Hidro Mecanica Sugag

Promotion in Șugăgenii's case came by way of a technicality that took nothing from the effort behind it. Hidro Mecanica Șugag won Liga IV in Alba County in the 2024–25 season, and the step up to Liga III followed only after the Romanian Football Federation ruled that their would-be play-off opponents, Stăruința Zagon, could not take part. Coach Radu Andone, who had already guided the side once before under a different name, saw the title through.

That earlier spell belonged to Transalpina Șugag, the name the club carried between 2016 and 2018 before reverting to Hidro Mecanica Șugag 1984 and dropping back into Liga V. The years in between were built on near misses rather than trophies: four runner-up finishes in Liga V and two in the Alba County round of Cupa României.

Midfielder Raul Buligă was part of that title-winning group, as was Ionuț Bradu, whose brother Antonio plays his football at Corvinul Hunedoara. Locally, the fixture that matters most is against Energia Săsciori, known along the valley as the derby-ul orgoliilor — the derby of pride, fought out on the Sebeș Valley stretch the two clubs share.

Home games are played in white and green at the Stadionul Hidro Mecanica. It sits in Șugag, a village in Alba County that has kept its own team through name changes, relegations and, this year, a promotion decided as much in an administrative office as on the pitch.