Fotbal Club Steaua Bucureşti (also known as Steaua, Roş-Albaştrii or Militarii) are a Romanian professional football club based in Ghencea, south-west Bucharest. They play in Liga I and are the most successful club in Romanian football. Steaua have won 23 National Championship titles, 20 Romanian Cups, 5 Romanian Super Cups and, in 1986, became the first team in Eastern Europe to have won the European Cup.

Founded on 7 June 1947 as ASA Bucureşti, the club changed its name several times before settling on Steaua in 1961.

The club is historically known as the Romanian Army sports club. The football department separated, however, in 1998. At the moment, its only links to the Army are the historical tradition and their home ground, Stadionul Ghencea, which still belongs to the Ministry of National Defence.

History

Steaua were founded on 7 June 1947, at the initiative of several officers of the Romanian Royal House, through a decree signed by General Mihail Lascăr, High Commander of the Romanian Royal Army, under the name of ASA Bucureşti (Asociaţia Sportivă a Armatei Bucureşti – Army Sports Association). The club was formed as a sports society with seven initial sections, including football, coached by Coloman Braun-Bogdan. They were renamed CSCA (Clubul Sportiv Central al Armatei – Central Sports Club of the Army) in 1948 and CCA (Casa Centrală a Armatei – Central House of the Army) in 1950.

In 1949, CSCA won its first trophy, the Romanian Cup, defeating CSU Cluj 2–1 in the final. Under the name of CCA, the club entered the high-life of Romanian football by winning three Championship titles in a row in 1951, 1952 and 1953, along with their first Championship-Cup Double in 1951. The 1950s were years of great domestic performances, in which the famous CCA Golden Team crystallized itself, a team which sometimes confused itself with the National Team of Romania. 1956 was one of CCA's most prestigious years, when, in addition to winning the title, the team, coached by Ilie Savu, enterprised a tournament in England where they achieved noteworthy results against the likes of Luton Town FC, Arsenal FC, Sheffield Wednesday FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers FC.

At the end of 1961 CCA changed its name once again to CSA Steaua Bucureşti (Clubul Sportiv al Armatei Steaua – Army Sports Club Steaua). The club's new name is translated The Star. It was adopted because of the presence of a red star (symbol of most East-European clubs of the Army and turned yellow to symbolize Romania's tricolour flag) on their crest. A poor period of almost two decades followed in which the club only managed to win three championships (1967–68, 1975–76, 1977–78). Instead, they managed to win several national cup trophies. For this matter, the team gained the nickname of 'cup specialists'. Also during this period, on 9 April 1974, Steaua's current ground, Stadionul Ghencea, was inaugurated with a friendly match opposing OFK Beograd. Up to that date, Steaua had played its home matches on either two of Bucharest's largest multi-use stadia, Republicii and 23 August.

Under the leadership of coaches Emerich Jenei and Anghel Iordănescu, Steaua had an impressive Championship run in the 1984–85 season, which they eventually won after a six-year break. Subsequently, after having knocked-out Vejle BK, Budapest Honvéd FC, Kuusysi FC and RSC Anderlecht, they were the first team from Romania to make it to a European Cup final. On 7 May 1986, at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in Seville, in spite of Spanish champions' FC Barcelona status as favourites, the match ended goalless. Eventually, at the penalty shootout, legendary goalkeeper Helmuth Duckadam saved all four penalties taken by the Spaniards, making Steaua the first East-European team to conquer the supreme continental trophy. An additional European Super Cup was won that year in front of SK Dinamo Kiev and, surprisingly for those who thought of these performances as an isolated phenomenon, Steaua remained at the top of European football for the rest of the decade, managing one more European Cup semifinal in 1987–88 and one more European Cup final in 1989, lost 4–0 in front of AC Milan. This happened next to their four additional national titles (1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89) and four national cups (1984–85, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89). In addition, 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.

During these last years of the Communist regime in Romania, dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu's son Valentin was involved in the life of the team. Even though a controversial character, Valentin Ceauşescu admitted in a recent interview that he had done nothing else than to protect his favourite team from FC Dinamo Bucureşti's sphere of influence (Steaua's all-time traditional rival), ensured by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The 1989 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 swift recovery followed and Steaua managed a six consecutive championship streak between 1992–93 and 1997–98 to equalize the 1920s performance of Chinezul Timişoara and also three more cups in 1995–96, 1996–97 and 1998–99. At international level, they also managed to make it to the UEFA Champions League group stage three years in a row between 1994–95 and 1996–97, remaining even today the only team in Romania to have participated in this competition.

In 1998, the football club separated from CSA Steaua and changed their name for the last time to FC Steaua Bucureşti (Fotbal Club Steaua – Football Club Steaua), being led by Romanian businessman Viorel Păunescu. Păunescu performed poorly as a president and soon the club was plunged into debt. George Becali, another businessman, was offered the position of vice-president, in hope that he would invest money in the club. Becali eventually purchased the majority share in 2002 and turned the governing company public in January 2003. Even though contested by the majority of Steaua fans because of his controversial character, Becali has so far had inspired management plans for the club, also aided by former Chief Executive Mihai Stoica.

Under former Italian glory Walter Zenga's leadership the team qualified for the UEFA Cup group stage in the 2004–05 season and further on became the first Romanian team to make it to the European football spring since 1993 (also Steaua's performance). The team also won the title at the end of the season, performance repeated the following year, when, under coaches Oleg Protasov (July – December) and Cosmin Olăroiu (January – May), they also managed to make it to the UEFA Cup Semifinals (dramatically knocked out by Middlesbrough FC) after having eliminated local rivals Rapid in an epic all-Romanian Quarter Final) and to win the Romanian Super Cup (1–0 against the same Rapid Bucureşti in July 2006), the latter being the club's 50th trophy in its 59 year history. Subsequently, Steaua also qualified for the UEFA Champions League 2006–07 season for the first time in 10 years.

Colours

During their first season, 1947–48, Steaua wore blue shirts, red shorts and yellow socks, 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 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) and the 2005–06 third kit (yellow and black).

The 2007–08 home kit, the same as in the previous season, consists in vertical-striped red and blue shirts with red shorts and socks, while the away strip is all-blue. 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. No shirt sponsor is displayed at the moment on the strips. However, in 1988, Steaua was the first football team from communist Romania to display the name of a Western company, Ford. Thereafter, several other sponsors succeeded: Castrol, Philips, CBS, Bancorex (initially BRCE), Dialog (currently Orange), BCR and RAFO.

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 ASC Venus Bucureşti, a club disbanded in 1949. After the ground's demolition through order of the Communist regime, Steaua had played its home matches on either two of Bucharest's largest multi-use stadia, 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 Lia Manoliu) 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 currently 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, but in 1991 when the plastic seats were installed, the capacity dropped to 28,139. The floodlighting system was inaugurated in 1991.

At the moment, following two general renovations in 1991 and 2006, Ghencea is the only stadium in Romania able to host UEFA Champions League events, being a 3rd 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 is 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. Currently, FC Steaua are the only tenants. Despite lobbying from the current FC Steaua Board of Administration, the venue is still under Romanian Army ownership, but has been leased on a 49 year-long period to the football club as of 2006.

Ownership

Steaua has always been known as the club of the Romanian Army, who founded it in 1947 as a sports society. The Army continues to own the society, called CSA Steaua Bucureşti 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 Bucureşti, chaired by businessman Viorel Păunescu.

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 additional ones to become owner of the club. Currently, George Becali detains no official link to the club, as he gradually renounced his shares. However, the facts that the current shareholders are people loyal to him and that h/e is still in charge of Steaua are obvious.

Records

Steaua currently boasts itself with probably the most impressive pedigree in Romania. With 60 seasons spent in Liga I, they are one of the three teams to have only played in the first national league, along with FC Dinamo Bucureşti (59 seasons) and FCU Politehnica Ştiinţa Timişoara (6 seasons). At the same time, the club is the current record holder for the number of national championships (23), national cups (20) and national super cups (5). Between 1993 and 1998, their run of six consecutive national titles won equalled the one of Chinezul Timişoara from the 1920s. Internationally, they are the only domestic club to have won a European Cup (European Champions Cup in 1986 and the European Super Cup in 1987) and to have qualified inside a UEFA final (European Champions Cup in 1986 and 1989).

For 3 years and 3 months (June 1986 – September 1989), Steaua counted a number of 104 unbeaten matches in the league, establishing, at that moment, a former world record and a European one still standing. Also inside the national league, they counted 112 matches between November 1989 and August 1996 of unbeatability at Stadionul Ghencea in Liga I. Their run of 17 straight wins in 1988 is another record, equal to the one held by Dinamo a few years later.

Honours