1996–97 Divizia A

The 1996–97 Divizia A was the seventy-ninth season of Divizia A, the top-level football league of Romania.

Divizia A

Season	1996–97
Champions	Steaua București[1]
Relegated	Politehnica Timișoara Braşov
Champions League	Steaua București
Cup Winners' Cup	Naţional București
UEFA Cup	Dinamo București Oţelul Galaţi
Intertoto Cup	Rapid București Gloria Bistriţa
Matches played	306
Goals scored	871 (2.85 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sabin Ilie (31)
Biggest home win	Petrolul 7–1 Sportul Braşov 6–0 Jiul
Biggest away win	Cluj 1–7 Steaua
Highest scoring	Steaua 5–4 Cluj Cluj 5–4 Ceahlăul Petrolul 4–5 Politehnica
Longest winning run	Steaua (5)
Longest unbeaten run	Steaua (10)
Longest losing run	Politehnica (7)
← 1995–96 1997–98 →

Teams

Oțelul

AS Bacău

Ceahlăul

Argeș

Petrolul

Farul

Universitatea

Gloria

Jiul

Universitatea

Chindia

Politehnica

FC Brașov

Bucharest

Bucharest teams:
Steaua
Național
Dinamo
Rapid
Sportul Studențesc

Location of teams in 1996-97 Divizia A

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Steaua București (C)	34	23	4	7	87	40	+47	73	Qualification to Champions League first qualifying round
2	Național București	34	21	5	8	69	36	+33	68	Qualification to Cup Winners' Cup qualifying round
3	Dinamo București	34	18	5	11	56	34	+22	59	Qualification to UEFA Cup first qualifying round
4	Oțelul Galați	34	17	7	10	54	39	+15	58
5	Bacău	34	16	5	13	43	41	+2	53
6	Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	34	15	7	12	51	50	+1	52
7	Argeș Pitești	34	14	8	12	46	37	+9	50
8	Rapid București	34	13	9	12	45	41	+4	48	Qualification to Intertoto Cup group stage
9	Petrolul Ploiești	34	13	7	14	48	43	+5	46[a]
10	Farul Constanța	34	14	4	16	46	52	−6	46[a]
11	Universitatea Craiova	34	12	7	15	48	52	−4	43
12	Sportul Studențesc București	34	12	6	16	36	52	−16	42
13	Gloria Bistrița	34	11	8	15	38	45	−7	41[b]	Qualification to Intertoto Cup group stage
14	Jiul Petroşani	34	12	5	17	33	61	−28	41[b]
15	Universitatea Cluj	34	11	6	17	52	67	−15	39
16	Chindia Târgoviște	34	11	5	18	32	55	−23	38
17	Politehnica Timișoara (R)	34	10	5	19	45	65	−20	35	Relegation to Divizia B
18	Brașov (R)	34	9	5	20	42	61	−19	32

Source: LT (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored. Head-to-Head: used when head-to-head record is used to rank tied teams.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. PET 3-0 FAR; FAR 1-0 PET
2. GLO 3-0 JIU; JIU 2-0 GLO

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34
Argeș Pitești	9	12	6	11	13	13	11	10	12	11	12	9	6	8	9	7	8	9	6	7	6	7	6	5	4	5	5	6	7	6	7	6	7	7
Bacău	14	6	2	5	7	10	8	8	9	13	8	10	12	14	13	14	12	10	11	8	10	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	6	7	6	7	6	5
Brașov	18	10	13	15	15	16	16	16	17	15	16	17	17	17	16	16	16	16	18	18	18	17	17	17	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	15	7	12	14	14	15	13	12	10	8	7	8	8	9	12	13	11	6	8	10	8	6	5	6	6	6	6	5	4	5	5	5	5	6
Universitatea Craiova	1	4	9	12	12	9	10	13	11	9	11	11	13	10	14	9	14	12	12	12	13	12	14	15	12	12	14	12	8	8	9	8	10	11
Dinamo București	3	2	1	1	1	3	2	1	1	4	4	4	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Farul Constanța	10	13	7	3	8	7	9	9	8	10	10	12	10	12	10	11	9	11	13	13	14	13	15	11	13	15	12	15	11	14	10	13	11	10
Gloria Bistrița	17	9	15	16	16	17	17	17	16	18	18	16	16	16	17	18	17	17	16	15	16	16	16	16	16	14	15	13	14	16	13	15	13	13
Jiul Petroşani	2	1	4	2	4	2	7	5	7	7	9	7	9	7	7	6	6	7	10	9	11	14	9	9	11	8	10	11	13	12	15	11	14	14
Oțelul Galați	13	18	11	8	10	8	6	2	5	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	5	4	4	4	5	4	4	4	4	4
Petrolul Ploiești	11	14	16	17	17	18	18	18	18	17	15	15	15	15	15	15	13	14	14	14	12	11	13	14	15	13	13	14	16	13	16	12	9	9
Național București	5	3	3	7	3	1	1	4	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	2	2	2	2
Rapid București	7	15	17	18	18	14	15	14	13	12	13	13	11	11	8	10	7	5	7	6	7	9	10	10	8	9	11	8	9	9	8	9	8	8
Sportul Studențesc București	16	17	18	13	11	11	12	11	14	14	14	14	14	13	11	12	15	15	15	16	15	15	11	12	14	16	16	16	15	11	12	10	12	12
Steaua București	4	5	14	10	6	4	3	3	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	2	1	1	1	1
Politehnica Timișoara	12	16	10	6	9	12	14	15	15	16	17	18	18	18	18	17	18	18	17	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	17	17	17	17	17	17	17	17
Chindia Târgoviște	6	8	5	9	5	6	5	7	4	5	6	5	4	5	5	8	10	13	9	11	9	10	12	13	10	11	9	10	12	15	14	16	16	16
Universitatea Cluj	8	11	8	4	2	5	4	6	6	6	5	6	7	6	6	5	5	8	5	5	5	5	7	7	9	10	8	9	10	10	11	14	15	15

Source: LT (in Romanian)

Results

Home \ Away	ARG	BAC	BRA	CEA	UCR	DIN	FAR	GBI	JIU	OȚE	PET	NAT	RAP	SPO	STE	POL	CHI	UCL
Argeș Pitești	—	3–0	2–0	4–1	0–1	0–0	4–1	2–0	3–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–2	1–0	1–2	1–0	2–1	2–1
Bacău	1–2	—	1–0	1–1	4–2	2–0	3–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	3–2
Brașov	3–0	1–1	—	1–0	1–2	2–1	3–1	2–1	6–0	0–0	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–4	3–1	2–0	2–3
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	2–1	3–1	3–1	—	2–0	1–1	4–2	0–0	4–1	0–2	3–2	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–0	3–1
Universitatea Craiova	1–3	1–1	5–0	3–1	—	0–2	2–3	1–1	0–0	2–0	1–1	2–0	3–1	1–2	3–2	0–0	1–1	4–1
Dinamo București	4–1	1–0	2–1	4–1	2–0	—	5–2	3–0	3–0	2–0	3–1	0–1	2–0	2–1	0–0	2–0	2–1	3–0
Farul Constanța	2–1	4–0	1–0	3–0	2–0	2–1	—	0–0	1–0	3–1	1–0	1–2	0–1	1–0	3–0	2–2	3–1	0–0
Gloria Bistrița	3–2	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	3–2	—	3–0	5–0	2–1	1–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	4–0	1–2	0–1
Jiul Petroşani	0–0	1–0	1–0	1–2	2–4	1–0	3–0	2–0	—	1–1	0–1	2–1	1–1	4–1	0–2	3–2	2–1	2–1
Oțelul Galați	1–0	1–2	2–1	2–1	5–1	3–1	1–0	3–0	0–1	—	3–0	2–0	1–1	3–0	1–5	2–0	6–1	2–0
Petrolul Ploiești	1–1	2–0	4–2	1–0	0–0	0–1	3–0	3–0	4–1	1–0	—	0–1	1–1	7–1	1–1	4–5	1–1	1–0
Național București	3–1	1–0	6–1	3–0	2–0	2–1	1–3	2–0	4–0	1–3	4–1	—	3–1	2–0	2–1	5–1	4–1	4–3
Rapid București	1–0	2–0	1–0	1–3	2–0	3–0	2–0	1–1	3–0	3–4	0–1	2–4	—	1–1	0–2	4–1	2–0	1–0
Sportul Studențesc București	1–1	2–0	3–1	1–2	4–2	0–5	2–1	2–1	1–1	0–2	0–1	0–0	2–0	—	0–3	1–0	2–1	0–0
Steaua București	2–1	1–5	3–0	3–3	3–0	3–1	2–1	2–0	6–2	2–1	3–0	3–1	3–1	3–1	—	5–1	4–1	5–4
Politehnica Timișoara	1–3	4–1	2–1	3–2	0–4	3–0	0–0	5–2	0–1	3–0	1–2	1–1	1–2	0–1	1–0	—	2–1	4–1
Chindia Târgoviște	2–1	1–0	2–1	1–0	0–2	1–1	2–0	0–1	2–0	0–0	2–1	1–3	1–0	1–0	1–4	1–0	—	0–0
Universitatea Cluj	0–1	0–2	3–2	5–4	3–0	1–1	3–1	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–1	0–3	2–2	1–4	1–7	4–1	5–1	—

Source: LT (in Romanian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Position[2]	Player	Club	Goals
1	Sabin Ilie	Steaua București	31
2	Mugur Gușatu	Politehnica Timișoara	17
3	Leonard Strizu	Braşov	16
4	Bănică Oprea	Farul Constanța	15
5	Dumitru Târțău	Rapid București	14

Champion squad

Steaua București[3]

Goalkeepers: Bogdan Stelea (22 / 0); Daniel Gherasim (11 / 0); Zoltan Ritli (6 / 0). Defenders: Marius Baciu (32 / 2); Tiberiu Csik (11 / 0); Bogdan Bucur (13 / 0); Adrian Matei (11 / 0); Iulian Miu (20 / 0); Daniel Prodan (12 / 0); Valeriu Răchită (19 / 1); Laurențiu Reghecampf (12 / 1); Radu Cozma (1 / 0); Lucian Nan (3 / 0); Fani Vrânceanu (1 / 0); Tudorel Zamfirescu (13 / 0); Marin Dumitrache (1 / 0). Midfielders: Augustin Călin (23 / 8); Cristian Ciocoiu (22 / 6); Iulian Filipescu (9 / 0); Damian Militaru (31 / 6); Cristian Pușcaș (5 / 0); Iosif Rotariu (16 / 4); Ilie Stan (11 / 2); Dennis Șerban (31 / 8); Leonard Nemțanu (3 / 1); Marian Alexandru (1 / 0). Forwards: Sabin Ilie (31 / 31); Adrian Ilie (10 / 1); Marius Lăcătuș (22 / 5); Roland Nagy (28 / 2); Narcis Răducan (2 / 0); Laurențiu Roșu (23 / 6); Cătălin Munteanu (12 / 5); Marius Mitu (2 / 0); Ilie Breciugă (1 / 0); Cătălin Dănilescu (1 / 0); Mircea Stanciu (2 / 0). (league appearances and goals listed in brackets) Manager: Dumitru Dumitriu.