Romanian football team Steaua Bucharest won its 25th champions title on Thursday evening  (May 8) after beating Universitatea Cluj 1 to 0 at Cluj Arena. This is the second consecutive champions title that Steaua has won with manager Laurentiu Reghecamf at the helm.

Steaua is the most successful Romanian football team ever, having won 25 champions titles, 21 Romanian football cups. Its best performance was winning the Champions League in 1986.

Although there are still three round to go, Steaua is ten points ahead of Petrolul Ploiesti, currently in second place. In 31 matches so far this season, Steaua had 22 victories, 8 draws and just one defeat, raising 74 points. Steaua scored 67 goals and conceded 16 goals, statistics show.

Steaua will also play in the Romanian football cup final, on May 23, against Astra Giurgiu, which is currently third in Romania's First League - Liga 1.

Steaua didn’t face much competition in this year’s edition of the league, because many Romanian football clubs face financial problems. Dinamo Bucharest, its arch rival, is only 4th this year, but other well-established Romanian football clubs, such as Rapid Bucharest and Universitatea Craiova are currently struggling in the second division.

Some football club owners cut financing for their teams, while others were sentenced to prison for tax fraud in the famous “Transfers’ Dossier”.

Romanian football teams had poor performances in this season’s European competitions (UEFA Champions League and Europa League) and the Romanian national football team failed to qualify, again, for the World Cup in Brazil, which shows the poor quality of Romanian football.

This is why Steaua, who won the champions title this year won’t qualify directly to UEFA Champions League groups and will have to play qualifiers.

 Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com