Romanian football hits new low: No team in the European competitions’ group stage for the first time in ten years

The last two Romanian football teams still fighting for a place in the Europa League group stage were eliminated on Thursday, following the second leg of the play-offs. Steaua Bucharest, the most successful Romanian team ever, won its away match with Norway’s Rosenborg 1-0, but failed to qualify after losing 0-3 in the home match last week. Astra Giurgiu was also eliminated after losing 0-2 away to AZ Alkmaar. Astra had managed to get a draw (0-0) in the first leg. The last time Romania didn’t have any team in the group stage of the main European football competitions was in the 2003/2004 season. Steaua Bucharest has reached the groups in each of the past 11 years, playing seven times in the Europa League/UEFA Cup group stage, and four times in the Champions’ League group stage. Starting with the 2008/2009 season, Romania has had at least two representatives in the group stage, reaching the best results in 2009/2010 season, when it had one team in the Champions League and four in the Europa League groups. Steaua and Astra were the last two Romanian teams to qualify to the Europa League group stage last year. The fact that no Romanian team qualified this year comes to show the poor state of the local championship, where most clubs have financial issues. Several clubs are in insolvency while others have their main financiers in jail. Steaua’s owner Gigi Becali was released on parole, in April this year, this year after serving almost two years in jail for an illegal land plot switch with Romania’s Ministry of Defense, in the early 90s, which helped him become one of the richest landowners in Romania. Astra’s owner Ioan Niculae, one of Romania’s richest, was convicted earlier this year to 2.5 years in jail for illegally financing a political party. While the Romanian clubs have poor results in European competitions, Romania’s national football team has had good results in its qualifying campaign for the 2016 European Championship. Romania currently ranks 7th in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, its best rank in years. Steaua Bucharest win their third consecutive title in Romania’s top football league Romania moves up to number eight in the FIFA World Ranking editor@romania-insider.com