting then ended 10th in the relegation play-out of Series II in the 2013–14 campaign. Kramer stayed on for the 2014–15 season, leading the team to 10th place in Series I. Ionuț Niculcea took over in summer 2015 and guided Sporting to 6th place in Series I in 2015–16, followed by three consecutive 8th-place finishes in Series I from 2016–17, 2017–18, and 2018–19. During the 2018–19 season, Sporting also reached the Round of 32 in the

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

, losing 0–3 to

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 ...

. In 2019, Doru Balmuș was appointed head coach but was replaced by Niculcea in January 2020. The 2019–20 season was interrupted after 16 rounds on 9 March 2020 due to 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 ...

, with Sporting sitting in 10th place in Series I. In the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season, Niculcea led the team to 6th place in Series II. Initially appointed as interim following Niculcea’s departure, Cristian Brăneț was confirmed as permanent head coach for the 2021–22 season, guiding the team to 5th place in Series II at both the end of the regular season and after the play-out round. Following a poor start to the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

campaign, with only six points from the first seven matches, Brăneț was replaced by Cătălin Savu. Under Savu’s guidance, Sporting finished 6th in the regular season and 5th overall after the Series II play-out. In the 2023–24 season, the team improved further, finishing 3rd in the regular season and 4th in the series play-off. In the 2024–25 season, Lieștenii topped the regular season standings in Series II but finished 2nd in the play-off, behind Unirea Braniștea, achieving the club’s best-ever position in Liga III and qualifying for the promotion play-off. However, Sporting did not meet the Romanian Football Federation’s requirements regarding youth teams and was therefore unable to participate in the play-off match against FC Bacău.

Ground

The club plays its home matches on Comunal Stadium in

and has a capacity of 2,500 people on standing terrace.

Honours

Leagues

**Runners-up (1): 2024–25 * Liga IV – Galați County **Winners (2): 2011–12,

2012–13 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 ...

Cups

–

**Winners (1): 2012–13

Other performances

* 12 seasons in

Players

First-team squad

Out on loan

Club officials

Board of directors

Current technical staff

League history

Former managers

* Doru Buciumeanu (2011–2014) * Valentin Kramer (2014–2015) * Ionuț Niculcea (2015–2019) * Doru Balmuș (2019) * Ionuț Niculcea (2020–2021) * Cristian Brăneț (2021–2022) * Cătălin Savu (2022–)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sporting Liești Association football clubs established in 2000 Football clubs in Galați County Liga III clubs Liga IV clubs 2000 establishments in Romania