At
the end of 19th century, in old Romania (without the regions of Transylvania,
Basarabya and Bucovyna, that were under rule of Austro-Hungarian and Russian
Empires), football had just been "imported" from abroad, meantime
with industrial revolution.
At the time, Bucharest and Ploiesti were the most industrially-developed
and populated towns, so here, the first organised teams and competitions
("ASAR", "Hans Herzog", "Harwester" Cups)
were founded. In certain years, one of these competitions was officially
confirmed as the National Championship.
Although at the time there were only a few teams, a governing society
was needed, so "The Association of Football Clubs" was set up
in 1909. The first officially 3 teams (Colentina and Olympia Bucharest,
United from Ploiesti) were founded by foreigners who worked in industry
or in other fields, and only these 3 teams played the first pre-WWI championships
(until 1914). When war broke up, the foreigners left Romania and most
competitions stopped.
Until 1916, in Bucharest there were 11 teams and in Craiova, 5, most of
them with some material instability. This first period of National Championship
is known as the "Romantic" one.
After WWI, when old Romania reunificated with its historical regions,
football was also brought together by unification of all governing associations
(1921), and the National Championship had a new organisation, by regions
and by regional leagues (their champions playing a tournament with eliminatory
games).
In 1932, there was a real reform in the formula of National Championship,
by organisation of divisions: A, B (since 1934) and C (since 1936, but
with a lot of interruptions due to economic circumstances, 1963/1964 being
the season of next uninterrupted editions).
In 1938, in Romania were 585 football clubs and 70.000 registered players.
Due to WWII circumstances, in 1941, National Championship was reorganised
in a competition called "Basarabya Cup", (in honour of eliberating
the historic region of Basarabya and early Soviet Union defeat) which
gave up the divisional system, reintroducing the regional one; in 1942
an 1943, there was a "War Championship", played between 12 teams.
None of these competitions was officially confirmed as "National
Championship", due to war circumstances (poor transportation, front-line
conscripting of some players etc.). In the first half of 1944 all competitions
were suspended.
After WWII to present, the Championship restarts with divisional system.