Șoimii Lipova

Clubul Sportiv Șoimii Lipova, commonly known as CS Șoimii Lipova, or simply Șoimii Lipova, is a Romanian professional football club based in Lipova, Arad County.

The team was founded in 1974 and played in the Divizia C for 14 years, between 1980 and 1994. The most important result was a 1st place in the 11th series, achieved at the end of the 1991–92 season. After 1994 Șoimii played only in the fourth tier of the Romanian football league system and even withdrew from any competition in the spring of 2010. After two years of inactivity Șoimii enrolled in the sixth tier and started its ascension, promoting back to Liga III at the end of the 2016–17 season.

History

Șoimii Lipova was founded in 1974 after a merger between Mureșul Lipova and Luptatorul Lipova. In the first season, 1974–75 Arad County Championship, the squad based in Lipova finished on the 4th place, then in the following season, 1975–76, won the county championship and qualifying for the Divizia C promotion play-off, but lost in front of Timiș County champion, Laminorul Nadrag (1–0 at Nadrag and 0–2 at Lipova). Followed three seasons in which Șoimii finished on the following positions: 4th (1976–77 and 1977–78) and 9th (1978–79) in the second series of the County Championship. In 1979–80, Șoimii Lipova, won the county championship again, finished 1st in Series B and won the championship final against the winner of the first series, Chimia Arad (1–0 in Lipova and 3–3 in Arad). Followed a promotion play-off match to Divizia C against the champion of Timiș County, Textila Timișoara. Șoimii promoted after two victories (3–1 at Timișoara and 2–1 at Lipova).

After the promotion, in the summer of 1980, the team starts collaborating with the lathe factory from Lipova, changing its name to Șoimii-Strungul.
At the end of the first season in Divizia C, Șoimii-Strungul, with a new coach, Toma Jurca, finished on the 4th place, then in the summer of 1981 changed its name again in Șoimii Lipova. Followed an