FC Timişoara

FC Timişoara
Full name CS Fotbal Club Timişoara
Nickname(s) Bănăţenii
Alb-Violeţii
Timişorenii
Viola
Founded 2002
Ground Dan Păltinişanu
Timişoara
(Capacity: 32,019)
Owner Romania Marian Iancu
President Romania Gheorghe Chivorchian
Manager Serbia Vladimir Petrović
League Liga I
2009-10 Liga I, 5th
Website Club home page
Home colours
Away colours
Third colours
Current season
Timisoara Stadium

Fotbal Club Timişoara is a Romanian football club which was established in 2002 and is currently playing in Romania's top league, Liga I. Before 2002 the team played in the third and the second league under the name of AEK Bucureşti. The club was rebranded when the owner Anton Doboş moved[1] the team to Timişoara after obtaining promotion to Liga I, finishing 1st in the 2001-02 season of Liga II, Seria 1.

However, there was an issue regarding the club's rights to the records of the team that played at Timişoara in the top Romanian league for 35 seasons in the 20th century, FC Politehnica Timişoara. There is an ongoing trial at this moment to resolve the entire problem.[2]

The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed that FC Politehnica Timişoara, which is owned by the Italian entrepreneur Claudio Zambon and plays now in Bucharest Municipal Championship, is the rightful holder of the club records. FC Timisoara was ordered to pay the amount of € 5,000 as compensation to FC Politehnica Timişoara for each official match played from 5 December 2006 under name, colours and logo that created a risk of confusion between the two clubs and consequently violated the personality rights of FC Politehnica Timişoara.[3]

Despite all this controversy, most local fans adopted the ersatz Poli, regarding them as a continuation of the old Poli. FC Timişoara became one of the six most popular[4] football clubs in the country. Since joining the first league in the 2002/2003 season and until 2009[5], it had always the highest average attendance at home matches[6][7].

The club also has a 2nd team, FC Timişoara II, which currently plays in the Romanian Liga III. It aims to train and promote talented youth for the first team.

Contents

History

Fulgerul Bragadiru finished 8th in the 1998–1999 Divizia C season[8]. It promoted from Divizia C to Divizia B in the year 2000 and finished 5th in the 2000–01 Divizia B season. The team promoted to Liga I after winning 2001–02 Divizia B season under the name AEK Bucharest. In 2002, the owner Anton Doboş chose to relocate his team from the capital to Timişoara to fill the gap left when Politehnica Timişoara had been moved to Bucharest in 2000.[1] AEK Bucharest had themselves been moved from their original home of Bragadiru.[1] Dobos named the city's new team FC Politehnica AEK Timişoara and adopted the badge and colours of the more famous Politehnica Timişoara, the original club now in Bucharest having dropped into the fourth tier of the league.[1] Politehnica Timişoara successfully sued Politehnica AEK Timişoara, forcing the newer club to change its badge and colours.[1]

In the 2002/2003 season the team finished 14th, and was able to remain in the Liga I for the next season only after winning a play-off against Gloria Buzău.

In the 2003/2004 season the side grew more mature, learning from last season's mistakes, finishing an honorable 8th place.

The 2004/2005 campaign had been dramatic for the team, as they desperately struggled in the first half of the season and looked set for relegation at the winter break. However, the arrival of BKP was decisive, as the new sponsor did not shy away from investing in the team. After acquiring Romanian internationals Cosmin Contra and Viorel Moldovan, as well as a few other players from FC Naţional Bucureşti, including their coach at that time, Cosmin Olăroiu, Poli gently slid upwards in the table. Far from being relegated, the club finished 6th (out of 16 teams) after an excellent second half season.

The club's strong finish that season, the new players that arrived, and the good practice match results in the preseason campaign (including a 2-2 draw against Italian giants Juventus) has ensured that Poli was expected to do very well in the 2005/2006 Divizia A season, perhaps even challenge the big Bucharest teams.

However, the rather poor start of the season led to the sacking of Cosmin Olăroiu after the 12th match day. Romanian football legend Gheorghe Hagi took over, finally returning to Romanian football after 15 years (excluding a short spell as coach of the National team in 2001). His stay also ended abruptly, after only six months, when he resigned following a series of bad results. His place was taken by the second in command, Iosif Rotariu, for the remainder of that season.

2006/2007 started off on the same mediocre note, but the team stayed around the first five places in the league for most of the season. As a consequence of the club board's dissatisfaction, the team had no less than four managers through the year. Sorin Cîrţu had been appointed just before the season began, as he was the last manager to have won the league with a non-Bucharest team. Although Poli acquired the services of Ştefan Grigorie and Dan Alexa from Dinamo Bucureşti and Andrei Cristea from Steaua Bucureşti, Cîrţu only lasted a couple of weeks on the team's bench. He was subsequently replaced by Alin Artimon, who had been in charge of the youth department at the club, but despite some good results, the young manager folded under the pressure and resigned after a home draw against Dinamo. Second team manager Iosif Rotariu was in charge of the team for a short while, before Artimon's and Hagi's assistant manager, Valentin Velcea was appointed manager until the end of the season. He achieved some good results in the league and qualified for the Romanian Cup final, after defeating Steaua in Bucharest, but the team's bad performances at the end of the season (which left them standing 7th in the final league standings) and the 0-2 loss against Rapid in the RC final, at the Dan Păltinişanu Stadium, left the fans dissatisfied by what had generally been another season of mediocrity.

2007/2008

It had been rumored for several months before Dušan Uhrin, Jr. was officially announced as the next Poli manager, that he would be the one for whom expectations would be made for 2007/2008. The Czech manager impressed everyone with his calm and clear rationales, being labeled as one of the few gentlemen of Romanian football. He took over a weakened team, Ifeanyi Emeghara and Mihăiţă Pleşan having departed for Steaua at the season debut. On the other hand Ionel Ganea came to Poli as part of a player exchange which saw Ştefan Grigorie leave to Rapid, then Marian Aliuţă and Cristian Dancia were signed on free transfers and two Slovenian internationals, Dare Vršič and Dejan Rusič were also bought to strengthen the team.

By the end of 2007 the team was third in the standings with 32 points and had an average of over two goals scored per match. However, Poli's defensive record was much worse than it had been in previous years and it seemed that this was the team's most significant weakness that had to be tended to.

A few days into the winter transfer window, the white-violets announced the transfers of Miloš Brezinský from FC Slovan Liberec and Balázs Borbély from Artmedia Bratislava. Elvio Raul Martinez, Tiberiu Bălan and Carlos Milhazes were also brought on loan. The club also terminated their deal with FCM Reşiţa, so that all of Politehnica's players there returned to Timişoara. In January, Marian Iancu stated he would retire from the club unless the City and County Councils would become co-investors at the football team. After a month of pressures, both Councils decided to offer a sponsorship, but refused to join the club's ownership. The involvement was satisfactory for Mr. Iancu, who went on to say that BKP will continue offering their financial support.

Poli ended the season in sixth position, which ensured them qualification to the UEFA Cup, because the Romanian Cup final was played between CFR Cluj (league Champions which therefore qualified for the UEFA Champions League) and FC Unirea Urziceni (who finished fifth in the standings). It was the first time in sixteen years that a team from Timişoara achieved European qualification. Poli managed to score 57 goals, more than any other first league side for the season. Moreover, for the first time in over three decades, a team outside of Bucharest managed to not lose in any encounter with FC Dinamo Bucureşti, FC Rapid Bucureşti and FC Steaua Bucureşti.

In 2008/09, Timişoara finished the season in 2nd place, which meant eligibility for the 3rd qualifying round of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League. In that round, the team defeated the reigning UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk. They were eliminated from the competition during the Playoff Round by an aggregate score of 0 - 2 by German club VfB Stuttgart, and will take part in the UEFA Europa League.

On 29 October 2009, UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Body ruled that Dinamo Zagreb would have to play their next two home matches in the UEFA Europa League behind closed doors due to the actions of their supporters in their match at Timişoara. They also deducted three points from the Croatian club's points tally in Group A. The club appealed, but the appeal was not heard until after the first closed-doors game against Ajax.[9] After the appeal was heard, UEFA replaced the three point deduction with a €75,000 fine, and a three-year suspended ban from European competition.[10]

Protest for club record

On the March 17, 2007, ten thousand fans marched from the club stadium to the city center, protesting against the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which deemed that FC Timişoara was not allowed to use the club name, colours, emblem and insignias of FC Politehnica Timişoara any longer, as they belonged to the club owned by Claudio Zambon. His team currently plays in a small town next to Bucharest, in the Romanian fourth league.

In the week preceding the event, after FIFA announced it would maintain the initial CAS decision, the supporters wrote a manifest which they sent to several major newspapers around the world. The manifest was quickly translated in five languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Moreover, the fans spread out fliers through Timişoara, posting the manifest all over the city in just a few hours. Subsequently, over 20,000 people came to watch the match against Politehnica Iaşi which took place that Saturday. Despite the defeat (0-1), over half the number marched peacefully to the town center, where they stayed for several hours, chanting for their team and listening to speeches made by the local authorities, former players and the leaders of the supporter groups.

After the club was docked six points in early September 2008 for not fully complying with the CAS decision, the fans took to the streets in a spontaneous protest on the 4th of September. After blocking one of the main roads into Timisoara, from where they were dispersed by local police through the use of tear gas, the over one thousand supporters marched towards the city center. On the way their numbers increased to five thousand and after reaching their destination, they chanted in support for Poli and against the Romanian Football Federation, who they blamed not only for the lost points, but for the part they played in disowning FC Timișoara of their club records.

This underlying issue brought the fans together in another protest on the 7th of September, when about ten thousand supporters gathered once more in the city center, in an organized protest this time. Similarly to the meeting in 2007, speeches were held by significant local figures and chants were sung. Another protest is planned for the 9th of September, as the fans aim to push national authorities into investigating the alleged frauds committed by the RFF, in the hope that once these are uncovered, FC Timişoara will be allowed to return to its former name and colours.

The fans created a website, where they present all the events which lead up to the present situation, backed up by news items from the media and official documents provided by the club.

On March 3, 2010, FC Timişoara received a good news regarding the club's records. Bucharest Tribunal has prevailed Marian Iancu and Association Football Club Politehnica Timisoara in the trial of them in commercial law club led by Claudio Zambon. In short, the court found absolute nullity of Article of association of the company SC Fotbal Club Politehnica Timisoara SA, which says that the club record continuer Zambon is purple and white. The Italian has two remedies: to appeal and appeal. If the call will be rejected, however, Zambon will lose everything, and the current team in the League and receive the club record set in 1921[11][12].

Rankings

UEFA club coefficient ranking

(As of 28 Aug 2010), Source: Bert Kassies website

Rank Team Points
0132 France Guingamp 10.635
0133 Turkey Bursaspor 10.610
0134 Netherlands Groningen 10.425
135 Romania FC Timişoara 10.398
136 Bulgaria CSKA Sofia 10.225
137 France Montpellier 10.135
138 Switzerland Grasshopper 9.920

European Cups History

UEFA Cup/Europa League:

Season Round Country Club Home Away Aggregate
2008-09 1 Serbia Partizan Belgrade 1-2 0-1 1-3
2009-10 Group Netherlands Ajax 1-2 0-0
Croatia Dinamo Zagreb 0-3 2-1
Belgium Anderlecht 0-0 1-3
2010-11 Q3 Finland MYPA 3-3 2-1 5-4
Play-off England Manchester City 0-1 0-2 0-3

UEFA Champions League:

Season Round Country Club Home Away Aggregate
2009-10 Q3 Ukraine Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0 2-2 2-2
Play-off Germany VfB Stuttgart 0-0 0-2 0-2

Achievements

Romanian League:

Romanian Cup:

Current squad

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

No. Position Player
2 Brazil DF Helder Ferreira
4 Romania DF Srdjan Luchin
5 Romania MF Dan Alexa (Captain)
7 Romania MF Alexandru Curtean
8 Romania DF László Sepsi
9 Romania FW Mircea Axente
10 Romania MF Iulian Tameş
11 Senegal FW Mansour Gueye
13 Romania DF Cristian Scutaru
14 Romania DF Ioan Mera
15 Romania MF Hristu Chiacu
17 Czech Republic FW Lukáš Magera
21 Romania FW Dorin Goga
No. Position Player
22 Romania MF Cosmin Contra (Vice-Capitan)
24 Serbia DF Duško Dukić
25 Romania DF Ovidiu Burcă
26 Romania MF Florin Sandu
27 Romania MF Ianis Zicu
28 Slovakia DF Marián Čišovský
29 Romania GK Costel Pantilimon
30 Romania MF Alexandru Popovici
31 Romania MF Adrian Poparadu
55 Romania MF Alexandru Bourceanu
99 Portugal GK Pedro Taborda
Montenegro FW Stefan Nikolić

On transfer list

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

No. Position Player
Slovenia MF Dare Vršič

Reserves and youth team

Notable former and present players

(have played at least 30 matches for the club or scored a minimum of 15 goals)

Romania
  • Romania Romulus Buia
  • Romania Cristian Silvăşan
  • Romania Mircea Oprea
  • Romania Valentin Velcea
  • Romania Silviu Bălace
  • Romania Gabriel Cânu
  • Romania Cosmin Contra
  • Romania Viorel Moldovan
  • Romania Gabriel Caramarin
  • Romania Mihăiţă Pleşan
  • Romania Ovidiu Petre
  • Romania Gabriel Torje
  • Romania Bănel Nicoliţă
  • Romania Gheorghe Bucur
  • Romania Marius Popa
  • Romania Dan Alexa
  • Romania Costel Pantilimon
  • Romania Srdjan Luchin
  • Romania Dorin Goga
  • Romania Alexandru Bourceanu
  • Romania László Sepsi
Australia
  • Australia Jonathan McKain
Armenia
  • Armenia Arman Karamyan
  • Armenia Artavazd Karamyan
Costa Rica
  • Costa Rica Winston Parks
Czech Republic
  • Czech Republic Lukáš Magera
Nigeria
  • Nigeria Ifeanyi Emeghara
Slovakia
  • Slovakia Miloš Brezinský
  • Slovakia Marián Čišovský
  • Slovakia Balázs Borbély
  • Slovakia Ján Kozák
Slovenia
  • Slovenia Dejan Rusič
  • Slovenia Dare Vršič
Togo
  • Togo Daré Nibombé
Senegal
  • Senegal Gueye Mansour
Portugal
  • Portugal Pedro Taborda

References

External links