2023–24 Liga II

The 2023–24 Liga II was the 84th season of the Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian football league system. A total of 20 teams contest the league.

Liga II

Season	2023–24
Promoted	Unirea Slobozia Gloria Buzău
Relegated	CSM Alexandria Progresul Spartac București Tunari Unirea Dej
Europa League	Corvinul Hunedoara
← 2022–23 2024–25 → All statistics correct as of 16 May 2023.

It is the eighth Liga II season with a single series.^[1] The first two teams will be promoted to Liga I at the end of the season and the third-placed and fourth-placed team will play a play-off match against the 13th-placed and 14th-placed team from Liga I. The last four teams will be relegated to Liga III. The season began on 5 August 2023 and is scheduled to end in June 2024.^[2]

Teams

Team changes

Promoted from 2022–23 Liga III	Relegated from 2022–23 Liga I	Promoted to 2023–24 Liga I	Relegated to 2023–24 Liga III
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț[3][4] (after 7 years of absence) CS Tunari (debut) CSM Alexandria (after 18 years of absence) CSM Reșița (after 2 years of absence) Corvinul Hunedoara (after 15 years of absence)	Argeș Pitești[5] (after 3 years of absence) Chindia Târgoviște[6] (after 4 years of absence) CS Mioveni[7] (after 2 years of absence)	Politehnica Iași[8] (ended 2-year stay) Oțelul Galați[9] (ended 1-year stay) Dinamo București[10] (ended 1-year stay)	Progresul Spartac București[11] (ended 1-year stay) Ripensia Timișoara (ended 6-year stay) Minaur Baia Mare (ended 1-year stay) Politehnica Timișoara (ended 7-year stay) Unirea Constanța (ended 2-year stay)

Teams excluded by Romanian Football Federation

On 7 August 2023, FC Brașov was excluded from Liga II by the Romanian Football Federation.^[12]

Teams spared from relegation

Progresul Spartac București was spared from relegation to 2023–24 Liga III season, due to the decision to relegate FC Brașov, decision that vacanted place in the 2022–23 Liga II season.

Venues

Steaua București	Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	Corvinul Hunedoara	Argeș Pitești
Steaua	Ceahlăul	Michael Klein	Nicolae Dobrin
Capacity: 31,254	Capacity: 18,000	Capacity: 16,500	Capacity: 15,000
Viitorul Târgu Jiu	CSM Reșița	Gloria Buzău	1599 Șelimbăr
Tudor Vladimirescu	Mircea Chivu	Municipal	Municipal[i]
Capacity: 12,518	Capacity: 12,500	Capacity: 12,321	Capacity: 12,000
Slatina	Bucharest Tunari Ceahlăul Alexandria Reșița Corvinul Buzău Argeș Mioveni Chindia Dej Dumbrăvița Miercurea Ciuc Slatina Slobozia Șelimbăr Târgu Jiu Bucharest / Ilfov teams: Chiajna Metaloglobus Steaua Progresul Locations of the 2023–24 Liga II teams Chiajna Steaua Metaloglobus Progresul Location of Bucharest and Ilfov teams.		Mioveni
1 Mai			Orășenesc
Capacity: 11,390			Capacity: 10,000
Chindia Târgoviște			Unirea Dej
Eugen Popescu			Unirea
Capacity: 8,400			Capacity: 6,000
Unirea Slobozia	Concordia Chiajna	Csíkszereda	Alexandria
1 Mai	Concordia	Municipal	Municipal
Capacity: 6,000	Capacity: 5,123	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 2,000
Tunari	Progresul Spartac București	Dumbrăvița	Metaloglobus București
Comunal	CNAF[ii]	Ștefan Dobay	Metaloglobus
Capacity: 1,700	Capacity: 1,600	Capacity: 1,000	Capacity: 1,000

1. 1599 Șelimbăr was relocated to Municipal Stadium in Râmnicu Vâlcea, because Comunal Stadium in Șelimbăr is under renovations.
2. Progresul Spartac was relocated to CNAF Stadium in Buftea, because Progresul Spartac Stadium in Bucharest did not meet the standards for the second-tier.

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
1599 Șelimbăr	Claudiu Niculescu	Ciprian Natea	Nike	Shopping City Sibiu
CSM Alexandria	Sorin Albeanu	Dragoș Balauru	Peak Sport Products	Primăria Alexandria
Argeș Pitești	Eugen Neagoe	Costinel Tofan	Macron	Getica 95
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	Cristian Pustai	Azdren Llullaku	Masita	SSAB Impex
Chindia Târgoviște	Diego Longo	Cornel Dinu	Macron	—
Concordia Chiajna	Ilie Poenaru	Gabriel Torje	Joma	—
Corvinul Hunedoara	Florin Maxim	Alexandru Neacșa	Joma	Prodesign, ArcelorMittal
Csíkszereda	Róbert Ilyés	Dávid Kelemen	2Rule	Csíkszereda, MOL
CSM Reșița	Flavius Stoican	Alin Dudea	Puma	Invest in Reșița
CSM Slatina	Daniel Oprescu	Cătălin Doman	Macron	Primăria Slatina
Dumbrăvița	Cosmin Stan	Costel Zurbagiu	Macron	Artoil
Gloria Buzău	Andrei Prepeliță	Cristian Dumitru	Joma	Superbet, Getica 95
Metaloglobus București	Ianis Zicu	Georgian Honciu	Jako	—
Mioveni	Constantin Schumacher	Daniel Șerbănică	Macron	—
Progresul Spartac	Andrei Erimia	Dănilă Parfeon	Team	Kulterra
Steaua București	Daniel Oprița	Bogdan Chipirliu	Adidas	Get's Bet
Tunari	Dan Alexa	Mirko Ivanovski	Nike	Pinum
Unirea Dej	Dragoș Militaru	Mihai Kereki	Hummel	Dendiarom
Unirea Slobozia	Adrian Mihalcea	Constantin Toma	Joma	Consiliul Județean Ialomița
Viitorul Târgu Jiu	Călin Cojocaru	Arian Mršulja	Nike	Târg Auto OLTENIA

Managerial changes

Pre-season

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Slobozia	Enache Costea	Assistant manager	31 May 2023	Adrian Mihalcea[13]	1 July 2023
Mioveni	Vlad Țăranu	End of tenure as a caretaker	31 May 2023[14]	Constantin Schumacher[15]	1 July 2023
Chindia	Anton Petrea	End of contract	31 May 2023[16]	Dragoș Militaru	1 July 2023
Concordia	Eugen Trică		31 May 2023[17]	Erik Lincar	1 July 2023[18]
Dej	Dragoș Militaru		31 May 2023[19]	Dacian Nastai	1 July 2023[20]
Argeș	Bogdan Vintilă	Mutual agreement	8 June 2023[21]	Alexandru Pelici	1 July 2023
Tunari	Gabriel Manu		14 June 2023	Florin Stângă	1 July 2023[22]
Gloria	Adrian Mihalcea	End of contract	30 June 2023[23]	Andrei Prepeliță	1 July 2023

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	1599 Șelimbăr	19	12	6	1	23	9	+14	42	Qualification for Promotion play-off
2	Unirea Slobozia	19	12	4	3	22	8	+14	40
3	Corvinul Hunedoara	19	11	4	4	30	16	+14	37
4	Gloria Buzău	19	10	4	5	31	21	+10	34
5	Mioveni	19	9	6	4	20	9	+11	33
6	Csíkszereda	19	9	5	5	19	14	+5	32
7	Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	19	9	4	6	30	17	+13	31	Qualification for Relegation play-out Group A
8	Steaua București	19	7	7	5	37	24	+13	28	Qualification for Relegation play-out Group B
9	Chindia Târgoviște	19	7	7	5	27	14	+13	28
10	Reșița	19	7	6	6	28	25	+3	27	Qualification for Relegation play-out Group A
11	Metaloglobus București	19	6	8	5	20	22	−2	26
12	Concordia Chiajna	19	6	7	6	24	18	+6	25	Qualification for Relegation play-out Group B
13	Slatina	19	6	7	6	16	18	−2	25
14	Argeș Pitești	19	6	6	7	17	16	+1	24	Qualification for Relegation play-out Group A
15	Dumbrăvița	19	6	5	8	19	22	−3	23
16	Viitorul Târgu Jiu	19	5	8	6	16	28	−12	23	Qualification for Relegation play-out Group B
17	Tunari	19	3	7	9	16	32	−16	16
18	Unirea Dej	19	4	1	14	13	35	−22	13	Qualification for Relegation play-out Group A
19	Alexandria	19	2	3	14	10	29	−19	9
20	Progresul Spartac București	19	0	1	18	9	50	−41	1	Qualification for Relegation play-out Group B

Source: FRF (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: During Season: 1) Points, 2) Goal difference, 3) Goals scored. End of Season: 1) Points, 2) Head-to-head points, 3) Head-to-head goal difference, 4) Goal difference, 5) Goals scored

Season results

Home \ Away	ȘEL	USZ	COR	GBZ	MIO	CSI	CEA	STE	CHI	RES	MET	CON	SLA	ARG	DUM	VTJ	TUN	UDJ	ALX	PRS
1599 Șelimbăr		0–1		2–1	1–0			3–2	2–1	2–2					1–0			2–0		2–1
Unirea Slobozia			3–1	0–1		0–1	2–1	1–0			2–0					1–1	3–1		1–0
Corvinul Hunedoara	0–0				0–2	2–0	2–1		2–1	2–0		2–2	3–0	2–0				4–0
Gloria Buzău			2–1			0–2	1–1	4–4			1–0			0–2		5–0	2–1		1–0
Mioveni		1–1		0–0				2–0		2–1	0–2	1–1			0–1		4–0		1–0	3–1
Csíkszereda	1–2				0–0		2–0		1–0	1–1		0–3	1–0	2–1				1–0		3–0
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	0–0				0–1				1–1	4–0			4–0	2–0	2–0			1–0		4–0
Steaua București			0–1			1–0	3–1				1–1		1–1	3–1		5–0	2–1		1–1
Chindia Târgoviște		0–1		1–1	0–2			1–1		4–1	0–0	1–1			4–0				3–0	3–0
Reșița		0–1		2–0				3–1			5–0	3–2			2–1	1–1	1–1		3–1	0–0
Metaloglobus	0–1		1–2			0–0	2–1					2–0	1–1	1–1		2–1	3–3	2–1
Concordia Chiajna	0–1	0–0		1–0			1–2	0–0					1–0	1–0	0–2				0–1
Slatina	0–0	1–0		1–2	0–0				0–0	0–0					3–0			1–2		1–0
Argeș Pitești	0–0	0–1			0–0				0–2	1–0			1–1		2–0			2–0		1–0
Dumbrăvița		0–2	0–0	0–1		1–1		0–0			1–1					1–1	6–1		2–0
Viitorul Târgu Jiu	0–3		2–1		1–0	1–1	0–2		0–0			2–2	1–2	0–0				2–1
Tunari	0–0		1–1			1–0	0–1		0–2			1–1	1–3	1–1		0–0		0–1
Unirea Dej		0–0		2–4	0–1			2–6	1–3	1–3		0–2			0–1				1–0	1–0
Alexandria	0–1		0–2			1–2	2–2				1–1		0–1	0–4		0–1	0–1
Progresul Spartac		0–2	1–2	1–5				1–6			0–1	0–6			1–3	1–2	1–2		1–3

Source: FRF
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion play-off

A promotion play-off tournament between the best 6 teams (after 19 rounds) will be played to decide the two teams that will be promoted to Liga I, meanwhile the third-placed and fourth-placed teams would play another play-off match against the 13th-placed and 14th-placed teams from Liga I. The teams will start the promotion play-offs with all the points accumulated in the regular season.^[24]

Play-off table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or qualification
1	Unirea Slobozia (P, C)	10	6	2	2	9	6	+3	60	Promotion to Liga I
2	Corvinul Hunedoara[a]	10	4	3	3	14	11	+3	52	Qualification for Europa League first qualifying round[b]
3	1599 Șelimbăr[a]	10	1	6	3	8	12	−4	51[c]
4	Gloria Buzău (P)	10	4	5	1	12	7	+5	51[c]	Promotion to Liga I
5	Mioveni (Q)	10	2	4	4	10	11	−1	43	Qualification for play-offs
6	Miercurea Ciuc (Q)	10	2	2	6	9	15	−6	40

Source: FRF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points in the regular season; 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Head-to-head goals scored; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored; 7) Goal difference (regular season + play off); 8) Goals scored (regular season + play off); 9) Play-off.^[25]
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (Q) Qualified for the phase indicated
Notes:

1. Corvinul Hunedoara and 1599 Șelimbăr are ineligible for promotion due to the clubs being owned by comunal departments/entities, all Liga I clubs are required to be privately owned.
2. Corvinul Hunedoara qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round as 2023–24 Cupa României winners
3. 1599 Șelimbăr finished ahead of Gloria Buzău on regular season points: 1599 Șelimbăr 42, Gloria Buzău 34

Results

Home \ Away	ȘEL	COR	CSI	GBZ	MIO	USZ
1599 Șelimbăr		0–0	2–2	2–1	2–2	1–2
Corvinul Hunedoara	3–1		3–1	1–1	2–0	1–0
Miercurea Ciuc	2–0	2–1		0–1	1–1	0–1
Gloria Buzău	0–0	2–2	1–0		1–0	3–0
Mioveni	0–0	3–1	3–1	1–1		0–1
Unirea Slobozia	0–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	1–0

Source: FRF
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation play-out

A relegation play-out tournament between the last 14 ranked teams at the end of the regular season was played to decide the five teams that will be relegated to Liga III. Two play-out groups were made: the first group consisted of teams ranked 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18 and 19, and the second group consisted of teams ranked 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 17 and 20, at the end of the regular season. The teams started the relegation play-out with all the points accumulated in the regular season. Two teams from each group were relegated to Liga III. ^[24]

Group A

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	CSM Reșița	6	4	1	1	11	7	+4	40
2	Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	6	1	2	3	10	11	−1	36
3	Metaloglobus București	6	2	2	2	6	5	+1	34[a]
4	Argeș Pitești	6	3	1	2	8	4	+4	34[a]
5	Dumbrăvița	6	1	1	4	3	9	−6	27[b]
6	Unirea Dej (R)	6	4	2	0	7	2	+5	27[b]	Relegation to 2024–25 Liga III
7	CSM Alexandria (R)	6	1	1	4	5	12	−7	13

Source: FRF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points in the regular season; 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Head-to-head goals scored; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored; 7) Goal difference (regular season + play out); 8) Goals scored (regular season + play out); 9) Play-off.^[25]
(R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Metaloglobus București finished ahead of Argeș on regular season points tally: Metaloglobus București 26, Argeș 24
2. Dumbrăvița finished ahead of Unirea Dej on regular season points tally: Dumbrăvița 23, Unirea Dej 13

Group B

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Steaua București	6	5	1	0	12	2	+10	44
2	Chindia Târgoviște	6	3	1	2	8	4	+4	38[a]
3	Concordia Chiajna	6	4	1	1	8	6	+2	38[a]
4	CSM Slatina	6	2	1	3	0	0	0	32
5	Viitorul Târgu Jiu	6	2	1	3	6	8	−2	30
6	Tunari (R)	6	1	1	4	8	12	−4	20	Relegation to 2024–25 Liga III
7	Progresul Spartac București (R)	6	1	0	5	5	15	−10	4

Source: FRF
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Points in the regular season; 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Head-to-head goals scored; 6) Head-to-head away goals scored; 7) Goal difference (regular season + play out); 8) Goals scored (regular season + play out); 9) Play-off.^[25]
(R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Chindia Târgoviște finished ahead of Concordia Chiajna on regular season points tally: Chindia Târgoviște 28, Concordia Chiajna 25

Promotion/relegation play-offs

The 13th and 14th-placed teams of the Liga I faces the 3rd and 4th-placed team of the Liga II.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Dinamo București	2–0	Miercurea Ciuc	2–0	0–0
Botoșani	2–0	Mioveni	1–0	1–0

First leg

Botoșani v Mioveni

17 May 2024	Botoșani	1–0	Mioveni	Botoșani
	Aldaír 90+3'			Stadium: Municipal Stadium Referee: Horațiu Feșnic

Dinamo București v Miercurea Ciuc

20 May 2024	Dinamo București	2–0	Miercurea Ciuc	Bucharest
	Politic 46', 73'			Stadium: Arena Națională Attendance: 31,000 Referee: Rareș Vidican

Second leg

Mioveni v Botoșani

24 May 2024	Mioveni	0–1	Botoșani	Mioveni
			Mailat 74'	Stadium: Orășenesc Referee: Sebastian Colțescu

Miercurea Ciuc v Dinamo București

27 May 2024	Miercurea Ciuc	0–0	Dinamo București	Miercurea Ciuc
20:00				Stadium: Municipal Referee: Horațiu Feșnic