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 are organized at a national level and consist of fully professional teams. Lower divisions are organized at

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

levels, with each county's football association controlling its respective leagues.

Reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

s play in the same league system as their parent clubs.

National leagues

The first three tiers are organized by nationwide federations: the first tier is overseen by the Romanian Professional Football League, while the second and third are run by the

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 ...

. A total of 114 teams play in the national leagues. Each of these clubs is fully professional and, in addition to playing in its respective league, has the right to compete in the

Romanian Cup Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

. They are also affiliated members of the

, and each has voting rights in the Federation's councils and elections, including in the election of the Federation president.

Liga I

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 ...

is the highest level in the Romanian football league system and is operated by the Romanian Professional Football League. 16 professional teams compete for the title of Romanian Football Champion in a round-robin home and away, with 30 season matches in the regular season. After the conclusion of the regular season, the top 6 teams compete in a playoff for the League Champion title and the remaining

European football UEFA competitions (), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur association football and futsal. T ...

spots, while the last 10 teams contest a play-out to avoid the relegation spots. The bottom two sides are relegated directly, while the 13th and 14th places teams plays a two-legged playoff against the 3rd and 4th placed teams 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 ...

. The playoff is a round-robin home and away tournament while the teams in the playout only play each other once and drawing of lots will decide home/away games. After the regular seasons, team points are halved and rounded down. Half-points are taken into account and act as the first tiebreaker at the end of the playoff. For example, if two teams finish the regular season with 57 and 56 points respectively, they will both start in the playoff with 28 points. If the two teams finish the playoffs with an equal number of points, the first team will always be ranked above the second, regardless of any other tiebreakers such as goals scored or direct results between the teams in question.

Liga II

The

is the second highest level in the Romanian football league system and is operated by the

. 20 teams compete in a round-robin home and away tournament. Just as

, top six teams compete for the promotion and the first two teams get promoted directly while the 3rd and 4th places play a two-legged playoff against the 13th and 14th placed teams from

. The rest of 14 teams are then divided into two groups and continue playing to avoid relegation. Bottom four teams are relegated directly while the 5th place in each of the two groups plays regional two-legged playoffs in order to keep their spot in the 2nd tier of Romanian football.

Liga III

The

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 ...

is the third highest level in the Romanian football league system and is operated by the

. 100 teams are divided in 10 regional groups of ten teams each, and compete in a round-robin home and away tournament consisting of 18 matches. After the regular season ends, the top four teams from each group will play for the top two spots that are going to take them in the regional playoffs for the promotion. The other six teams are battling to avoid relegation and the bottom two teams are directly relegated to the 4th league.

County leagues

In contrast to the clubs from the national leagues, county league clubs are not directly affiliated to the Romanian Football Federation, but to the county's football association. While all national league clubs have the right of an individual vote, county football associations have a single vote. Each of the 41

counties of Romania A total of 41 counties (), along with the municipality of Bucharest, constitute the official administrative divisions of Romania. They represent the country's NUTS-3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics – Level 3) statistical su ...

and

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 ...

organize their own league system. The highest divisions in these system form the 42 series of

Liga IV Liga IV is the fourth level of the Romanian football league system and is run in all 41 counties and in the Municipality of Bucharest. It was known as the Regional Championship, County Championship, Divizia C – County Phase and Divizia D. Its ...

Liga V Liga V is the fifth level of the Romanian football league system. Current format Liga V has 42 divisions. The divisions are regionalised and are organised by every county association. Each team plays in their own county. The county associatio ...

is formed by each county's second tier. Eight counties organize a third tier. Each of these third level leagues represent one of the following counties: Arad,

Brăila Brăila (, also , ) is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County. The Sud-Est (development region), ''Sud-Est'' Regional Development Agency is located in Brăila. According to the 2021 Romanian ...

, Dâmbovița, Ialomița, Mureș, Prahova and Teleorman,

Harghita Harghita County (, and , ) is a county () in the center of Romania, in eastern Transylvania, with the county seat at Miercurea Ciuc. Demographics 2002 census In 2002, Harghita County had a population of 326,222 and a population density of ...

, and they collectively form the Liga VI. Similarly to the top three leagues in the country, county league clubs finishing the season at or near the top of their division may be eligible for promotion to a higher division. The 42 county champions (the winners of each county's

) have a chance of advancing to the third tier. These 42 teams are drawn to play among themselves in 21 two-legged playoffs, with the winner of each playoff getting promoted to Liga III. Each county sends a team to compete in the Romanian Cup. To designate this club, counties organize their own knockout tournaments.

Current system

Women's pyramid

A second-level league was first established in 2013. Before that there weren't enough women's football clubs for that and all played in the country's only league. Now, a three way league is under review and possible changes may be observed in the near future.

References

{{League systems Football league systems in Europe