GNK Dinamo 2012/2013

Little About Steaua

Fotbal Club Steaua București (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈste̯awa bukuˈreʃtʲ]) is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest. They are the most successful Romanian football team in European competitions as well in the Romanian Liga I (24 championship wins). They became the first East European team to win the European Cup, being victorious in the 1986 European Cup final. Steaua played again in the final of the 1988/1989 European Cup.
The club is historically known as the Romanian Army sports club. The football department separated, however, in 1998. At the moment, its only direct link to the Army is their home ground, Stadionul Ghencea, property of the Ministry of National Defence.

Steaua has spent all its history in the country's top-flight league, and has finished below the sixth spot for only five times. They have finished first in last season. Initially, the club played in the colors of the Romanian tricolor - blue, yellow and red - but yellow soon lost its importance, and the team became associated with the red and blue colors. Recently, away kits have begun to reintegrate the yellow color.
The club has a long-standing rivalry with Dinamo București, matches between the two being commonly referred to as "The Eternal Derby" or "The Romanian Derby".



Historical controversies

Several controversies exist regarding Steaua's past and its ownership by the Romanian Army before the 1989 Romanian Revolution, such as the club's establishment, its activity exclusively inside the Liga I, means of transferring players and involvement of the Ceaușescu family in the life of the team during the 1980s.
The club was founded as ASA București, by the Romanian Royal Army, on 7 June 1947. Debates regarding this issue relate to Romania's form of government, confronting the arguments that, on one hand, the government was mostly communist and on the other hand that the country was still a constitutional monarchy, with the king serving as the High Commander of the Romanian Army. Nevertheless, at the beginning of their first season, even though supposing to attend a play-off for 2nd league promotion, Carmen București was disbanded out of political reasons, its place in the first league being occupied therefore by ASA. Subsequently, the team never relegated and is currently one of the 2 teams to have only played inside the first league, along with Dinamo București.

The means players would transfer to the club link to the organization of sporting activities inside former Communist countries. As of 1947, the new Communist government instituted norms stating that every sports association was to be linked to a certain form of trade union or governmental institution. As professional football was therefore abolished, players would move between teams as arrangements between the clubs' governing institutions, and not as regular market economy transactions. Being the club of the Army, several young gifted players would often be tempted by Steaua to join their ranks, having the advantages of better conditions ensured by the club, the opportunity of a more productive career, and also, among other, of being exempted from the compulsory military stage.Gheorghe Hagi was borrowed this way from FC Sportul Studențesc for the 1987 European Super Cup match with SK Dinamo Kiev and afterwards continued, at his will, to play for Steaua, despite his former club's opposition. However, another famous example is also the one of Gheorghe Popescu, transferred in 1988 from FC Universitatea Craiova, apparently without the club's or player's consent and who returned to his former club after one season.

Gheorghe Popescu


Following the 1989 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.
2003 was the year of the last change of crest, decided by the new Board of Administration run by George Becali, which was a return to the old emblem of 1974–1991, redesigned with the two yellow stars on top.



During their first season, 1947–48, Steaua wore yellow and red striped shirts with blue shorts, to symbolize Romania's tricolour flag.
Starting with the following season and with the Army's change of identity from the Royal Army to the People's Army, the yellow was gradually given up, so that the official colours remained, up to this day, the red and the blue.
Steaua has never had a standard playing kit. However, the most widely used throughout time was the combination of red shirts, blue shorts and red socks. Other variants have been all-red, all-blue and also shirts in vertical red and blue stripes during the 1960s and 1970s. Other kit colours have very rarely been used. Exceptions were the 1986 European Cup Final in which Steaua wore, for the only time in their history, an all-white kit, the 1999–00 away kit (yellow and red), the 2005–06 third kit (yellow and black)and the 2008–09 away kit (all yellow).
The 2008–09 home kit, different from the previous seasons, consists in vertical-striped red and blue shirts with blue shorts and socks, while the away strip is all-yellow. Various combinations of these kits also occur.
Steaua's kit is currently manufactured by Nike, which was contracted in 2002, after a long partnership with Adidas. In 1988, Steaua was the first football team from Romania to display the name of a Western company, Ford. Several other sponsors succeeded thereafter: Castrol, Philips, CBS, Bancorex (initially BRCE), Dialog (currently Orange), BCR and RAFO. As of September 2007, the club's new shirt sponsor is CitiFinancial, with a one-year contract valuing EUR 1.3 million.

Club world ranking



UEFA club ranking



Stadium[edit source | editbeta]

Main article: Arena Națională

STADIUM

Steaua played its three first matches in 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. After the ground's demolition through order of the Communist regime, Steaua had played its home matches on either three of Bucharest's largest multi-use stadia, ANEF, Republicii (built in 1926 and put down in 1984 to make room for the erection of the Casa Poporului) and 23 August (built in 1953). Of these two, 23 August (current 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 inside the championship.
Steaua plays 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, at which time it was the first football-only stadium ever built in Communist Romania, with no track and field facilities.
The original capacity was 30,000 on benches. A general renovation occurred in 1991. This included installing seats, which dropped the capacity to 28,139, inaugurating a floodlighting system and erecting a VIP personal box section.
After a second renovation, in 2006, which included refurbishing the turf, Ghencea was able to host UEFA Champions League events, being a third category arena according to the UEFA classification system.Lately, there have been talks for increasing the capacity to either 45,000 or 60,000.
Romania was also a tenant. The first game played by the national team at Ghencea was in March 1977 against Turkey. 59 other games have been played ever since, the last one occurring in October 2006 against Belarus.Also, several matches from the 1998 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, including the final, have been hosted by the arena.
The stadium, built through order of the Ministry of National Defence inside a former military base and was long used by CSA Steaua.
From 2011, Steaua have played the European games and its most important internal games on the newly constructed Arena Națională.

An elevated view of a full Arena Națională



Support

Steaua fans

Peluza Nord in 2005
As Steaua is, judging by performances, the most successful Romanian football team, they enjoy the biggest support among Romanian football fans. A survey conducted in June 2007 suggested that the Ghencea-based team accounts for approximately 42% of all Romanian football lovers, as opposed to the following two ranked teams, Dinamo, with 12%, and Rapid, with 9%.

Steaua choreography 24