FC Buzău

Gloria Buzău

File:SCM Gloria Buzău logo.jpg
Full name	Sport Club Municipal Gloria Buzău
Nickname(s)	Glorioşii (The Glorious Ones)
Short name	Gloria
Founded	16 June 1973 (1973-06-16) as FC Gloria Buzău 25 August 2016 (2016-08-25) as FC Buzău
Ground	Municipal
Capacity	18,000
Owner	Buzău Municipality
Chairman	Ionel Turturică
Manager	Vasile Tudose
League	Liga IV
2016–17	Liga V, Seria I, 1st (promoted)
Website	https://web.archive.org/web/20071011030918/http://www.fcgloriabuzau.ro/
Home colours Away colours

Sport Club Municipal Gloria Buzău (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈɡlori.a buˈzəw]), commonly known as Gloria Buzău, is a Romanian association football club based in Buzău. The team played for seven years in Liga I, the most recent presence being recorded in the 2008–09 season. Currently, the team plays in Liga IV.

History

File:Gloria Buzau logo.png

Former logo.

Establishment

Sport Club Municipal Gloria Buzău was founded on 16 June 1973, by the Buzău County Local Council, as part of CSM Buzău (Clubul Sportiv Municipal) (En: Municipal Sports Club), the local all-sports association.

Gloria absorbed the former team of Buzău, Metalul, whose place it also took in Divizia C (currently Liga III). With Metalul's players, together with other local footballers (especially from another team, Şoimii), they ranked 1st in their first season of Divizia C. Gloria won the subsequent Divizia B promotion play-off tournament and thus won promotion in their first year of existence.

1970s and 1980s

After several attempts to attack the first place in Seria I of Divizia B, Gloria managed, only 6 years after their establishment, to rank first at the end of the 1977–78 season and to gain promotion to the Divizia A for the first time for a team from Buzău. After a season in which Gloria obtained probably their best result in history (4–1 at home with Steaua Bucureşti), they managed to surprisingly maintain themselves in the first league after causing a major upset by winning against UTA Arad, one of the Romanian giants of the moment, and provoking their relegation. They relegated though the next season.

After four seasons, Gloria was again in Divizia A where they remained for three more seasons. The season of 1984–85 was Gloria's most successful one in history as they ranked 5th and obtained their tickets to the Balkans Cup, where they reached the semifinals stage, outpassed by Panionios of Greece.

Two decades of lower leagues

What followed was 20 seasons of anonymous lower-league football, including two seasons in Divizia C (2000–01 and 2001–02). After gaining promotion to the Divizia B again, former glory Viorel Ion took over as head coach and as player and led them to the Divizia A promotion play-offs lost in front of FC Politehnica AEK Timişoara.

Meanwhile, the club confronted itself with major financial difficulties, nearing bankruptcy. This went on up until the 2006–07 season, when investor Aurel Brebeanu took over the club from former president Dan Tulpan and managed to save the club. The same season also meant a big success for the Crâng-based club, as it won promotion to the Liga I after 20 years of absence.

In 2007, businessman Constantin Bucur purchased 52% of the shares of the newly promoted club, becoming majority shareholder.

Presence in the First League (2007–2009)

After the 2006–07 season, Gloria managed to promote to Liga I, coached by Viorel Ion. Businessman Constantin Bucur fired Ion after only a few matches in the 2007–08 season of Liga I, and replaced him with Ștefan Stoica. The team fought to avoid relegation to the last match, and managed to obtain the last rank that kept the team in the first league. The following season was more of a disappointment and Gloria finished last and relegated back to Liga II.

Back in the lower leagues

Abandoned by Bucur, and due to financial problems the team lost almost all the players at the end of the season 2008–09. The first season back in Liga II was difficult, as the team received an 8 pct deduction because it did not fulfill the minimum number of points in the previous season, and also lost the game from the first day with 3–0 by federal decision because it had some ex-players that were unpaid. They managed to find players only a few weeks before the start of the season. The board promoted Nicolae Anton as coach who had previously coached the second team (from the Liga IV) and the youth department. Although the team faced several problems it managed to get a run of 6 wins between days 2 and 8 (four of these wins came between days 2 and 5). The team avoided relegation by ranking 14th; after a new season in which they finished 10th, further financial problems caused the team to revert to youth players, which led to the relegation to the Liga III.

The 2012–13 season saw the team fighting to get back to Liga II. Their main opponents, Viitorul Axintele, seemed to have the better of them at the beginning, but after Ștefan Stoica (who came back to the team for the season) had to quit in order to care for his wife and was replaced with Marian Roșu, Gloria started to make up for the difference. In the direct match in the spring of 2013, Gloria lost to Viitorul and the promotion seemed to be lost. At the end of the season, however, a Romanian Football Federation inquiry proved that Viitorul did not have three youth teams in the county-level competition, as required by Liga III regulations, and gave Viitorul a 9-point penalty that led to Gloria finishing first and being promoted to Liga II.

Stadionul Crâng

On 26 May 2016, the Romanian Football Federation fined 14 Gloria players and three managers for match-fixing in Liga II in 10 matches between September 2014 and May 2015 and imposed total bans of 174 months on them.At the end of the 2015–16 Liga II season, Gloria had to face Olimpia Satu Mare in a relegation play-off in June but the club did not compete after it did not have enough players to line up once the bans had come into effect. Along with these developments the club went into bankruptcy.

A new beginning

After the bankruptcy of Gloria Buzău, businessman Ionel Turturică founded a new club, FC Buzău, which was enrolled in the Liga V-Buzău County. After only one season, the new club, which also had players with many matches played for Gloria Buzău, promoted to Liga IV with a total of 63 points, 7 points ahead the second place.

In the summer of 2017, the mayor of Buzău announced that Buzău Municipality has obtained the right to use Gloria Buzău brand for all the sports teams which evolves under the organization of the Municipal Sports Club (SCM). He also announced that Buzău Municipality has become officially FC Buzău's main owner and assigning Gloria's brand to it, FC Buzău became SCM Gloria Buzău thus marking the return to life of the most prestigious football club in Buzău County.

Honours

Liga I

• Best finish 5th: 1984–85

Liga II

• Winners (2): 1977–78, 1983–84
• Runners-up (7): 1973–74, 1976–77, 1982–83, 1989–90, 1990–91, 2002–03, 2006–07

Liga III

• Winners (2): 2001–02, 2012–13
• Runners-up (1): 2000–01

Liga V

• Winners (1): 2016–17

Romanian Cup

• Semi-Finalist: 2007–08

Current squad

As of 18 July 2017

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	ROU	Ionuț Guiu
—	GK	ROU	Sebastian Miriță
—	GK	ROU	Adrian Pop
—	DF	ROU	Nicolae Argăseală
—	DF	ROU	Valentin Ceauș
—	DF	ROU	Alexandru Crăciun
—	DF	ROU	Marius Enache
—	DF	ROU	Ionuț Ghiță
—	DF	ROU	Adrian Nedelea
—	DF	ROU	Daniel Pîrvu
—	MF	ROU	Marin Baciu
—	MF	ROU	Gabriel Bobe (Captain)

No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ROU	Claudiu Ionescu
—	MF	ROU	Gabriel Mihăescu
—	MF	ROU	Mihai Modruz
—	MF	ROU	Ionuț Movileanu
—	MF	ROU	Claudiu Olteanu
—	MF	ROU	Mirel Șerban
—	MF	ROU	Cristian Zaplaic
—	FW	ROU	Andrei Cîmpeanu
—	FW	ROU	Gabriel Mușat
—	FW	ROU	Narcis Ilie
—	FW	ROU	Georgian Șerbănoiu

Club officials

Board of directors

Role	Name
Owner	Buzău Municipality
President	Ionel Turturică
Vice-President	Mihai Negoiță
Youth Center Manager	Marian Crăciun
Organizer of Competitions	Constantin Jipa

Current technical staff

Role	Name
Manager	Vasile Tudose
Assistant Manager	Mihai Modruz
Goalkeeping Coach	Alexandru Cristea
Club doctor	Dan Boboc

References

• "FC Gloria Buzau". fcgloriabuzau.ro. Archived from the original on 2011-06-20. Retrieved 2011-06-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)

• "FC Gloria Buzau". gloriabuzau.info. Archived from the original on 2010-01-25. Retrieved 2010-01-28. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
• "Semifinala Cupa Romaniei Timisoareana 2007–2008 FC Gloria Buzau – Unirea Urziceni". soccerway.com. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
• "Istoric Gloria Buzau". romaniansoccer.ro. Retrieved 2010-01-28.

External links

• Gloria Buzau FC official website