Universitatea Craiova

Craiova sits at the centre of Oltenia, a region locals still call Bănie, and football here carries one name: Universitatea. The club began on 5 September 1948 as the football section of what was then Știința Craiova, taking the name Universitatea Craiova in 1966.

Its best football came late. Between 1979 and 1991, a run still known as Craiova Maximă, the side beat Olympiacos on the way to a European Cup quarter-final, losing there to Bayern Munich, then went one round further in the UEFA Cup as the first Romanian club to reach a European semi-final, where Benfica ended the run. Ilie Balaci was named Romania's footballer of the year in 1981 and 1982, Rodion Cămătaru finished as the national team's record scorer, and Silviu Lung kept goal for Romania. Ion Oblemenco, a forward from that generation, later gave his name to the club's stadium.

The years after were harder to follow. The football section became a separate company in 1991; that company went bankrupt and was dissolved in 2011-2012. A new entity, set up in 2013, carried the Universitatea name forward, and Romania's league recognised it as heir to the pre-1991 record. Adrian Mititelu's FC U Craiova 1948, founded in 2017 in the same city and at the same ground, disputes that claim, and matches between the two are known as Derby-ul Olteniei. Dinamo Bucharest remains the older rivalry, dating back to the Craiova Maximă years.

Domestically, the Cupa României has suited the White-Blues better than the league — nine wins against five league titles — though 2026 brought something new: Liga I, the cup and the Supercupa all won in the same year. Stadionul Ion Oblemenco, opened in 2017 on the site of the old ground, holds close to 31,000. The club's claim to its own history before 1991 is still not settled: in June 2025, Romania's Supreme Court sent the dispute over the honours list back for a fresh hearing.