FCSB
The club
FCSB was founded on 7 June 1947 in Bucharest as ASA București, the sports association of the Romanian Army. Over the following decades the football club changed name repeatedly as Romania's political system changed around it: CSCA București from 1948, CCA București from 1950, then CSA Steaua București from 1961. Playing as Steaua București, the club became the dominant force in Romanian football and, in 1986, the first Eastern European club to win the European Cup. The club separated from the Army-affiliated CSA Steaua as a private entity in 1998, becoming AFC Steaua București and then, from 2003, FC Steaua București. It has played as FC FCSB since 2017, after losing the right to the Steaua name in court.
That name change is the central fact of the club's modern identity and needs stating plainly. From 2011 the Romanian Ministry of National Defence sued the football club, then still called Steaua, arguing that the Steaua name, crest and colours belonged to the Army's multi-sport club, CSA Steaua București, not to the private football company controlled by businessman George Becali. On 3 December 2014 Romania's Supreme Court ruled in the Ministry's favour, stripping the football club of its badge. The Romanian Football Federation's Executive Committee approved the change of the football club's name to FC FCSB on 30 March 2017, and CSA Steaua reactivated its own football department that summer under coach Marius Lăcătuș, starting out in Liga IV, the fourth tier, and playing in Liga II, the second tier, as of 2026. A further ruling on 5 July 2019 held that CSA Steaua is the rightful entity to assert the honours won up to 2003, though that decision was described as not definitive at the time. The dispute continued into 2026: on 1 April 2026 Romania's Constitutional Court ruled against FCSB in the underlying trademark case, a defeat the club's owner said he would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. Despite the domestic legal rulings, UEFA and FIFA have continued to treat FCSB as the continuous sporting entity holding the pre-2017 club's honours and UEFA coefficient, including the 1986 European Cup; owner George Becali has stated that FCSB retains "the original honours and UEFA coefficient." No verbatim UEFA statement specifically naming FCSB as the recognised 1986 champion was found in the sources read here, and the domestic legal position on who owns the pre-2003 honours remains genuinely contested rather than settled, so this should be read as the clearest available account rather than a closed question. In short: FCSB is the football club that actually won the 1986 European Cup as Steaua București and is the entity UEFA continues to recognise in its records and coefficient, while CSA Steaua București is a separate, army-affiliated club playing today in Romania's lower divisions that holds the Steaua name and crest under Romanian civil law but is not recognised by UEFA as holding the European honours.
FCSB should not be confused with CSA Steaua București, the club described above, which is a real, currently active football club in its own right, nor with any club abroad simply called Steaua or CSA. The club plays at the Arena Națională in Bucharest, a 55,634-capacity stadium opened on 6 September 2011, having previously played for decades at Stadionul Ghencea, the first football-only stadium built in Communist Romania, opened on 9 April 1974. The current head coach is Marius Baciu; his appointment date and immediate predecessor were not established from the sources read here. The club is owned by George Becali, with Valeriu Argăseală as president.
Recent seasons
FCSB finished as Liga I runners-up in four consecutive seasons from 2016 to 2019, the first Romanian club to do so. The club won the Liga I title in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15, and reached three consecutive Champions League group stages across those seasons. In 2026/27, FCSB have started the Superliga campaign in second place after six matches, with eleven points from three wins, two draws and one defeat, trailing leaders Dinamo București on thirteen points.
Honours and landmarks
FCSB's honours list, spanning the Steaua-era and post-2017 club as a single continuous entity in UEFA's and the club's own reckoning, includes 27 Liga I championships, 24 Cupa României wins, two Cupa Ligii wins and seven Supercupa României wins. The club's defining landmark is the 1986 European Cup, won on penalties against Barcelona, which made it the first club from Eastern Europe to win the competition; the same year the club won the European Super Cup against Dynamo Kyiv and lost the Intercontinental Cup final 1-0 to River Plate. The club reached a second European Cup final in 1989, losing 4-0 to AC Milan. FCSB's most striking domestic record is a 104-match unbeaten run in the league between June 1986 and September 1989, described in club sources as a world and European record still standing, alongside a 112-match unbeaten run at home at Stadionul Ghencea between November 1989 and August 1996.
Notable scorelines
FCSB's record UEFA competition score came on 18 September 2014, when Claudiu Keșerü scored the fastest hat-trick in Europa League history, in twelve minutes, as the club beat Aalborg 6-0, the highest scoreline recorded in the competition's group stage at that point. The 2012-13 Europa League quarter-final at home to Chelsea drew an attendance of 50,016, the club's highest recorded gate. The 1986 European Cup final itself finished 0-0 after extra time, with FCSB winning the penalty shootout after goalkeeper Helmut Duckadam saved all four Barcelona spot kicks. The club's all-time domestic record win and record defeat were not established from the sources read here.
European record
FCSB's, as Steaua București, won the 1986 European Cup by beating Vejle, Honvéd, Kuusysi Lahti and Anderlecht en route to the final win over Barcelona, then reached the semi-finals in 1987/88 before losing the 1989 final to AC Milan 4-0. In the modern era the club reached the Europa League quarter-finals in 2012/13, losing to Chelsea, and qualified for the Champions League group stage in three straight seasons, 2013/14, 2014/15 and 2015/16. In 2026/27 FCSB entered the Conference League second qualifying round against FK Auda of Latvia, losing 2-3 at home on 23 July 2026 and 1-4 away on 30 July 2026, out 3-7 on aggregate.
Head-to-head notes
FCSB's defining rivalry is the Eternal Derby against Dinamo București, a fixture dating to 1948 and played more than 150 times, with a combined 44 league titles between the two clubs, 26 for Steaua/FCSB and 18 for Dinamo; Dinamo currently lead FCSB at the top of the 2026/27 Superliga table. The club also contests the Bucharest Derby against Rapid București, a fixture played more than 140 times since 4 November 1947, and has significant historical rivalries with CFR Cluj, Universitatea Craiova, Politehnica Timișoara and Petrolul Ploiești. Off the pitch, FCSB's most consequential ongoing dispute is not with another football club at all but with CSA Steaua București over the Steaua name itself, detailed above.
Right now (2026/27)
Marius Baciu is head coach. FCSB sit second in the Superliga after six rounds, with eleven points from three wins, two draws and one defeat, three points behind leaders Dinamo București. The club's European campaign ended early in 2026/27, eliminated by FK Auda of Latvia in the Conference League second qualifying round, 3-7 on aggregate after a 2-3 home defeat and a 1-4 away defeat. The Constitutional Court's ruling against FCSB in the Steaua trademark case, on 1 April 2026, remains unresolved pending Becali's stated intention to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The club's summer 2026 transfer business and any domestic cup progress in 2026/27 were not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCSB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSA_Steaua_Bucure%C8%99ti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_FCSB_season
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.