Liga I (; First League), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation from and to Liga II. The teams play 30 matches each in the regular season, before entering the championship play-offs or the relegation play-outs according to their position in the regular table.
Liga I was established in 1909 and commenced play for the 1909âÂÂ10 campaign, being currently 25th in UEFA's league coefficient ranking list. It is administered by the Liga Profesionistàde Fotbal, also known by the acronym LPF. Before the 2006âÂÂ07 season, the competition was known as Divizia A, but the name had to be changed following the finding that someone else had registered that trademark.
The best performer to date is FCSB with 28 titles followed by longtime cross-town rival Dinamo BucureÃÂti with 18 trophies. Furthermore, of the remaining 21 clubs which came victorious in the competition, eight have won it on at least three occasionsâÂÂCFR Cluj (eight trophies), Venus BucureÃÂti (seven), Chinezul TimiÃÂoara and UTA Arad (six each), Ripensia TimiÃÂoara, Universitatea Craiova and Petrolul PloieÃÂti (four each), and Rapid BucureÃÂti (three).
Starting with 2020, the Liga I has been expanded to a 16-team format. After each team plays the others twice for 30 fixtures, they are ranked by total points and then divided according to their position to enter either the championship play-offs or the relegation play-outs. At this stage, the points are halved and criteria such as goal difference, goals scored etc. are erased completely.
The six clubs which enter the championship play-offs play ten games, while the remaining ten in the relegation play-outs will only play each other once, resulting in nine fixtures. The championship play-offs winners are also crowned winners of the season's Liga I. The 9th and 10th positions in the play-out are relegated directly to the Liga II, while the 7th- and 8th-placed teams will play a two-legged tie against the 3rd and 4th teams from the second league's table. From 2023/24, only 8th placed team will play a two-legged tie against 3rd placed team from second league's table.
Also, the 1st and 2nd teams from the play-out phase will play a one-legged game between each other and the winner will face the last team that completed the play-off phase in a European spot. The winner of that one-legged match will play next season in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
The first official national football tournament was organized in 1909 by the recently founded Romanian Football Federation, then called the Association of Athletic Societies in Romania (). The final matches of the first Romanian Football Championship were held between December 1909 and January 1910 in Bucharest. The three pioneer clubs were Olympia and Colentina from Bucharest and United from PloieÃÂti. Each team played a fixture against the other two clubs, totalizing a number of three matches disputed, with Olympia BucureÃÂti being crowned as champions of the first Romanian Football Championship. In the following years, the tournament was structured into regional groups with the winners of each group participating in a playoff with the eventual winners being declared champions. From 1909 until 1921, the championship was organized as a cup with the winner being crowned as Champions of Romania, except for between 1916 and 1919, when the competition was suspended due to World War I. The champions of this period were Olympia and Colentina, each with two titles, and United, Prahova, Venus, Unirea Tricolor BucureÃÂti and Româno-Americana, with one title each.
The 1921âÂÂ22 season marked the first time when a league consisting of seven teams was formed. The championship, which had been confined to several regional leagues, became a national competition in 1921 with the foundation of Divizia A and Divizia B. The inaugural Divizia A season was won by Chinezul TimiÃÂoara. Before the 1931âÂÂ32 season, the competition was dominated by Chinezul and Venus BucureÃÂti, with Chinezul winning six championships and Venus two championships during the eleven seasons. The 1932âÂÂ33 season saw the rise of another successful team, Ripensia TimiÃÂoara, which alongside rivals Venus, won eight of the following nine championships, before the competition was suspended in 1940 due to World War II.
The post-war years were dominated by UTA Arad, CCA BucureÃÂti and Petrolul PloieÃÂti. The 1960s saw the gradual emergence of Dinamo BucureÃÂti, with the help from strikers Gheorghe Ene and Florea DumitracheâÂÂboth of whom became some of Divizia A's top all-time scorers. The 1970s saw the rise of Dudu Georgescu, from Dinamo BucureÃÂti, who was Divizia A's leading scorer for four seasons between 1974 and 1978. He scored an impressive 156 goals and won the European Golden Shoe award for the top scorer in Europe twice, in 1975 and 1977. Dinamo BucureÃÂti also had two more European Golden Shoe winners in the 1986âÂÂ87 season in the name of Rodion CÃÂmÃÂtaru and in the 1988âÂÂ89 season in the name of Dorin Mateuà £, with the latter being the last Romanian winner of the trophy. From the 1959âÂÂ60 season all the way to the 1999âÂÂ2000 season all the league championships were won by only seven teams: Steaua (16 titles), Dinamo (14 titles), Universitatea Craiova (4 titles), Rapid BucureÃÂti, FC Argeàand UTA Arad (2 titles each), and Petrolul PloieÃÂti (one title).
Dinamo BucureÃÂti was the first Romanian team to qualify into the European Champions Cup in the 1956âÂÂ57 season of the competition and Universitatea Craiova was the last team from Romania to qualify in the 1991âÂÂ92 season, before the competition changed its name to the UEFA Champions League. Romanian teams qualified to 35 of the 37 seasons of the European Champions Cup, with Dinamo BucureÃÂti having thirteen appearances, Steaua BucureÃÂti having ten appearances, Universitatea Craiova having four appearances, Petrolul having three appearances, UTA Arad and FC Argeà  having two appearances and Rapid BucureÃÂti having one appearance. The most important results for a Romanian team in this competition were achieved by Steaua BucureÃÂti which won the trophy in the 1985âÂÂ86 season, and reached the semi-finals in the 1987âÂÂ88 season and another final in the 1988âÂÂ89 season. Other important achievements include Universitatea Craiova which reached the quarter-finals in the 1981âÂÂ82 season and Dinamo BucureÃÂti which reached the semi-finals in the 1983âÂÂ84 season. However, after the change of the format in 1992âÂÂ93 to the current Champions League format, Romanian champions have achieved limited successes, with Steaua only reaching the group stage three times before the 21st century.
The beginning of the 2000s were dominated by teams from the capital, with Steaua, Dinamo and Rapid winning all the league titles between 2000 and 2007.
At the beginning of the 2006âÂÂ07 season the competition was forced to change its name from Divizia A to Liga I due to a trademark dispute over the name. The change was made on 15 May 2006, and the Romanian Football Federation decided to also rename the lower leagues; thus Divizia B became Liga II, Divizia C became Liga III, and so on. The 2006âÂÂ07 season marked the 16th straight time a team from Bucharest won the championship, with Dinamo winning the title. Both 2007âÂÂ08 and 2008âÂÂ09 saw new title winners as CFR Cluj and Unirea Urziceni were crowned champions for the first time. CFR Cluj won their second championship in 2009âÂÂ10, while the 2010âÂÂ11 saw another new winner, OÃÂelul GalaÃÂi. OÃÂelul is the first and only club from the region of Moldavia to win a national title so far.
CFR Cluj, the 2007âÂÂ08 winner became the first Romanian team to qualify directly into the 2008âÂÂ09 group stage of the UEFA Champions League, and the first team other than Steaua to qualify to this stage since the beginning of the new Champions League format in 1992âÂÂ93. The 2009âÂÂ10 champions as well as 2010âÂÂ11 ones were guaranteed a direct qualification spot into the group stage as well. The best results in the group stage was obtained by CFR Cluj in the 2012âÂÂ13 UEFA Champions League with ten points and third place in a group with Manchester United, Braga, and Galatasaray.
The 2010s also brought new league winners in Liga I, with Astra Giurgiu and Viitorul ConstanÃÂa clinching the titles in 2015âÂÂ16 and 2016âÂÂ17 respectively. Since 2017 onwards, CFR Cluj won five consecutive Liga I titles, amassing a total number of eight national titles as of 2022. CFR Cluj obtained the best result of a Romanian team in the group stage in the 2019âÂÂ2020 season of Europa League - 12 points. Also, CFR Cluj became the first Romanian team to qualify to UEFA Conference League group stage, when they obtained 4 points in the inaugural season (i.e. 2021âÂÂ2022).
In June 2022, Liga I officially changed its name into "SuperLiga" for sponsorship reasons, due to Romanian sporting bets agency Superbet sponsoring the competition.
The following 16 clubs are competing in the Liga I during the 2024âÂÂ25 season.
On 19 December 1998, SABMiller bought the naming rights for four and a half seasons, becoming the first sponsor in the history of the competition. SABMiller changed the name of the competition to "Divizia A Ursus", to promote their Ursus beer.
Starting with the 2004âÂÂ05 season, European Drinks & Foods, a Romanian $1.3 billion USD revenue company, took over as main sponsor and changed the league's name to "Divizia A Bürger", to promote their Bürger beer.
On 11 May 2008, Realitatea Media bought the naming rights and changed the name of the competition to "Liga I Realitatea", to promote their Realitatea TV station.
In late 2008, European Drinks & Foods again bought the rights and the league was renamed as the "Liga I Frutti Fresh", after one of their soft drinks brand.
For the 2009âÂÂ10 season, the online betting firm Gamebookers purchased the league naming rights and renamed the division "Liga 1 Gamebookers.com".
In July 2010, Bergenbier, a StarBev Group company, bought the naming rights for four seasons and changed the name of the competition to "Liga I Bergenbier", to promote their Bergenbier beer.
From the 2015âÂÂ16 season, the French telecommunications corporation Orange became the main sponsor of the Romanian first league, after purchasing the league naming rights, for two years, and renamed the league in Liga 1 Orange.
From the 2017âÂÂ18 season, the international online gaming operator Betano became the main sponsor of the Romanian first league, after purchasing the league naming rights, for two years, and renamed the league in 'Liga 1 Betano'.
For the 2019âÂÂ20 season, the national online gaming operator Casa Pariurilor became the main sponsor of the Romanian first league, after purchasing the league naming rights, and renamed the league in 'Casa Liga 1'.
For the 2022âÂÂ23 season the operator of games in Romania Superbet is the sponsor of the leagues and the name changes to Superliga României.
In 2004, Telesport, a small TV network, bought the broadcasting rights for $28 million. The four seasons contract ended in the summer of 2008. Telesport sold some of the broadcasting rights for matches to other Romanian networks, including, TVR1, Antena 1, NaÃÂional TV, and Kanal D.
On 31 March 2008, Antena 1 with RCS & RDS outbid Realitatea Media and Kanal D in the broadcasting rights auction with a bid of â¬102 million for a three seasons contract.
In 2011, the broadcasting rights were bought by RCS & RDS for their channels Digi Sport 1, Digi Sport 2 and Digi Sport 3. This channels aired broadcasting of seven of the nine matches from each stage of the championship. The other two matches were broadcast by Antena 1 (an Intact Media Group channel) and Dolce Sport (a channel owned by Telekom Romania).
In March 2014, LPF announced that the rights were sold for a five-year period to a company from the European Union, without specifying the company's name. A month later, Look TV and Look Plus were revealed as the TV stations that would broadcast the games from Liga I and Cupa Ligii between 2014 and 2019.
On 27 August 2019, Liga I signed a contract with EA Sports for the rights of the league for FIFA 20. It was the first time that the Liga I had been featured in a sports video game. Liga I has been featured in every FIFA installment since then.
From the quarter-finals onwards.
UEFA League Ranking for the period of 2020âÂÂ2025: