ASU Politehnica Timișoara


Asociația Sportivă Universitatea Politehnica Timișoara, commonly known as ASU Politehnica Timișoara, or simply as ASU Poli, is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Timișoara, Timiș County, currently playing in the Liga II.
ASU Poli belongs to the Politehnica University of Timișoara and is a fan-owned phoenix club formed after the dissolution of the original FC Politehnica Timișoara in 2012. Also in that year, ACS Recaș was moved to Timișoara and renamed ACS Poli Timișoara, but the fans decided to create and support an amateur team, being of the opinion that ACS Poli is a fraud and a political maneuver.

History

Founding (2012)

Lacking other ambitions, in most of its business the team has evolved in the municipal championship. Following the dissolution of the Liga II team and disagreeing with the mayor's proposal to move ACS Recaș to Timișoara, South Lawn representatives, together with other fans of Politehnica Timișoara, decided to support the Liga V team, ASU Politehnica, which is the only now that they can identify as belonging to the right of the Polytechnic Institute, institution which appeared in 1921 as Politehnica Timișoara. Even if ASU Politehnica is not the legal successor of the former Divizia A and B team and even if not holding Polytechnics old track record, this is the only team that Poli supporters recognize as the one that can carry forward the spirit of the white and purple colours of Timișoara.

County Leagues (2012–2015)

On their first season after founding they reached the second place in 2012–2013 Liga V season and promoted to the next league, Liga IV Timiș County. They reached again the second place but this time they not promoted to Liga III, anyway they won their first trophy Cupa României, Timiș County round, beating FC Giarmata in the final. Next year they won the championship and qualified to the 2014–15 Liga IV promotion play-offs. In the same year they won a new established trophy named Football without owners, a friendly tournament of four teams without owners from Romania. The other teams were fan-owned phoenix clubs like ASU Poli named Argeș 1953 Pitești, FC Vaslui 2002 and the host LSS Voința Sibiu. On 11 June, was announced that the team will play against Voința Lupac, the champions of Liga IV Caraș-Severin County, in the play-off promotion match for a place in the 2015–16 Liga III season. In the home match they beat them and secured the promotion. Away they lost but they still promoted to Liga III, for the first time in their short history.

Professional Leagues (2015–present)

ASU Poli debuted very good in the 2015–16 Liga III with a victory against Minerul Motru, then they had their first victory away against Millenium Giarmata, and in the third round they defeated the last year series runners-up Metalurgistul Cugir. At the end of the season ASU Poli won their series and promoted again, this time in Liga II, after a close fight with Performanța Ighiu and Metalurgistul Cugir. During the 2016–17 Cupa României, they had their first televised cup match, a 3–0 defeat against Pandurii Târgu Jiu in the Round of 32, this was also the best result in the cup after they defeated Șoimii Pâncota in the fourth round.

Supporters and Rivalries

Historically, Poli has been the most prominent football club in Timișoara after 1945, playing consistently in either the first or the second tier of Romanian football. Local rivalries with CFR Timișoara and UM Timișoara were relevant until the early 2000s. Afterwards, the former was relegated to a semi-professional status in the lower leagues and the latter was dissolved in 2008.
ASU Poli has many fans in Romania but also in other countries. The roots of the Poli ultras movement was found in 1995 when groups like Urban Guerilla, Gruppo Soarelui, Frenetic, Banatica, Drojdierii or Gruppo Autonomo Viola appear in the South End.
Over the years, Poli developed rivalries with UTA Arad and Dinamo București. The rivalry with UTA, also known as West Derby, stems from the natural competition between the cities of Timișoara and Arad, which are located close to each other and are the main cities in the region. Both Timișoara and Arad claim to be the first place where football was played in Romania, with Timișoara being the true first city in Romania to host a football game.
Other rivalries are shared with CFR Cluj, Bihor Oradea, Steaua București and Universitatea Craiova.
Over the years, Politehnica Timișoara fans have established close friendships with the supporters of Rapid București and the Nordkurve from Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Honours

Domestic

Leagues

First team squad

Out on loan

Club Officials

Board of directors

Current technical staff

League history

SeasonTierDivisionPlaceCupa României
2019–202Liga II11thFourth Round
2018–192Liga II10thRound of 32
2017–182Liga II7thRound of 32
2016–172Liga II15thRound of 32

SeasonTierDivisionPlaceCupa României
2015–163Liga III 1st '
2014–154Liga IV 1st '
2013–144Liga IV 2nd
2012–135Liga V 2nd