Victoria Bucureşti

Victoria Bucureşti is a former Romanian football club, dissolved right after the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

History

The club was sponsored by the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs (the "Militia", Police). In 1985 Victoria played for the first time in Romanian top division, becoming very fast one of the most important teams, behind Steaua and Dinamo Bucuresti. Between 1986-1989 they finished every year on 3rd place. However, it was a well known fact during that time that many victories were due to unfair influences over the referees, other teams' players and even officials. This is why in 1990, right after the Revolution, the team was dissolved by the Romanian Football Federation and the club literally disappeared.

Players

Victoria was known as a team that enrolls only good players, however not good enough to be enrolled by Steaua or Dinamo. They were either players in their retirement age (such as Ionel Augustin, Costel Orac, Cornel Ţălnar or Claudiu Vaiscovici) or talents not good enough for the "big 2" (such as Marcel Coras, Ovidiu Hanganu, Fanel Tara, Pana brothers or Culcear). Many players came from Dinamo (in fact, Victoria's stadium was a training field inside Dinamo's Sport Complex. The Victoria Ground is now known as the "Florea Dumitrache Field" in honor of the great Romanian striker, who played 11 seasons for Dinamo and 7 years for the Romanian National Football Team).

European Cups

Even so, during its short existence, the club played one quarter final of UEFA Cup 1988-89. They were defeated by Dynamo Dresden (1-1 in Bucharest and 0-4 in Dresden), a team from former East Germany, where Matthias Sammer was a young rising star.

Victoria's results in the UEFA Cup

UEFA Cup 1987–88

"First Round:"
* EPA Larnaca FC - Victoria Bucuresti 0-1
* Victoria Bucuresti - EPA Larnaca FC 3-0 Aggregate 0-4

"Second Round:"
* Victoria Bucuresti - Dinamo Tbilisi 0-0
* Dinamo Tbilisi - Victoria Bucuresti 2-1 Aggregate 1-2

UEFA Cup 1988–89

"First Round:"
* Sliema Wanderers - Victoria Bucuresti 0-2
* Victoria Bucuresti - Sliema Wanderers 6-1 Aggregate 1-8

"Second Round:"
* Dinamo Minsk - Victoria Bucuresti 2-1
* Victoria Bucuresti - Dinamo Minsk 1-0 Aggregate 2-2

"Third Round:"
* Victoria Bucuresti - Turun Palloseura Turku 1-0
* Turun Palloseura Turku - Victoria Bucuresti 3-2 Aggregate 3-3

"Quarter Final:"
* Victoria Bucuresti - Dynamo Dresden 1-1
* Dynamo Dresden - Victoria Bucuresti 4-0 Aggregate 1-5

UEFA Cup 1989–90

"First Round:"
* Valencia C.F. - Victoria Bucuresti 3-1
* Victoria Bucuresti - Valencia C.F. 1-1 Aggregate 2-4

Trivia

* The last president of the Club was Dumitru Dragomir, currently the president of the Romanian Football League and Romanian politician.
* Between 1985-1989, Victoria played 4 Romanian Cup semi-finals. They lost every time against fellows Dinamo with 2 goals (2-4 in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 0-2 in 1989). Subsequently, Dinamo always played the final against Steaua, losing it in 3 occasions (1987, 1988 and 1989).
* Although ranked many years as 3rd Romanian team, Victoria never took a single point from Steaua or Dinamo.

External links

* [http://www.romaniansoccer.ro/clubs_2/victoria_bucuresti/victoria_bucuresti.shtml RomanianSoccer.ro]