2017–18 Liga Națională (men's handball)

The 2017–18 Liga Națională was the 60th season of Romanian Handball League, the top-level men's professional handball league. The league comprises 14 teams.^[1] Dinamo București were the defending champions, for the second season in a row.

2017–18 Liga Națională

Team changes

To Liga Națională Promoted from Divizia A Politehnica Iași Minaur Baia Mare

From Liga Națională Relegated to Divizia A CSM Satu Mare Adrian Petrea Reșița

Teams

CSM

Dinamo

Dobrogea

Dunărea

Făgăraș

Focșani

Minaur

Odorhei

Poli Iași

Poli Timişoara

Potaissa

Steaua

Suceava

Vaslui

Location of teams in the Romanian Men's Handball League

Club	Ground(s)	Capacity
CSM București	Sala Sporturilor "Rapid"	1,500
CSM Făgăraș	Sala Colegiul National "Radu Negru"	150
CSM Focșani	Sala Sporturilor "Vrancea"	1,400
CSU Suceava	Sala Sporturilor	500
Dinamo București	Sala Dinamo	2,538
Dobrogea Sud Constanța	Sala Sporturilor	2,100
Dunărea Călăraşi	Sala Polivalentă	1,500
Minaur Baia Mare	Sala Sporturilor "Lascăr Pană"	2,048
HC Odorheiu Secuiesc	Sala Sporturilor	1,250
HC Vaslui	Sala Sporturilor	1,500
Politehnica Iași	Sala Polivalentă	1,500
Politehnica Timișoara	Sala Constantin Jude	1,540
Potaissa Turda	Sala de sport "Gheorghe Bariţiu"	600
Steaua București	Sala Sporturilor "Concordia"	600

League table

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Steaua București	26	20	1	5	696	609	+87	61	Qualification to Play-Off
2	Potaissa Turda	26	19	0	7	726	648	+78	57
3	Dinamo București	26	18	2	6	736	649	+87	56
4	CSM București	26	18	1	7	735	636	+99	55
5	Politehnica Timișoara	26	17	2	7	683	607	+76	53
6	Dobrogea Constanța	26	15	4	7	701	636	+65	49
7	Dunărea Călărași	26	13	4	9	648	648	0	43
8	Odorheiu Secuiesc (R)	26	10	2	14	427	482	−55	32[a]	Relegation to Divizia A
9	Minaur Baia Mare	26	10	1	15	642	674	−32	31	Qualification to Play-Off
10	CSU Suceava	26	7	4	15	654	676	−22	25	Qualification to Play-Out
11	CSM Focșani	26	7	3	16	601	650	−49	24
12	HC Vaslui	26	7	1	18	637	730	−93	22
13	CSM Făgăraș	26	5	1	20	585	676	−91	16
14	Politehnica Iași (R)	26	2	2	22	573	723	−150	8[b]	Relegation to Divizia A

Updated to match(es) played on 12 April 2018. Source: FRH (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th head-to-head away goals scored; 6th goal difference; 7th number of goals scored
(R) Relegated
Notes:

1. HC Odorheiu Secuiesc withdrew from the championship in the second part of the championship due to financial problems and lost matches by forfeit.^[2]
2. Politehnica Iași withdrew from the championship in the second part of the championship due to financial problems and lost matches by forfeit.^[3]

Play-Off

Knockout phase

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	Steaua București	2
	Minaur Baia Mare	0
					Steaua București	2
					CSM București	1
	CSM București	2
	Politehnica Timișoara	1
									Steaua București	1
									Dinamo București	2
	Potaissa Turda	2
	Dunărea Călărași	0
					Potaissa Turda	0
					Dinamo București	2			Third place
	Dinamo București	2
	Dobrogea Constanța	1
									CSM București	1
									Potaissa Turda	2

League table – positions 1–4

	Team	Qualification or relegation
1	Dinamo București (C, Q)	2018–19 EHF Champions League
2	Steaua București (Q)	2018–19 EHF Cup
3	Potaissa Turda (Q)
4	CSM București (Q)	2018–19 EHF Challenge Cup

League table – positions 5–8

	Team
5	Dobrogea Constanța
6	Politehnica Timișoara
7	Dunărea Călărași
8	Minaur Baia Mare

Play-Out

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
9	Universitatea Suceava	12	7	2	3	309	299	+10	23
10	CSM Focșani	12	6	2	4	293	279	+14	20
11	CSM Făgăraș (O)	12	5	0	7	296	309	−13	15	Relegation play-offs
12	HC Vaslui (O)	12	4	0	8	297	309	−12	12
13	Politehnica Iași (R)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0[a]	Relegation to Divizia A
14	Odorheiu Secuiesc (R)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0[b]

Updated to match(es) played on 19 May 2018. Source: FRH (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th head-to-head away goals scored; 6th goal difference; 7th number of goals scored
(O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Politehnica Iași withdrew from the championship in the second part of the championship due to financial problems and lost matches by forfeit.
2. Odorheiu Secuiesc withdrew from the championship in the second part of the championship due to financial problems and lost matches by forfeit.

Relegation play-offs

The 11th and 12th-placed teams of the Liga Națională faced the 2nd and 3rd-placed teams of the Divizia A, from both Seria A and Seria B. The first place from each play-off group promoted to Liga Națională.

Serie I

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	CSM Făgăraș (P)	2	2	0	0	65	42	+23	6	Promotion to Liga Națională
2	HC Buzău (Q)	2	1	0	1	46	55	−9	3	Qualification to Third place
3	Universitatea Cluj	2	0	0	2	49	63	−14	0

Updated to match(es) played on 2 June 2018. Source: FRH (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th head-to-head away goals scored; 6th goal difference; 7th number of goals scored
(P) Promoted; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated

Serie II

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	HC Vaslui (P)	1	1	0	0	44	27	+17	3	Promotion to Liga Națională
2	Atletico Alexandria (Q)	1	0	0	1	27	44	−17	0	Qualification to Third place
3	CSU Târgu Jiu	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0[a]

Updated to match(es) played on 31 May 2018. Source: FRH (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th head-to-head away goals scored; 6th goal difference; 7th number of goals scored
(P) Promoted; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated
Notes:

1. CSU Târgu Jiu withdrew from the relegation play-offs.^[4]

Third place

Because the winner of Divizia A, Seria B, CSM Oradea declined the participation in the 2018–19 Liga Națională, another play-off match was organised to establish the third place and implicitly the last team promoted. The match was played between the 2nd places from the two Relegation play-offs series.

Team 1	Score	Team 2
HC Buzău	30–27	Atletico Alexandria

Notes:

• HC Buzău qualified for 2018–19 Liga Națională and Atletico Alexandria qualified for 2018–19 Divizia A.

Season statistics

Number of teams by counties

Pos.	County (județ)		No. of teams	Team(s)
1		Bucharest (capital)	3	CSM București, Dinamo and Steaua
2		Brașov	1	CSM Făgăraș
		Călărași	1	Dunărea Călăraşi
		Cluj	1	Potaissa Turda
		Constanța	1	Dobrogea Constanța
		Harghita	1	Odorheiu Secuiesc
		Iași	1	Politehnica Iași
		Maramureș	1	Minaur Baia Mare
		Suceava	1	CSU Suceava
		Timiș	1	Politehnica Timișoara
		Vaslui	1	HC Vaslui
		Vrancea	1	CSM Focșani