Universitatea Craiova

U Craiova 1948 Club Sportiv, commonly known as Universitatea Craiova (Romanian pronunciation: [universiˈtate̯a kraˈjova]), U Craiova, or CS U Craiova, is a Romanian professional football team based in Craiova, Dolj County, currently playing in the Liga I, the top tier of the Romanian football league system.

It was initially founded in 1948 as a football section for the CSU Craiova sports club of which it was part of until 1991, when its berth in the league championship was taken by FC U Craiova following a privatisation scheme. Between 1948 and 1991, Universitatea had won four national titles and five national cups. In the next two decades however, FC U was reorganised several times and disaffiliated, which led to it being retroactively deemed an unofficial successor to the old entity. In 2013, the sports club refounded its football department, which asserts the history and trophies of the original Universitatea Craiova. They have in truth been backed up by some court orders and the Liga Profesionista de Fotbal, but the record remains subject of legal dispute with the also reestablished FC U team and uncertainty persists. In 2018, "the White and Blues" won the Cupa Romaniei, representing their first trophy following refoundation, and in 2021 won their first Supercupa Romaniei.

On the European stage, Universitatea Craiova's best performances are reaching the semi-finals of the 1982–83 UEFA Cup and the quarter-finals of the 1981–82 European Cup. They were the first Romanian team to reach the semi-finals of a UEFA tournament and remain the only one to have knocked out at least one club from each of five strongest countries in European football—England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. "The Students" play their home matches at the Stadionul Ion Oblemenco, which has a capacity of 30,929. They hold several rivalries, the most notable being the one with Dinamo București.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Университатя Крайова (russian)