FORMER European champions CSA Steaua have been banned from winning promotion from Romania’s second tier.
The club used to be known as Steaua Bucharest and won the 1986 European Cup after a famous final against Barcelona.
The Romanians triumphed on penalties, with goalkeeper Helmut Duckadam saving all four of Barca’s spot-kicks.
Steaua Bucharest ended up effectively splitting into two teams in 1998 following a bitter takeover saga, with CSA recognised as the original outfit and FCSB forming as an offshoot.
The latter, who are privately owned, are top of Romania’s first division, which is now in the playoff part of the season.
While CSA, who are owned by the Ministry of Defence, are currently second in their respective promotion playoffs.
It had set up a mouthwatering encounter next season, with both sides finally set to meet.
But CSA are blocked from promotion by Romania’s FA.
They state that all clubs who play in the top tier require some form of private ownership.
And as CSA is fully controlled by the Ministry of Defence, they are unable to feature in the elite flight.
In a statement to Romania outlet Playsport, the country’s FA explained in 2022 after a similar promotion possibility for CSA occurred: “Regarding the status of the CSA Steaua Bucharest club in the League 2 Play-off, it is identical to that of any other club that has obtained the sporting merit to play in the League 2 Play-off.
“Although you did not specify what you are referring to when you talk about the CSA ‘club status’, we assume that it is related to the rights, obligations and any other rules regarding the participation of the respective club in the League 2 Play-off.
“Therefore, we would like to emphasise that all clubs participating in the League 2 Play-off benefit from the same treatment, having the same rights and obligations within the Play-off.
“We believe that this extremely widely debated issue, regarding the possibility of a public law club, in general, CSA Steaua, in the particular case, has already been clarified.
“We recall, however, that, from a legal point of view, CSA Steaua does not have the right to promotion to League 1 and, implicitly, in the situation in which it will obtain the sporting merit to promote to League 1, the club will not be able to exercise this right.
“Regarding the club’s possibility to participate in the promotion play-off to League 1, this issue was clarified in detail by the Decision of the FRF Executive Committee dated 18.08.2020, which establishes, among other things: ‘In all cases where a team located in a promotionable place or that gives the right to the promotion play-off does not hold a license for League 1 or does not meet the statutory and regulatory requirements for participation in League 1, the respective place will be occupied by the next, best-ranked team from League 2 that meets the conditions for participation in League 1’.”
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