FC Politehnica Timișoara

For the new entity formed on the basis of the originalclub, see ACS Poli Timișoara. For the club founded byits supporters, see SS Politehnica Timișoara.

Fotbal Club Politehnica Timișoara, commonly re-ferred to as Poli Timișoara, was a Romanian footballclub established in 1921[1] and dissolved in September2012. The team had won two Romanian Cups and wastwice a runner-up in Liga I. It is ranked 8th in the Liga IAll-Time Table, with 49 seasons played.Named after and initially run by the Polytechnic Univer-sity of Timișoara, the club was founded in 1921 by TraianLalescu. After two decades spent in the regional leagues,Poli promoted in the first division in 1948. They havesince spent 49 seasons at the top level, finishing as runner-up twice and featuring in six Romanian Cup finals. Inthe 2010–11 season, they finished in the second spot, butwere relegated because of unpaid debts and incapacity toobtain a license for the next season.Over the years, Poli developed rivalries with Dinamo Bu-curești and UTA Arad. Timișoara and Arad are locatedclose to each other and are the main cities in the region.Both Timișoara and Arad claim to be the first place wherefootball was played in Romania. Poli has a friendly fan-relationship with the supporters of Rapid București andBorussia Mönchengladbach.[2]

1 History

1.1 Early years (1921–1997)

The club was founded in 1921 by Polytechnic Univer-sity of Timișoara under the name Societatea SportivaPolitehnica.[1] Until the second World War, Poli wasoutclassed by two other teams from the city, Ripensiaand Chinezul, both multiple winners of the Romanianchampionship.[3]

The club promoted for the first time in the Divizia A in1948,[4] and played under the name CSU Timișoara inthe first season.[5]

In the following seasons (from 1950[6]), the club appearwith the name Știința Timișoara. The club relegates forthe first time in 1951,[7] but promotes after only oneyear[8] and played in the top league until the season 1958–59.[9] The team promoted back after only one year.[10]The following relegation came in 1963–64 season,[11]

again for only a year.[12]

During the Știința years, Timișoara won its first trophy,the 1957–58 Romanian Cup, with a 1–0 victory againstProgresul București.[13]

From the 1966–67 season, the team started using thename Politehnica Timișoara,[14] but the team goes to thesecond division in the same season.[14] Politehnica doesn'tcame back to the first division until 1973.[15]

Politehnica played for the first time in Europe in 1978–79UEFA Cup, after finishing third in the 1977–78 season.The team defeated MTK Budapest (2–0 and 1–2), butlost in the second round against Honved Budapest (2–0and 0–4).[16]

The second trophy won by Politehnica Timișoara wasthe 1979–80 Romanian Cup. The final was disputedagainst Steaua București and the final score was 2–1, af-ter extra time.[13] Politehnica played in the UEFA CupWinners’ Cup, defeating Celtic Glasgow (1–0 and 1–2)and being defeated by West Ham United (1–0 and 0–4)in the quarterfinals.[17] They played again in the UEFACup Winners’ Cup in 1981–82 season because the teamlost the 1980–81 Romanian Cup to that year champions,Universitatea Craiova (0–6). Politehnica skipped the firstround, and lost to Leipzig with 2–0 and 0–5.[17]

Politehnica Timișoara played in the Divizia A for tenyears, until 1983.[18] The next period was spent betweenthe Divizia A and the Divizia B, with promotions in1984,[19] 1987,[20] 1989[21] and relegations in 1986 [22]

and 1988.[23]

After the 1989 Revolution, Politehnica played in the1990–91 UEFA Cup, beating Atlético Madrid (2–0 and0–1), but lost in the second round to Sporting Lisbon (2–0and 0–7).[24] In 1992–93 UEFA Cup, Politehnica scoreda draw against Real Madrid (1–1 in Timișoara), but wasdefeated in the next match (0–4).[24]

The team was relegated to the Divizia B in 1994[25]and promoted back in 1995.[26] After the 1996–97relegation,[27] the team didn't came back in the first divi-sion on competitions ground. Instead, it relegated again,this time to the Liga III, at the end of the 2001–02 season.

1.2 The comeback and the record dispute(2002–2011)

In 2002, AEKBucharest were promoted to Liga I, Roma-nian football’s top division, for the first time,[28] where-

1

2 5 PLAYERS

upon Anton Doboș, the team’s owner, moved it to Tim-ișoara. It was renamed Politehnica AEK Timișoara, andreceived the full support of local authorities and Po-litehnica fans. The team was on the verge of relegationafter only one year.[29] Poli was able to maintain the LigaI spot after winning a play-off against Gloria Buzău.[30]

From 2004–05 season, the team changed the name againin FCU Politehnica Timișoara.[31] From 2008, follow-ing a Court of Arbitration for Sport decision, the teamchanged the name in FC Timișoara. The colors and therecords before 2002were lost in favor of Politehnica Tim-ișoara former owner, Claudio Zambon.[32]

At the end of 2007–08 Liga I, FC Timișoara qualified forUEFA Cup.[33] It was the first time in sixteen years thata team from Timișoara had achieved European qualifica-tion. The team was eliminated by Partizan Belgrade inthe first round by an aggregate score of 1–3.[34]

In 2008–09, Timișoara finished the season in 2nd place,qualifying the 3rd preliminary round of the 2009–10UEFA Champions League.[35] The team defeated thereigning UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk, butthey were eliminated from the competition during thePlayoff Round by an aggregate score of 0–2 by Ger-man club VfB Stuttgart. In the 2009–10 UEFA EuropaLeague Group A, FC Timișoara finished on the last place,after Anderlecht, Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb.[34]

After the 2009–10 Liga I, fifth placed team FC Tim-ișoara were drawn in the third qualifying round of the Eu-ropa League against MyPa from Finland, which they sur-passed 5–4 on aggregate, after a spectacular comebackfrom three goals down in the second leg. However, in theplay-off round they were drawn against Manchester Cityand were defeated twice in a row, 0–1 and 0–2.[34]

In November 2010, the Romanian Court of Appeal re-turned Politehnica’s name, colors and records to FCTimișoara.[36] Due to rules that forbid changes of teamnames during a season, the team used the name FC Tim-ișoara until the end of 2010–11 season.

1.3 Relegated to Liga II by RFF and disso-lution (2011–2012)

Despite finishing second in the 2010–11 Liga I, the teamwas relegated to Liga II after the club failed to meet therequirements for obtaining the necessary licence to playin the first division.[37] They played in the 2011–12 LigaII under the name of Politehnica Timișoara, and gainedpromotion back to the Liga I but were again denied thelicence and were dissolved in September 2012. ACS Re-caș was moved to Timișoara and was renamed ACS PoliTimișoara but the fans decided to support the amateurteam SS Politehnica Timișoara, considering ACS PoliTimișoara is a fraud and a political maneuver.

2 Supporters and rivalries

The roots of the Poli ultras movement can be found in1995 when groups like Urban Guerilla or Gruppo Au-tonomo Viola appear in the South End. Poli’s most im-portant rivalry is with UTA Arad. The match betweenthem, Derby-ul Vestului (The West Derby), has been theleading Romanian football encounter in the last 65 years,as Poli and UTA are the two most successful footballteams from the west of the country.Other rivalries are shared with Dinamo București, CFRCluj and Steaua București, and a minor one withUniversitatea Craiova.Over the years, Politehnica Timișoara fans have es-tablished close friendships with the supporters fromRapid București and the Nordkurve from BorussiaMönchengladbach.

3 Achievements

Liga I

• Runners-up (2): 2008–09, 2010–11

Liga II

• Winners (10): 1947–48, 1952, 1959–60, 1964–65,1972–73, 1983–84, 1986–87, 1988–89, 1994–95,2011–12

• Runners-up (2): 1943–44, 1970–71

Romanian Cup

• Winners (2): 1957–58, 1979–80

• Runners-up (6): 1973–74, 1980–81, 1982–83,1991–92, 2006–07, 2008–09

4 European record

Main article: FC Politehnica Timișoara in Europeanfootball

5 Players

5.1 Most capped players

5.2 Notable former players

See also: Category:FC Politehnica Timișoara players.

3

6 See also• FC Politehnica II Timișoara

7 References[1] “History”. fcupoli.com.

[2] “Fan friendship”. Tempo Poli.

[3] “Romania – List of Champions”. Rec.Sport.SoccerStatistics Foundation.

[4] “Season 1947–48”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[5] “Season 1948–49”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[6] “Season 1950”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[7] “Season 1951”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[8] “Season 1952”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[9] “Season 1958–59”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[10] “Season 1959–60”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[11] “Season 1963–64”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[12] “Season 1964–65”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[13] “History of Poli”. Tempo Poli.

[14] “Season 1966–67”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[15] “Season 1972–73”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[16] “1970–1980”. StatisticiFotbal.ro.

[17] “1980–1990”. StatisticiFotbal.ro.

[18] “Season 1982–83”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[19] “Season 1983–84”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[20] “Season 1986–87”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[21] “Season 1988–89”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[22] “Season 1985–86”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[23] “Season 1987–88”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[24] “1990–2000”. StatisticiFotbal.ro.

[25] “Season 1993–94”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[26] “Season 1995-95”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[27] “Season 1996–97”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[28] “Season 2001–02”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[29] “Season 2002–03”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[30] “Poli remianing in Divizia A”. Agenda.

[31] “Season 2004–05”. RomanianSoccer.ro.

[32] “Arbitration CAS 2006/A/1109” (PDF). Court of Arbi-tration for Sport.

[33] “Poli qualified to UEFA Cup after 16 years”. RealitateaTV.

[34] “2000–2010”. StatisticiFotbal.ro.

[35] “Poli qualified in UEFA Champions League”. Timpul.

[36] “comunicare” (PDF). Opinia Timişoarei.

[37] “13 cluburi din Liga I au primit licenţa pentru sezonul2011–2012”. FRF. 31 May 2011.

4 8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

8 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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