FC Gloria Buzău


FC Gloria Buzău, commonly known as Gloria Buzău, was a Romanian association football club based in Buzău. The team played for seven years in Liga I, the most recent presence being recorded in the 2008–09 season. The club went bankrupt in 2016.

History

Establishment

FC Gloria Buzău was founded on 16 June 1973, by the Buzău County Local Council, as part of CSM Buzău , the local all-sports association.
Gloria absorbed the former team of Buzău, Metalul, whose place it also took in Divizia C. With Metalul's players, together with other local footballers, they ranked 1st in their first season of Divizia C. Gloria won the subsequent Divizia B promotion play-off tournament and thus won promotion in their first year of existence.

1970s and 1980s

After several attempts to attack the first place in Seria I of Divizia B, Gloria managed, only 6 years after their establishment, to rank first at the end of the 1977–78 season and to gain promotion to the Divizia A for the first time for a team from Buzău. After a season in which Gloria obtained probably their best result in history , they managed to surprisingly maintain themselves in the first league after causing a major upset by winning against UTA Arad, one of the Romanian giants of the moment, and provoking their relegation. They relegated though the next season.
After four seasons, Gloria was again in Divizia A where they remained for three more seasons. The season of 1984–85 was Gloria's most successful one in history as they ranked 5th and obtained their tickets to the Balkans Cup, where they reached the semi-finals stage, outpassed by Panionios of Greece.

Two decades of lower leagues

What followed was 20 seasons of anonymous lower-league football, including two seasons in Divizia C . After gaining promotion to the Divizia B again, former glory Viorel Ion took over as head coach and as player and led them to the Divizia A promotion play-offs lost in front of FC Politehnica AEK Timişoara.
Meanwhile, the club confronted itself with major financial difficulties, nearing bankruptcy. This went on up until the 2006–07 season, when investor Aurel Brebeanu took over the club from former president Dan Tulpan and managed to save the club. The same season also meant a big success for the Crâng-based club, as it won promotion to the Liga I after 20 years of absence.
In 2007, businessman Constantin Bucur purchased 52% of the shares of the newly promoted club, becoming majority shareholder.

Presence in the First League (2007–2009)

After the 2006–07 season, Gloria managed to promote to Liga I, coached by Viorel Ion. Businessman Constantin Bucur fired Ion after only a few matches in the 2007–08 season of Liga I, and replaced him with Ștefan Stoica. The team fought to avoid relegation to the last match, and managed to obtain the last rank that kept the team in the first league. The following season was more of a disappointment and Gloria finished last and relegated back to Liga II.

Back in the lower leagues

Abandoned by Bucur, and due to financial problems the team lost almost all the players at the end of the season 2008–09. The first season back in Liga II was difficult, as the team received an 8 pct deduction because it did not fulfill the minimum number of points in the previous season, and also lost the game from the first day with 3–0 by federal decision because it had some ex-players that were unpaid. They managed to find players only a few weeks before the start of the season. The board promoted Nicolae Anton as coach who had previously coached the second team and the youth department. Although the team faced several problems it managed to get a run of 6 wins between days 2 and 8. The team avoided relegation by ranking 14th; after a new season in which they finished 10th, further financial problems caused the team to revert to youth players, which led to the relegation to the Liga III.
The 2012–13 season saw the team fighting to get back to Liga II. Their main opponents, Viitorul Axintele, seemed to have the better of them at the beginning, but after Ștefan Stoica had to quit in order to care for his wife and was replaced with Marian Roșu, Gloria started to make up for the difference. In the direct match in the spring of 2013, Gloria lost to Viitorul and the promotion seemed to be lost. At the end of the season, however, a Romanian Football Federation inquiry proved that Viitorul did not have three youth teams in the county-level competition, as required by Liga III regulations, and gave Viitorul a 9-point penalty that led to Gloria finishing first and being promoted to Liga II.
On 26 May 2016, the Romanian Football Federation fined 14 Gloria players and three managers for match-fixing in Liga II in 10 matches between September 2014 and May 2015 and imposed total bans of 174 months on them. At the end of the 2015–16 Liga II season, Gloria had to face Olimpia Satu Mare in a relegation play-off in June but the club did not compete after it did not have enough players to line up once the bans had come into effect. Along with these developments the club went into bankruptcy.

Honours

Domestic

Leagues

SeasonTierDivisionPlaceCupa României
2015–162Liga II 9th '
2014–152Liga II 3rd
2013–142Liga II 8thRound of 32
2012–133Liga III 1st '
2011–122Liga II 15th '
2010–112Liga II 10th
2009–102Liga II 14th
2008–091Liga I18th 'Round of 32
2007–081Liga I14thSemi-finals
2006–072Liga II 2nd 'Round of 32
2005–062Divizia B 9thRound of 32
2004–052Divizia B 9th
2003–042Divizia B 13th
2002–032Divizia B 2nd

SeasonTierDivisionPlaceCupa României
2001–023Divizia C1st 'Round of 32
2000–013Divizia C2nd
1999–002Divizia B 18th
1998–992Divizia B 10th
1997–982Divizia B 12thRound of 16
1996–972Divizia B 6th
1995–962Divizia B 4th
1994–952Divizia B 8th
1993–942Divizia B 11th
1992–932Divizia B 7thRound of 32
1991–922Divizia B 10th
1990–912Divizia B 2nd
1989–902Divizia B 2nd