2018–19 Liga Națională (men's handball)


The 2018–19 Liga Națională is the 61st season of Romanian Handball League, the top-level men's professional handball league. The league comprises 14 teams. Dinamo București are the defending champions, for the third season in a row.

Team changes

To Liga Națională

Promoted from Divizia A
Relegated to Divizia A
Notes:
ClubGroundCapacity
CSM BacăuSala Sporturilor2,000
CSM BucureștiSala Sporturilor "Rapid"1,500
CSM FăgărașSala Colegiul Național "Radu Negru"150
CSM FocșaniSala Sporturilor "Vrancea"1,400
CSU SuceavaSala Sporturilor500
Dinamo BucureștiSala Dinamo2,538
Dobrogea ConstanțaSala Sporturilor2,100
Dunărea CălăraşiSala Polivalentă1,500
HC BuzăuSala Sporturilor "Romeo Iamandi"1,868
Minaur Baia MareSala Sporturilor "Lascăr Pană"2,048
Politehnica TimișoaraSala Constantin Jude1,540
Potaissa TurdaSala de sport "Gheorghe Bariţiu"600
Steaua BucureștiSala Sporturilor "Concordia"600
Universitatea ClujSala Sporturilor "Horia Demian"2,525

League table

Play-Off

First round

The top eight teams from regular season will be distributed in two main groups consisting of four teams each. In the group the teams will meet twice and at the end, they will qualify for the knockout phase. Teams start the group phase with a certain number of points, depending on the place occupied in the regular season.

Seria A

Seria B

Second round

The teams that played in the first round of the play-offs will also play in the second round, but for different objectives, depending on the rankings obtained in the previous round. The winners of the Seria A and Seria B groups will play in the league final, the second places will compete for the "bronze medal" and a place in the 2019–20 EHF Cup, the third places will fight for the 5th place and the last ranked teams will play against each other for the 7th place. All the finals were played in a best-of-three games format.

League table – positions 1–4

TeamQualification or relegation
1Dinamo București2019–20 EHF Champions League
2Dobrogea Constanța2019–20 EHF Cup
3Potaissa Turda2019–20 EHF Cup
4CSM București2019–20 EHF Challenge Cup

League table – positions 5–8

Team
5Dunărea Călărași
6Steaua București
7Politehnica Timișoara
8Focșani

Play-Out

The bottom six teams from regular season will meet twice to contest against relegation. Teams start the play-out round with a number of points ranging from 1 to 5, depending on the place occupied in the regular season. The winner of the Relegation round finishes 9th in the overall season standings, the second placed team - 10th, and so on, with the last placed team in the Relegation round being 14th.

Promotion/Relegation play-offs

The 11th and 12th-placed teams of the Liga Națională faced the 3rd and 4th-placed teams of the Divizia A promotion tournament. The first two places promoted to Liga Națională and the last two relegated to Divizia A. The play-offs were played on neutral ground, in Drobeta-Turnu Severin.

Season statistics

Number of teams by counties