FCU Craiova

FCU 1948 Craiova Fotbal Club, commonly known as FC U Craiova 1948 or simply FC U Craiova, is a Romanian professional football club based in Craiova, Dolj County, that competes in the Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian league system.

FC U Craiova is—along with CS Universitatea Craiova—one of the two entities asserting the history of the original Universitatea Craiova football team, which between 1948 and 1991 won four national titles and five national cups. During the latter year, the sports club dissolved its football department and ''FC Universitatea Craiova'' took its berth in the top flight. Generally considered the same entity with the old club, FC U continued its tradition for the next two decades, but was reorganised several times and retroactively deemed an unofficial successor. In 2012, it retired from every competition following their temporary banishment since 2011.

After starting over from the lower leagues, FC U Craiova returned to the Liga I in the 2021–22 season. To the same degree with CS U, FC U claims all the trophies and records of the original club, but according to court orders, its only major honour would be the 1992–93 Cupa României. The two sides currently share the Ion Oblemenco Stadium.

History

1991–2011: Ups and downs

In 1991, Universitatea Craiova conquered its last national title and Romanian Cup, under the management of Sorin Cârțu. However, in the same year, the CS Universitatea Craiova sports club dissolved its football section and Fotbal Club Universitatea Craiova continued its tradition until the early 2010s (until 1994, the club was still controlled by the Ministry of National Education).
After disappointing results in the 1991–92 European Cup and 1992–93 UEFA Cup campaigns Universitatea Craiova saw domestic glory by winning the 1992–93 Cupa României and finishing on the podium the same year. After that they will go on the 1993–94 European Cup Winners' Cup campaign where they will be eliminated by French side Paris Saint-Germain.
The next seasons Craiova will finish second in the league in 1993–94 and 1994–95 respectively and will lose two cup finals in 1993–94 and 1997–98, also participating in 1994–95 UEFA Cup and 1995–96 Intertoto Cup.

Universitatea Craiova started the 2000s playing a Cup final in 2000 and with participations in the 2000–01 UEFA Cup and 2001 Intertoto Cup.
The next 5 seasons saw Craiova finishing between 4th and 8th places but relegating in 2005. The team will go back up after one season in Divizia B. The next three seasons saw Craiova between the 9th and 7th places. During these years in the 2008–09 Liga 1 with Nicolò Napoli as manager and players like Costea brothers (Florin Costea and Mihai Costea), Andrei Prepeliță or Julius Wobay, Craiova had a decent run winning against rivals Dinamo and defending champions CFR Cluj and almost qualifying for the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League.
The next year Craiova relegated again and legal problems started to appear.

2011–2013: Decline and legal problems

On 20 July 2011, the club was temporarily excluded by the Romanian Football Federation for failing to withdraw their dispute with former coach Victor Piţurcă from a civil court, as per article 57 of the FRF statute which states that the Football Federation solves all the sports lawsuits. However, the article allows disputes regarding employment contracts to be adjudicated in civil court. The exclusion decision was approved by the FRF General Assembly on 14 May 2012. All of the squad players were declared free agents and signed with other clubs.

A criminal investigation was started by the National Anticorruption Directorate on 22 October 2011, against the heads of the Romanian Professional Football League and of the Football Federation, as well as against the executive committee members of the FRF, on charges of official misconduct in the case of the exclusion. On 14 May 2012, the executive committee validated the temporary exclusion decision taken on 20 July 2011.

In April 2014 the High Court of Cassation and Justice confirmed that the Romanian Football Federation "acted in accordance with regulations and statutes in force when members voted to exclude the club". The criminal case against the president of the FRF was also dismissed in 2017.
On 22 June 2012, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled that the exclusion of FC U Craiova from FRF was illegal. On 15 November 2012, the Court ruled that the validation decision was also illegal. Although the club was invited to sign up in the Liga II for the 2012–13 season, the owner of the club refused this invitation.

On 2 March 2013, the club announced that it filed a request to rejoin the competitions, starting from the 2013–14 season, in Liga II. However, at the same time, the local authorities from the city of Craiova created another football team, called CS Universitatea Craiova, claiming the right to continue the team that was removed from Liga I in 2011. A new legal battle soon started between the two. Eventually CS Universitatea was acknowledged as owner of the "Universitatea Craiova" brand and was allowed to list the record of Universitatea Craiova between 1948 and 1991, but not with the record for the next 20 years, that Universitatea is now allowed to claim.

In the meantime, in the summer of 2013, both Universitatea and CS Universitatea officially rejoined the Liga II competition, Series II. The first match of this team was the victory against SCM Argeşul Piteşti in the fourth round of the Romanian Cup, qualifying to the fifth round of the competition. Universitatea and CS Universitatea competed in the same league and met in two games that year, both ended 0–0. With a more stable and sustainable financing, CS Universitatea promoted to Liga I that year, while Universitatea withdrew from the competition. The company operating the team went bankrupt, so Universitatea no longer appeared in any competition.

2017–present: Rebirth

In 2017, Adrian Mititelu created a new company and his team was allowed to participate in the top regional tier of Dolj County. The team consisted of a lot of young prospects and experienced players that played for the team in the past like Ovidiu Dănănae and Mihai Dina and Nicolò Napoli in his fifth spell as a manager. The team managed to win the county championship without a single defeat and the Dolj County phase of the Romanian Cup achieving the double at the county level. By winning the championship FC U Craiova qualified for the Liga IV 2017–2018 promotion play-offs to Liga III which they won by forfeit because the team they were drawn against could not play the match.

In the 2018–2019 season, U Craiova 1948 now in Liga III, former player Mădălin Ciucă returned as team captain until his retiring after the season.
Unfortunately the team failed to gain promotion to Liga II after finishing on second place. FC U Craiova tried again to promote to Liga II during the 2019–20 season of Liga III after they were drawn in a series IV consisting of teams from south-west region of Romania and Eugen Trică being appointed as manager. The team were leading the table by 13 point from the second place with 13 wins, 3 draws and 0 defeats but the season was interrupted on 9 March 2020, after 16 rounds, due to COVID-19 pandemic. On 11 May 2020, the Romanian Football Federation announced that the season was discontinued and the best-ranked teams from each series (after 16 rounds) were promoted to Liga II.

For the 2020–21 U Craiova 1948 brought a lot of reinforcement like Jérémy Huyghebaert