History

Steaua was founded on 7 June 1947 at the initiative of several officers of the Romanian Royal House.

In 1949, CSCA won its first trophy, the Cupa României, defeating CSU Cluj 2–1 in the final. Under the name of CCA, the club managed to win three Championship titles in a row in 1951, 1952 and 1953, along with its first Championship–Cup double in 1951. During the 1950s, the so-called CCA Golden Team became nationally famous. In 1956, the Romania national team (composed exclusively of CCA players) played Yugoslavia in Belgrade and won 1–0. In the same year, CCA, coached by Ilie Savu, became the first Romanian team to participate in a tournament in England, where it achieved noteworthy results against the likes of Luton Town, Arsenal, Sheffield Wednesday and Wolverhampton Wanderers. ^[92]

At the end of 1961, CCA changed its name once again to CSA Steaua București (Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua – Army Sports Club Steaua). The club's new name translated to The Star and was adopted because of the presence of a red star, a symbol of most East European Army clubs, on its crest. A poor period of almost two decades followed in which the club claimed only three championships (1967–68, 1975–76, 1977–78). Instead, the team won nine national cup trophies, for which matter it gained the nickname of "cup specialists". ^[5] Also during this period, on 9 April 1974 Steaua's current ground, Stadionul Ghencea, was inaugurated with a friendly match against OFK Beograd. ^[6]

Under the leadership of coaches Emerich Jenei and Anghel Iordănescu, Steaua had an impressive Championship run in the 1984–85 season, which it won after a six-year break. Subsequently, Steaua became the first Romanian club to reach a European Cup final, which it ultimately won against Barcelona on penalties (2–0 thanks to goalkeeper Helmuth Duckadam saving all four penalties taken by the Spaniards), after a goalless draw. Steaua therefore became the first Eastern European team to claim the title of European champions. An additional European Super Cup was won in 1987 against Dynamo Kyiv. Steaua remained at the top of European football for the rest of the decade, managing one more European Cup semi-final in 1987–88 and one more European Cup final in 1989 (lost 4–0 to Milan ). Notably, this was in addition to its four additional national titles (1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89) and four national cups (1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89). Furthermore, from June 1986 to September 1989, Steaua ran a record 104-match undefeated streak in the championship, setting a world record for that time and a European one still standing. ^[10]

The Romanian Revolution led the country towards a free open market and, subsequently, several players of the 1980s team left for other clubs in the West. After a short pull-back, a quick recovery followed and Steaua managed a six consecutive championship streak between 1992–93 and 1997–98 to equalize the 1920s performance of Chinezul Timișoara ^[14] and also three more cups in 1995–96, 1996–97 and 1998–99. At international level, the club also managed to reach the UEFA Champions League group stage three years in a row between 1994–95 and 1996–97. In 1998, the football club separated from CSA Steaua and changed its name to the current FC Steaua București (Fotbal Club Steaua – Football Club Steaua), ^[16] being led by Romanian businessman Viorel Păunescu. Păunescu performed poorly as a president and soon the club was plunged into debt. ^[18] George Becali, another businessman, was offered the position of vice-president in the hope that Becali would invest money in the club. Becali eventually purchased the majority share in 2002 and turned the governing company public in January 2003. ^[21]

Because of his controversial character, he has been challenged by the majority of Steaua fans.

In 2013, Steaua won its 24th national title, also reaching the UEFA Champions League group stage for 2013–14. It repeated the same performance next year, in 2014, winning its 25th championship.

After the Ministry of National Defense sued FC Steaua București in 2011, ^[58] claiming that the Romanian Army were the rightful owners of the Steaua logo, colours, honours and name, the Executive Committee of the Romanian Football Federation approved an application to modify the name of the club from "SC Fotbal Club Steaua București SA" to "SC Fotbal Club FCSB SA" on 30 March 2017, ^[70] ^[90] following more judiciary sentences. CSA Steaua București had previously announced they would refound their football department in the summer of the same year. ^[90] However, owner Becali announced that his team would retain the original honours and UEFA coefficient, and was also hopeful of recovering the name in the near future. ^[31]

Crest and colours

ASA București was founded by the Royal Army on 7 June 1947, at which date the club had no official crest.

As communists assumed total control of the country on 30 December 1947, ^[90] the Royal Army was transformed into the People's Army and ASA automatically with it.

Two years later, the change of name to CCA brought with it a new crest consisting of the same red star labeled CCA surrounded by a crown of laurel.

Following the Romanian Revolution, the Army decided to break all links to the defunct communist regime, so, in 1991, CSA Steaua had a last change of crest with an eagle also present on the Ministry of Defence coat of arms and also on Romania's. As FC Steaua appeared in 1998, the club added two yellow stars on top of the CSA Steaua badge signifying its 20 titles of champions won, along with the Fotbal Club specification.

In 2003, the new Board of Administration run by George Becali decided to change the crest, which was a return to the old emblem of 1974–1991, redesigned with the two yellow stars on top.

Steaua has never had a standard playing kit.

The Ministry of National Defense sued Steaua in 2014, claiming that the Romanian Army were the rightful owners of the Steaua logo. The Supreme Court found in the army's favour, and on 3 December 2014 stripped the football club of its badge. Steaua were forced to play their next home game, against CSM Studențesc Iași, without it on the stadium scoreboard. The club unveiled a new badge in January 2015, an eight-sided star containing the letters FCSB, ^[90] and issued a statement to the effect that they had reached an agreement with the Ministry of National Defense that would allow them to retain the name Steaua București and the colours. ^[96]

Steaua's kit is currently manufactured by Nike, who have held the contract since 2002, after a long partnership with Adidas. ^[96] First team shirt sponsors have been City Insurance since 2013. ^[96] Previous sponsors include Ford, ^[96] Castrol, Philips, CBS, Bancorex (initially BRCE), Dialog (currently Orange), BCR, RAFO and CitiFinancial. ^[96]

Stadium

Steaua played the first three matches in its history at the defunct Venus stadium. Opened in 1931, the venue had previously been in the property of Venus București, a club disbanded in 1949. ^[96] After that ground's demolition through order of the Communist regime, Steaua played its home matches at any one of Bucharest's three largest multi-use stadia: ANEF, Republicii (built in 1926 and demolished in 1984 to make room for the erection of the Casa Poporului) and 23 August (built in 1953). Of these two, 23 August (later renamed Național) was mostly used when two matches between Bucharest clubs were scheduled in the same matchday or for important European matches, while Republicii for regular matches in the championship.

From 1974 to 2015, Steaua played its home matches at the Stadionul Ghencea, a football stadium situated in South-Western Bucharest. Part of Complexul Sportiv Steaua, it was inaugurated on 9 April 1974 when Steaua played a friendly match against OFK Beograd, ^[6] at which time it was the first football-only stadium ever built in Communist Romania, with no track & field facilities. The stadium was built through order of the Ministry of National Defence inside a former military base and was long used by CSA Steaua.

The original capacity was 30,000 on benches.

The Romania national team was also a tenant for numerous fixtures. ^[96]

From 2011, Steaua played European games and its most important domestic games at the newly constructed Arena Națională, and from March 2015, played exclusively at the Arena Națională. In the 2016–17 domestic league season FCSB drew an average home attendance of 5,067, the best in the Romanian league. Their highest home attendance was 35,000 in that league season. ^[28] ^[38]

Support

Steaua has the largest number of supporters of any team in Romania.

The Steaua Ultras movement began in 1995, when the bases of Armata Ultra (AU), the first Ultras group from Bucharest (and second in Romania after Politehnica Timișoara's Commando Viola Ultra Curva Sud), ^[83] were set. The group quickly reached an impressive number of members, but, in 2001, they dissolved due to internal problems. Currently Steaua's supporters are divided into several groups, some of them being located at the Peluza Nord (North End) (Titan Boys, Nucleo, Insurgenții 1998, Skins 1996, Combat, Armata 47 Vest), while some other ones taking their place at the Peluza Sud (South End) (Vacarm, Glas, E.R.A., Hunters, Outlaws, Shadows, Roosters, T.K., Tinerii Sudisti). Several important groups such as Stil Ostil, Ultras, Banda Ultra' and South Boys retired from attending Steaua's matches due to the club's constant abuses towards them and, mainly, to the current ownership of Steaua. ^[86]

More recently, as of 2006, the supporters have formed their own official association, called AISS (Asociația Independentă a Suporterilor Steliști – Steaua Supporters' Independent Association).

A heavy debated topic about the fans is the one related to racism. Stemmed from their rivalry with Rapid București, whose fans are often envisioned as Romani ethnics, ^[88] the issue degenerated on certain situations in several incidents between factions of supporters of Steaua and Rapid. ^[89] Also, the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League qualifying match against Shelbourne, resulted in a one-matchday pitch suspension for Steaua during the same European season, after racial chants were heard from the crowd. ^[91]

Lately, crowd turbulence has been one of the club's main problems.

In 2009, UEFA ordered Steaua to play two home games of the Europa League behind closed doors due to their fans displaying racist banners in a second qualifying round match against Hungarian side Újpest. Three further incidents occurred in the 2014–15 season, with the club fined and ordered to play further games in an empty stadium after displays of racist banners in matches against Dynamo Kyiv, Ludogorets Razgrad and Strømsgodset.

Steaua's Peluza Nord and Peluza Sud fan groups no longer support the current team, as a sign of protest.

A new fan group made up of a handful of individuals, Peluza Roș-Albastră, is trying its luck at filling the void left by the legendary Peluza Nord and Peluza Sud, with mixed results.

Steaua's most important rivalry is the one against Dinamo București. Marele Derby (The Great Derby) has been the leading Romanian football encounter in the last 60 years, as Steaua and Dinamo are the two most successful football teams in the country. There have been a total of 156 matches played so far between Steaua and Dinamo in the Romanian League, Romanian Cup and also Romanian Super Cup, with the following results: Steaua 55 wins, Dinamo 54 wins and 47 draws. ^[98] With 44 titles won altogether (Steaua–26; Dinamo–18), the two clubs have won 16 of the last 23 seasons. ^[14] It is also a match between the former clubs of the Romanian Army (Steaua) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Dinamo). Several clashes between different factions of supporters have often occurred and still occur inside and outside the stadium. The heyday was reached before a match kick-off in 1997, when Dinamo's fans set a sector of Stadionul Ghencea's Peluza Sud, where they were assigned, on fire. ^[4] On 16 August 2016, during Steaua's Champions League play-off 0–5 loss to Manchester City, undercover Dinamo fans displayed a huge message saying "Only Dinamo Bucharest", which was labelled one of the biggest pranks in football history. ^[19] Between October 1991 and April 2000, Steaua counted 19 undefeated official matches in front of their rivals, both in the championship and the cup. Just as well, a period of 17 years and 7 months has been recorded in which Dinamo did not manage to win away against Steaua in the domestic league. ^[9]

The second-most important rivalry is with Rapid București. Several matches in the last years between Steaua and Rapid have also ended in serious clashes between fans. ^[89] Rivalry has become even fiercer since Steaua outpassed Rapid in an all-Romanian quarter-final of the 2005–06 UEFA Cup. The local sports newspapers said that the two teams were linked up in this quarter-final by the line of the number 41 tram which links the Ghencea Stadium to the Valentin Stănescu Stadium.

Milder and historical rivalries are also with non-Bucharest-based teams, such as Universitatea Craiova, Politehnica Timișoara, Petrolul Ploiești, CFR Cluj, Universitatea Cluj and a recent one with Astra Giurgiu.

Ownership and finances

Steaua has always been known as the club of the Romanian Army, which founded it in 1947 as a sports society. The Army continues to own the society, called CSA Steaua București at the moment.

The football department, however, in order to comply with UEFA rules, separated and turned private in 1998, owned and financed by a non-profit organization called AFC Steaua București, chaired by businessman Viorel Păunescu. ^[16]

In January 2003, the club turned public under the leadership of investor and current politician George Becali, who had already purchased 51% of the society's shares and later on acquired the rest to become owner of the club. At present, Becali has no official link to the club, as he gradually renounced his shares. However, the facts that the current shareholders, that include several nephews of his, ^[17] are people loyal to him and that he is still in charge of Steaua are obvious. ^[20] An unofficial explanation for this situation is represented by the heavy amount of unpaid taxes added up by the former governing company, AFC Steaua București, whose payment towards the tax authority was avoided this way by transferring its assets to the new-formed company, with the old association going on liquidation bankruptcy. ^[23]

George Becali is a highly controversial figure at Steaua, whose involvement in the life of the club and the team has often been described as authoritarian and dictatorial by both the media and the fans.

Popular culture

As Steaua is currently the most popular football team in Romania, ^[80] a good number of musicians or TV and film directors have inspired themselves from ideas linked to the Ghencea-based club.

Several other examples from music can be attributed as Steaua-related.

One of the most famous pop-culture references about the club is the association with Scooter's song Maria, first sung spontaneously in 2003 by the fans in Peluza Nord after the team would score. Ever since, it has been adopted as an unofficial club anthem and is being played at the stadium at every match, sung together by the supporters. Nonetheless, the song is beginning to lose popularity, mainly because it has become too commercial and many fans do not feel bonded with it any more. ^[37]

Honours

Note: As of November 2017, UEFA regards FCSB as the continuation of historic FC Steaua and attributes all honours since 1947 to this entity. ^[93] However, the ownership of the many trophies won between 1947 and 2003 is disputed, with the restarted football department of former parent club CSA Steaua also claiming them ^[32] following legal disputes between the two organisations. ^[44] ^[31] ^[60]

Liga I / Divizia A Winners (26) – Record: 1951, 1952, 1953, 1956, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1967–68, 1975–76, 1977–78, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15 ^[74] ^[93] Runners-up (15): 1954, 1957–58, 1962–63, 1976–77, 1979–80, 1983–84, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1991–92, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2015–16, 2016–17

Cupa României Winners (22) – Record: 1948–49, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1961–62, 1965–66, 1966–67, 1968–69, 1969–70, 1970–71, 1975–76, 1978–79, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88, ^[40] 1988–89, 1991–92, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 2010–11, 2014–15 ^[74] ^[93] Runners-up (8): 1953, 1963–64, 1976–77, 1979–80, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1989–90, 2013–14
Cupa Ligii Winners (2) – Record: 2014–15, 2015–16 ^[74] ^[93]
Supercupa României Winners (6) – Record: 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2006, 2013 ^[74] ^[93] Runners-up (5): 1999, 2005, 2011, 2014, 2015

UEFA Champions League / European Cup Winners (1): 1985–86 ^[74] ^[93] Runners-up (1): 1988–89
UEFA Super Cup / European Super Cup Winners (1): 1986 ^[74] ^[93]

Intercontinental Cup Runners-up (1): 1986

Rankings

Players

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Club officials

Statistics and records

Steaua currently boasts itself with the most impressive pedigree in Romania.

For three years and three months (June 1986 – September 1989), Steaua counted a number of 104 unbeaten matches in the league, establishing, at that moment, a world record and a European one still standing.

Tudorel Stoica is the player with the most appearances for Steaua in Liga I, a record unlikely to be broken in the nearby future, as none of the current players have entered the top-ten so far. The club's all-time top scorer in the league is Anghel Iordănescu with 146 goals, a record that also looks solid, out of the same reason as above-mentioned. Other records are currently owned by former players such as Dorinel Munteanu (most national caps – 134) or Gheorghe Hagi (most goals scored for Romania – 35; most appearances of a Romanian player in the European cups – 93). ^[43]

As of 23 November 2017

Notable managers

The following managers have all won at least one major trophy with Steaua București: ^[56]

Notes: Caretaker coach.