Womens Football in Romania. UEFA Study Group Scheme Title Bullet Points Slide Image name & copyright Bullet 1 Bullet 2 Bullet 3 Bullet 4 I.Historic Highlights

Women’s Football in Romania

UEFA Study Group Scheme Title

Bullet Points Slide

Image name & copyright

Bullet 1 Bullet 2

Bullet 3 Bullet 4

I. Historic Highlights

Nobody knows for sure when the first women’s football match was played in our country. However we know that during the late ‘70s demonstration matches were often played mostly as curtain raisers to men’s matches.

Even if very popular and much enjoyed by the spectators these matches were regarded as a curiosity or a hobby, never as a future sport


The official birth-date of women’s football in Romania is the 4th April 1990 when the Ministry of Sports passed a decision recognizing it as a sport. Thus started our continuous struggle against all sorts of adversities : the prejudice that football is exclusively for men, lack of funding and of course the small number of players.


The domestic championship started in 1990 and has been played yearly ever since. The highest number of participants was recorded during the 1994/95 season – 48 teams : 12 in the 1st league and 36 in the 2nd league (divided in three groups). Then the number started to drop and since the season 2001/2002 , there remained only 12 teams in our championship which were divided in 2 geographical groups.


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These are the champions of Romania :

1991/92 - CFR Craiova 1992/93 - ICIM Brasov 1994/95 and 1995/96 - Fartec Brasov 1995/96 – Industrial Oradea 1996/97 – and 1997/98 – Motorul Oradea 1999/99 and 1999/2000 – Conpet Ploiesti 2000/01 and 2001/02 – Regal Bucuresti 2002/03, 2003/04, 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07, 2007/08,

2008/09 – Clujana Cluj 2009/10 – FCM Targu Mures 2010/11-2011/12 - Olimpia Cluj


As from 2004 the Romanian Football federation organizes the Women’s Cup; this competition proved to be more beneficial for the promotion of women’s football mainly because the final is played in the same city and the same day as the men’s Cup Final. All the media are there and they cover the women’s final as well.


The Cup winners are :

Clujana Cluj 4 times, Pandurii Targu Jiu, Ripensia Timisoara, FCM Targu Mures and Olimpia Cluj 2 times .

Ripensia Timisoara


CFF Clujana

FCM Targu Mures


II. The National Team

The first trial for the women’s national team work place in Bucharest on 8 May 1990 with 188 players participating. The 1st squad of 26 players was thus selected. Our first friendly game was played in Messina Italy on 4 June 1990 against a regional selection and this was our first win - 7 : 1

This was followed by the 1st friendly international against Moldova in Bucharest on 10 September 1990; final score 4 : 1

Our national team’s first official game was in the 1991/93 Women’s European Championship qualifying competition vs. Greece.


The best players of our national team along the years are not known to the public, although Daniela Pufulete has 156 caps. 5 other players have more that 100 caps while 25 others have more that 50 caps. Also only two of the former national team players are still active in football : Maria Delicoiu (62 caps) is our national team coach and Teodora Albon (69 caps) is an elite category international referee.

Daniela Pufulete


Maria Delicoiu

Teodora Albon


Romanian National Team Last performance:

Third place in European Championship qualification group :

1. Germany – 28 pts.

2. Spain – 20 pts.

3. Romania – 16 pts.

4. Switzerland – 15 pts.

5. Kazakhstan- 7 pts.

6. Turkey-1 pts.


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Romanian National Team


Romania U 19

Was founded in 2003 and had qualified for 6 times in the elite

tournament of European Championship Preliminaries.

This year, they qualified for the first time at European

Championship U19, which took place in Antalya (Turkey)

This qualification was obtained in a group where France’s team

was favorite to win, as en-titre champion.


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Romanian U 19


Large Format Images

Romanian U19


Romania U 17This team was founded in 2008 and in 2012, at a promotion tournament collaborating with UEFA, it got the first place and the trophy was awarded by Mr. Michel Platini.

The other participating teams: Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova.


III. The UEFA Club Competitions The Romanian club champion has participated in the UEFA Women’s

Cup since 2002. Clujana Cluj participated 7 times , Regal Bucuresti and FCM Targu Mures once each. The best performance was obtained by Clujana in 2007 when they qualified for the knock out stage, among the best 16 teams in Europe.

The best performance in UEFA Women`s Champions League was obtained by Olimpia Cluj :

- in season 2011-2012, the team has qualified in the round of 32 with maximum of points, 9. The average of age is 18 years and 4 months.

- in season 2012-2013 the team has qualified in the round of 16, after winning the qualification round in Malta and after eliminating Austria’s champion, SV Neulengbach, in round of 32


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Olimpia Cluj


Olimpia Cluj players -Images from UEFA site :

Cosmina Dusa (22 years) – 9 goals in competition


Stefania Vatafu ( 19 years )– 3 goals in competition


Alexandra Lunca (18 years )-5 goals in competition



IV. Number of Club Teams along the Years

If immediately after 1990 there was an explosion in the number of teams all of them supported by the state owned enterprises, as from 1996 there was a dramatic drop until 2001. In 2002 there was a slight increase and the number has been more or less the same since today. The Romanian Football Federation started supporting financially the clubs for their participation in the domestic championship!


2010/2011 – 10 teams in one league

2011/2012 – 20 teams organized in 2 series after value and geographical criteria. The first two in each series had a play-off tournament, after which the champion was decided

2012/2013 – 21 teams organized in 3 series (East, West and South)The first two teams in each series will have a play-off tournament, after which the champion will be decidedThis 6 teams will form in 2013-2014 season The

SupereagueAlso, in The Superleague will go 2 teams out of 3 from the third place in each groupThese teams will be decided after a qualification tournament

2013-2014 The Superleague-with 8 teams ( teams on 7/8 place relegate)

First League-2 series (first place teams promote)


V. Challenges to be tackled urgently

The pevailing opinion that football is only for men Improve the image and promotion. We do not have any official figures

at hand but we believe that about 75% of the population do not know of the women’s national team and the women’s league. Therefore many talented young girls do not know that they can play football and where to go.

Many clubs do not have qualified coaches, technical staff or administrators.

Find sponsors exclusively for women’s football No co-operation with the Ministry of Education Lack of women’s football development plans and activities at county

level Lack of interest from tghe media


V. Challenges to be tackled urgently

The pevailing opinion that football is only for men Improve the image and promotion. We do not have any official figures

at hand but we believe that about 75% of the population do not know of the women’s national team and the women’s league. Therefore many talented young girls do not know that they can play football and where to go.

Many clubs do not have qualified coaches, technical staff or administrators.

Find sponsors exclusively for women’s football No co-operation with the Ministry of Education Lack of women’s football development plans and activities at county

level Lack of interest from tghe media


Too many of our best players go abroad when they are still very young and they go to countries with weaker championships than ours or to lower leagues in countries with highly developed women’s football (Cyprus,2nd league in Italy or 3rd league in Germany). They are not fully professional and are paid ridiculously small salaries (200 Euro). Thus they have to find a full time job and can no longer join the national team. We are talking about 35 to 40 players who would have certainly had a positive impact on the quality of our domestic league.

Players retire early. While the average age of most national teams in Europe is 26 to 28 years, most if not all Romanian players are under 23 or even under 21. Romanian players retire at 24 or 25 years old and break all links to football. Thus in our championship there are more youth players than adults.


There are no role models. We need to find outstanding athletes to act as ambassadors and help us promote women’s football. We also need to popularize women players very successful in their football careers as well as in their education or profession hoping to persuade parents to allow their young daughters to play football.

There are not enough facilities, coaches and players to ensure separate training sessions for different age groups. In most women’s clubs 10-12 years old girls share the same dressing room with 25 years old women and train together. Or the young girls’ development should be our priority and we need to do something about this as soon as possible.


VI. Undertaken projects

2011 – Femina Cup for Women’s Football –regional project –Western RomaniaCoordinator Dorin Cura - who is present at this Study GroupThe project happens every year with the help of some schools in different regions and after the first edition UTA Arad, a fist league team was founded.


2012 Iasi’s Cup at Women’s Football (regional project)–part of a project “Iasi-European Sport Capital“

Coordinator Adrian Ambrozie (who is present at this Study Group)

This project had as target women’s football development in Eastern Romania

Teams part of this project: Moldova National Team U19, Romania U17 and four other teams in Women’s First League ( Olimpia Cluj, FCM Targu Mures, Navobi Iasi, and Independenta Baia Mare )



2012 – Romanian Summer Camps –Camps for Developing Women’s Football Grassroots Project –coordinator Alin Cioban, who is present at this Study Group. Through this project 100 students participated during summer holiday in tree camps organized in the Northern, Southern and middle Romania.

Basically, in each camp, students had a training schedule made by national team’s coaches and they were informed about women’s football evolution in Europe and in the world.








At the end of this project, about 75% of the girls were legitimated at different clubs in Romania.

Best 30 players were selected at a final tournament, after which Romania’s National U15 was founded.

At this project 6 active players in national team were in the organization committee and all graduated University of Physical Education and Sport.

Ioana Bortan, who is present at this Study Group represents these athelets.

Part of the National team and part of this project are Maria Delicoiu and Iulian Szekely, also present at this study group.


Thank you very much for your attention!

Documents

Womens Football in Romania. UEFA Study Group Scheme Title Bullet Points Slide Image name & copyright Bullet 1 Bullet 2 Bullet 3 Bullet 4 I.Historic Highlights