What On Earth Is Going On At Astra Giurgiu?

[@hartingtherealone]

Im surprised someone actually remembered them and even noticed what happened to them outside of Romania. Maybe you could also take a look at Dinamo Bucharest, the second most successfull romanian club getting its first relegation in history and now battling to survive in the second league.

[@romanscerbak5167]

Haha. I have been following from Ukraine since the start of the season. Damn, that's been a much harder fall even compared to my club, FC Dnipro...

[@MihailBFC]

probably Dinamo will take the road of Astra, team has no money

[@hartingtherealone]

@@MihailBFC judging by the fact they werent THAT BAD in this season start, i think they arent going to relegate. Its very important though, no matter who you support(and this is from a Steaua/FCSB fan), for this team to survive, considering how important it is for romanian football heritage.

[@daniel_361]

I'm from Germany and I've always had a soft spot for Romanian football because of its sheer unpredictability. I still remember how the German news freaked out when Romania briefly overtook the Bundesliga in the 5-years rating (I think that was in 2006/07). Later, my club VfB Stuttgart played two Romanian clubs in the same Champions League season, FC Timisoara and Unirea Urizeni - both of these clubs were dissolved only two years later.

[@mkgky15]

3 Words: WEST HAM UNITED

[@mihnea-valentinfiroiu7336]

FC Viitorul didn't go bankrupt. They merged with Farul Constanta and became FCV Farul at the end of the 19/20 season. They are still run by Gheorghe Hagi

[@payetsquaddd164]

As a West Ham fan whenever I hear Astra girgui all the bad memories come back

[@edi0157]

Saw that when us (FCSB/Steaua) drew you in the Conference League lol, it is okay lads, they cant hurt you anymore. Well, at least not now. But we can…

[@dand7763]

was a good team back then , but without financial support , all football teams die, for Astra was simple , their owner was jailed , Astra club receive zero money from their owner , the players, good ones, being unpaid, they left the team ...simply as that , no money = no performance in football ,except 4 or 5 teams in the first league who still are supported by owner (FCSB, CFR Cluj, Universitatea Craiova for example) ,the rest of teams struggle to survive ,financial speaking

[@adrianstere]

As a Steaua (FCSB) fan i feel you! Astra took a title away from us and completely trashed us in Romanian league! They use to have very good players, decent budget, and good management. They just come out of nowhere and trash all bigger teams from Bucharest and Cluj that were used to play on European coups every year. That’s why football is a beautiful sport I guess 😅 sometimes bigger teams deserve to be reminded that just because they have bigger budgets, history and fan base is not meaning that they can’t lose. I used to hate them with passion! But now I feel sorry for what happened to them! I wish I see them back in the first league. Every time they played in European coups they represent our country with proud and they give the best they could. Last time when Astra eliminated West Ham, they been already in big trouble as the owner was jailed, best players left, and the ones that stayed they didn’t been paid on time. That’s even more impressive as how they mobilized against a team with a much bigger history and budget!

[@edi0157]

@@adrianstere True, that why I cant stand all of that “Dinamo deserves to be in the first league, Romanian football is poorer without them” drivel. I mean, yeah they are one of the biggest clubs but they got relegated fair and square (arguably should have gone down two seasons ago when they got saved by covid too), it happens, no need to cry so hard about them. As you said, even big clubs have bad periods (christ, look at us this season too) and it is normal to be that way, it is healthy for the sport. It is already rare enough to see big clubs struggle, especially in the top 5 leagues with all the extra CL spots they got in the last decades, FFP being introduced and all, I don’t want that to be the future of football and no one in their right mind should. It is the type of thinking that brings us the Super League (heh, technically we already have it lol). As for Astra, I never really hated them (what Nicolae did with moving the team was really shitty though). I disliked it when they beat us to the title of course but it wasn’t anything like against actual rivals (Dinamo, Rapid, CFR lately) or anything. Tbf Nicolae is no chump himself but yeah, definitely had more to do to lift up his club than many of the others. As for having your owner jailed, tbf we were playing CL football when Gigi was in jail too lmao

[@RaduIosif]

YES! YES! Thank you for this video Alfie! Fun fact: the team in the thumbnail is called Arsenal Tunari. Tunari is a small Romanian commune whose name literally translates to "Gunners", which is why they called themselves Arsenal in a not unprecedented bit of blatant plagiarism by Romanian football teams. Who remembers Juventus București?

[@RoyMatzem]

1 thing made me curious, why no one try to buy the club? Seem to be a nice strucrure and probably cheap given the situation, is buying clubs not a thing in Romania?

[@BetoExpress1]

juventus bucuresti e localul meu

[@fane757]

@@RoyMatzem buying a failing club in Romania is actually an extremely bad deal. To take astra's example, Niculae had taken a lot of debt against the club and anyone trying to buy it would have to pay all those millions of euros in full

[@DuranceBell]

The thing about Arsenal Tunari is they always try to walk it in.

[@hanyuzhu7276]

Weren’t they sued by the original Juventus and forcibly changed their name to Daco-Getica Bucuresti?

[@thatguy5165]

Thanks Alfie, great video! There is just one thing to correct at 25:38 : Viitorul Constanța didn't die, they changed their Logo and name to Farul Constanța, since they merged with this club from the second tier which has far more history than Viitorul. It also was the first club where Hagi played in the 80s, so it's also a nice story since Hagi has now his boyhoodclub under its ownership. anyways, great job and congratulations on the 500k!

[@DJMavis]

I loved Hagi when I was a lad, always struck me as a player who was 5 times better than all other players, just also 4x less of an athlete.

[@vladimirdan1959]

@@DJMavis you should see some of his interviews, he's even more of a "poet" :)))

[@hanyuzhu7276]

Well, it still technically died, since the new club inherits Farul’s history

[@thatguy5165]

@@vladimirdan1959 only us Romanians will get the joke😂😂

[@edi0157]

@@thatguy5165 should we tell them?

[@franciscoricca8309]

Alfie, do one of these videos About Belenenses in Portugal! The club is one of only TWO clubs that won the Primeira Liga outside the Big Three, and now the club is split in two, Literally, and had to start all over from the regional divisions in Portugal. Their recovery from that is also great, as they have had 5 years of consecutive promotions since their restart, as they are now in the third division!

[@brunosurrador2161]

And Academica. Eles estão quase a entrar em insolvência

[@outlawvsn]

The real Belenenses is B Sad. Respect Matateu

[@SteauaFcsb]

Same happened with steaua Bucharest but it's one of the most succesful teams în Eastern Europe (even winned a ucl and a supercup)

[@ioncezar21]

I am from Ploiesti and actually saw Astra play while they were still based here. Their stadium still stands, but is in ruins ever since they moved to Giurgiu and even worse after they were relegated, i don t think anyone uses it for anything anymore(a few years after they moved to Giurgiu their academy was still here and they used this ground still often for training)

[@hanyuzhu7276]

Questions: 1. I wonder why they couldn’t play the “we’re the OG Ploiesti/Prahova County team, Petrolul are a bunch of vagrants from Bucharest” card to attract more fans when they were still Astra Ploiesti 2. If Petrolul ended up finding success and support in Ploiesti despite moving there from Bucharest, why can’t Astra do the same for Giurgiu?

[@ioncezar21]

@@hanyuzhu7276 well, Astra were always a small-time team and never had a solid fanbase because kept moving around from Ploiesti to Campina in those early years and Petrolul moved to Ploiesti a long long time ago so people barely remember they came from Bucharest. To answer your second question, it's because some cities just lack a fotballing tradition and you can't just have a rich corrupt guy like Ioan Niculae invent a fanbase overnight. Petrolul took 100 years(came here in 1923)to form a fanbase in the city and enjoyed years of domestic succes to become one of the best supported clubs in Romania, Ploiesti has a very old fotballing tradition, one of the oldest in the country, Giurgiu never had one and is a much smaller city.

[@edi0157]

@@ioncezar21 small correction, it was actually 1952 when Petrolul came to Ploiesti, they weren’t even founded until 1924. Doesn’t affect the rest of your comment but still

[@Cyanova1312]

@@ioncezar21 ah, Câmpina, with its 24 hour funeral directors and car washes, I miss it.

[@ciaopao9332]

On behalf of all romanians, thank you for making this video. I can't wait to get cozy and watch this one. Cheers!

[@eeeeewewew]

I have been watching this channel since very near it's beginnings. I love Alfie's dry wit and research skills. I love hearing all these fascinating football stories and the real world situations that play out in the background. This week and especially this morning has been mental and i can't explain how or why but for the entire time i watched this video i was engaged. This gave me what i needed. A distraction that didn't turn my brain off but rather redirected it temporarily and I am very greatful for that fact. Everyone should go and subscribe to Alfie's personal channel. He is far too good for HITC. If you see this mate then thank you for all your hard work. You are a gem especially when compared to most other people involved in football content on KZbin.

[@JimTheFly]

Alfie really is a great talent with how he can combine deep research, biting editorial, and dry wit to make something engaging and insightful.

[@caxzrockz]

This is the HITC 7s content we want football clubs that are obscure and in crisis

[@gm2407]

Or obscure doing something interesting. I want a video on Dorking Wanderers.

[@miche1df]

One correction: Viitorul Constanta didn't get relegated or go bust. They merged with Farul Constanta, which had been playing in Liga II, and the new club took on the identity of Farul Constanta. Viitorul was the club of Gheorghe Hagi's youth academy in Constanta, and Farul was the club where he began his career as a player, so the merger made sense from that perspective. You could probably make a "what on earth is going on" video about Romania every week. Several major Romanian clubs (U Craiova, Poli Timisoara, Poli Iasi, U Cluj, Rapid Bucharest, Petrolul Ploiesti, FC Brasov, FC Vaslui, and most recently Gaz Metan Medias) have been through this cycle of insolvency, relegation, or dissolution in the last decade or so, and there have been several flash-in-the-pan clubs like Astra recently (Unirea Urziceni, Otelul Galati, etc.).

[@hanyuzhu7276]

Well, it still technically went bust, since the new club inherits Farul’s history which meant Viitorul no longer exists

[@edi0157]

Wait what? Viitorul was founded in 2009 by him as a place where he could grow players from the Gheorghe Hagi Academy that he founded at the same time and give them playing time in the senior football system, they never existed before then. Hagi came through at Farul indeed and played one season there but Viitorul got founded 27 years later from his Liga 1 debut in 1982. The real reason the clubs merged was for his team to gain the branding power and legitimacy of the old Farul, Constanta s historic team

[@andreitv9921]

​@@edi0157 and what exactly did he get wrong?

[@edi0157]

@@andreitv9921 it was me that misread it as claiming Viitorul existed when Hagi was a player, sorry, my bad. Or it was edited for clarity since idk

[@MihailBFC]

as a romanian I'm so excited to see this video! you did a very good job except that Viitorul Constanța didn't got relegated, they merged with FCV Farul Constanta currently in Liga1 from Romania

[@MrBlazemaster525]

Technically it *is* a relegation, insomuch as Viitorul's original license switches places with the merged Farul's

[@MihailBFC]

@@MrBlazemaster525 no mate...farul was in second tier when they merged with first tier Viitorul Constanța.

[@MrBlazemaster525]

@@MihailBFC and there's where you get the disconnect Farul's license and Viitorul's swap places, so Farul get "promoted" and the dead Viitorul get "relegated" and then removed so they promote an extra club from the third tier(and so it follows down the ladder)

[@hartingtherealone]

@@MrBlazemaster525 actually, irl they transfered everything that belonged to Farul in the second league to Viitorul(apart from some of the players and the manager who wanted to stay in the second league) giving shares of the team resulting out of the merge to the guy who owned the 2nd league Farul and then sold what remained of the 2nd league side to some bussinessman who renamed it to "Unirea Constanta"(which is still in the 2nd league currently)

[@MrBlazemaster525]

@@hartingtherealone so it's still a dead license

[@alexandernisipeanu7062]

Thank you for posting a video about a Romanian team!

[@TripleCoreHD]

Very very good video. And it could be a whole series, because many Romanian clubs were or are in the same situation. Another interesting topic is "the 90s cooperative" - a long series of match fixing between a group of clubs with the aim of mass avoiding relegation. kudos!

[@TheAllRounderMemes]

As of October 30, Astra officially no longer exist.

[@andreiutzz3821]

Right now there are 2 teams with the same name (Universitatea Craiova) in the Romanian 1st league. Both of them claim the trophies and history of the original Universitatea and they fight for their rights , not only in court ;). Something like this is only possible in Romania and I think you could do a video on this

[@generationclash5004]

You should cover the state of modern Romanian football more frequently, Alfie. Thanks for this, even though I'm not an Astra Giurgiu fan. 🇷🇴

[@brizamarii12]

At 25:38. Viitorul never relegated. They just merged with Farul, a team that played the previous season in the second division.

[@JohnDoe-km9vx]

Thanks for the video Alfie :D great insight...and the said romanian football at this stage is similar to the US one... where you need money to get into to play, while nobody aside from Hagi is really investing in the youth academies. the 80's, 90's generation came from all round the country not from money and that's where the desire to get better is lacking.

[@whereisvanuatu]

Great, well-documented content, congratulations! However, if you want to investigate the biggest enigma of Romanian football, let me recommend this team: Unirea Urziceni. To have a team from a 15 k inhabitants town go from 3rd tier to national champions to beating the likes of Rangers and Sevilla in the Champions League to selling almost the entire team to being dissolved over the span of less than a decade is something I personally never heard of before or after.

[@75pc44]

Alfie, I love that you actually do your honest best to pronounce everything correctly. You tend to do pretty well.

[@liam8664]

as a West Ham fan, I found this amusing, weirdly West Ham fans have been keeping a small eye on how Astra have done since those years so I imagine a fair few of us knew how bad the last few years had been

[@ZENN-LA74]

Alfie, keep on doing you. Always entertaining. Never a let down. Appreciate your effort, m8. Much love from NYC. Wolves, ay we!!!

[@Riviscira]

Love these kinds of vids due to learn more financial problems or drama along with the existence of new clubs I have never heard of and prob never will unless topics like this are made lmao

[@erikthehalfabee6234]

Literally everybody's first thought must have been. "Where on earth do Astra Giurgiu play?" Well done Alfie, i'm gonna watch this one soon as i have enjoyed very much the previous What on earth is going on... videos.

[@KingdomOfStars]

I do appreciate that you have been able to untangle what has happened in the Romanian football in the past 15 years. Also, good Romanian names pronunciation 😀

[@silvicugoes394]

An honourable mention will be the Romanian club "Otelul Galati". They were managed in 2010/11 by the former romanian player who was included in Romania's golden team,Dorinel Munteanu. In that season,they finished first in the romanian league,and won the supercup against the club that was considered the best in romania at that time,Steaua Bucharest. They then went to the champions league 2011/12 group stages,facing Man United,Benfica and Basel. After a bad champions league campaign,finishing 4th with 0 poins,their owner at that time,Marius Stan,decided not to invest the 20 milion dollars in the club but gave it all at his friends. In the same season,after a bad 6th place positioning,Munteanu decided to leave too,and the club started to fall. After 3 years,Otelul got relegated to the second division. Not much time passed and they got disbanded,but,the fans quickly brought it back to life,in the fourth division,and promoted from the first season to third division,in 2016/17. After 5 years in the third division,they promoted to the second division. At the moment,everything works like clockwork,not being beaten once this season

[@niggardlylad2008]

Small correction: adamescu was the owner not Stan,he was the clubs president and later became mayor of Galați, both crooks btw so it doesn't really matter 😅😉

[@silvicugoes394]

@@niggardlylad2008 I completely forgot about Adamescu,he had the same fault as Stan. But one of the worst part in all this is that the people from galati still made Stan their mayor after all he did. I don't know how he did not took everything from Galati's european fonds and gave it all to his friends

[@niggardlylad2008]

@@silvicugoes394 that's OK, no-one should remember him lol, as for Stan, he won that election a few months after winning that title sooo.. He also promised to build a new stadium

[@silvicugoes394]

@@niggardlylad2008 lies. That's what Romania is about. Only lies. At least the club is now in good hands and have a chance to win things in a few years

[@andresgirardo8481]

Cristian Fabbiani played at Cluj and used to talk about romanian football corruption. As an argentinian, these topics feel very familiar.

[@Ionut-7]

In fact, Astra Ploiești had its first top-tier season way back in the 98/99 season, when they had a pretty good squad and were wearing blue & red striped shirts, not thew white & black they've had in the 2010s.

[@romanscerbak5167]

1:35 only one of those top-6 is still in Liga 1, by the way. FCSB, of course. 3:52 the more I learn about Romanian football, the more it seems that its crisis started somewhere around early-mid 2000s. So right now is pretty stretched.

[@hartingtherealone]

Actually, Viitorul Constanta is still in the top tier. They just merged with Farul Constanta, and, considering the fact Farul had an identity 100 years older than Viitorul, having actual lots of fans(top 10 in Romania) and the owner of Viitorul(romanian legend Gheorghe Hagi) even was a fan of Farul, the club resulting of the merge took the identity of Farul.

[@razvanmazilu6284]

The roots of the crisis are in the '90s when corruption was rampant and the authorities were complicit in essentially pillaging state owned assets. The privatisation of football was handled just as badly as it was in any other domain and, to this day, Romanian football remains dominated by shady 'businessman', corrupt officials and political interests. The number of football associated figures that have been (or still are) in jail is staggering, yet it has done little to clean-up Romanian football. For a while things went along on essentially inertia, but it has all been crashing down. The sorry state of the Romanian national team who has failed to reach a world cup in 24 years, only managed to scrape up two Euro appearance in that time and has recently found itself relegated into the third tier of the Nations League speaks volumes in and of itself.

[@edi0157]

And we are 13th now so who knows where we end up this season lmao. There is Viitorul/Farul too as someone else previously said but still. As for the crisis, it has really been the last few years where results have completely dried up, in the early 2010s we still had teams in the Champions League like Unirea Urziceni, that CFR 10p season where they still didn’t go through (2012-2013), Steaua, even Otelul though they got 0p, runs in the EL like Steaua s where we beat Ajax and Chelsea or Astra s later etc. so he is right, the causes can be discussed though

[@andreiutzz3821]

The crisis started when communism fell.

[@maxmarangella9412]

@HITCSevens A series of videos on CFR Cluj and Rapid București Please?

[@dubeet]

They had quite an interesting team at times, I do miss them in our league as they were one of the few that practiced elegant football with the help of Alibec,1st from the left top row at 0:45 , still one of our national team strikers, Budescu, who's always a little lazy magician, Lovin, Silviu Lung, Takayuki Seto, Teixeira, Sapunaru and others.Nice vid.

[@edi0157]

Alibec is actually on fire this season at Farul too, idk what Hagi does to players but he always manages to revive careers lol. When I saw him start against Finland for the NT I immediately thought “wait, is this still 2022 or did I somehow get transported to 2016?”. Sapunaru is still playing as Rapid s captain at 38 too (though how the fuck did he get just a one match ban after the FCU Craiova game is beyond me). Yeah they had a great team then, obviously given the results. The (early and mid especially) 2010s and before then were just a better time in general, FC Vaslui existed as well with the likes of Sanmartean, Stanciu and Wesley, Steaua s dominating team that beat Ajax and Chelsea at home, Otelul, Unirea Urziceni etc. Astra was the later, last example of that era. Even the derbies hit different then, I remember they could barely take corner kicks because of all the smoke coming from the stands, granted it has been better now that Rapid is back up but still. Maybe that was because we actually had a Rapid, a Dinamo and a Steaua that we could all agree on then instead of two or more of each like we are in an episode of Clone Wars for fuck s sake. Yeah, he really did his homework on it, mistaken claim that Viitorul is dead aside. That was the only mistake, well that and butchering some names so hard I resorted to captions lol. I mean seriously, “Ioan Nikolai”? Makes him sound like a Russian mobster in the next Hollywood film lmao. But it happens, cant judge him too hard on that, always tough to pronounce names in foreign languages

[@aquaowouko5295]

Love the fact that Football Manager is cited as a source alongside Google and Wikipedia

[@gicu_ucenicu]

Check what happened to Unirea Urziceni just a few years back (also won the league and did a great season in the UCL group stages the following season)! Seems to be some sort of pattern… Also Dinamo Bucharest, the second most successful team in the country (former UCC semifinalist and Cup Winner’s Cup finalist in the 90’s, now relegated for the 1st time)

[@sabinroca2829]

Been waiting so long for you to do a video on Romanian football. I think all Romanian teams have something interesting/ sketchy happening in the background. I would love to see a video on CFR Cluj who seem to sleepwalk themselves to Romanian league titles these days and on the fall of the Romanian national team

[@HCR_Motorhead]

Suddenly my aspirations of being a professional footballer are back alive. I could literally just turn up to Astra Giurgiu and get a game.

[@lllordllloyd]

Bloke, your picture research skills are top class.

[@poseaadrian8669]

well its not only Astra here in Romania, almost every big club who has done us some great memories on european stage, has faded away, and its because of corruption and bad managing of those who owns or purchase this clubs, at my local club we struggle to stay in the second league, even tho we had a great history of playing in the first stage of Romanian league for years, lets just say that something is very wrong with the whole Romanian football who is painfully dying in our country, but cheers up for this video! Great content as always.

[@edi0157]

Which team? Says a lot that I have to ask that question lmao

[@poseaadrian8669]

@@edi0157 FC Brasov, we played as Steagu Rosu in the fourth tier, now they united with the second club of the city named Corona Brasov, but most of the history isn t recognized among the fans.

[@edi0157]

@@poseaadrian8669 Yeah, I remember reading about that situation too a while ago. Weirdly, even when talking about the old teams you dont see you guys mentioned like, at all, even though you were a staple of the early 2010s league too. You always see people looking back fondly on the likes of Otelul, Urziceni, Vaslui, the old Poli Timisoara, Astra like in this vid etc but the likes of Brasov and Ceahlaul come up only far later in that list, tbf those teams had far more success than Brasov. Wasnt the new FC Brasov Steagul Renaste created just last year when Corona merged with ACS Scotch Club while the supporters team SR Brasov was the one that was founded right after bankruptcy and started in the 4th tier as you said? Maybe Romanian football is trying to reproduce via mitosis, that is why so many clones of the same club appear lmao. Honestly, at this point we could make two separate leagues/division systems and have one of each historic club playing in each league, I was joking before but it is really sad indeed. I take it you back the mayorship s team? Or is it a case of whichever gets Brasov up higher in the pyramid?

[@ibill4647]

im happy there is a non romaian talking about romanian football💪💪 keep up the good work

[@jamesmclintock9413]

HITC Sevens video about a team or subject I’ve never heard of or never thought about pops up… well I’d better learn everything about this now

[@R1d1cKaL]

Great video. You coverd all the history better than a romanien journalist. Good job.

[@xcf5587]

This is the kind of title I’m subscribed to this channel for

[@Nevilleee4]

There’s nothing out there that I can find, so I’d love for you to do a video on Apoula Edel. A quick read of his Wikipedia is quite a rollercoaster of a career so I think it’d be fascinating if you could dig even deeper and learn more about him, cause I imagine there’s a lot more

[@legzanul]

It is a habit in our romanian football that big clubs that were league/cup champions to end up being very badly after few years. There are many causes that led to this disaster mainly political influences and corruption. Sadly there are more examples of clubs who were in the same situation.. Unirea Urziceni, Otelul Galati, FC Vaslui and the most recent Dinamo Bucuresti

[@albertoplacido8906]

Wow, really! I remember Otelul Galati on the UCL, and FC Vaslui had lots of portuguese players

[@edi0157]

Dinamo s current situation is due to the new Spaniard owners putting 0 money in the team while burdening it with huge salaries though, has nothing to do with politics. But yes, they are an example of a team that fell apart too

[@ryangreen3920]

As soon as the change of managers was mentioned, I knew Watford would get a shout out. Should do a video on how the club I love seems to be run in such a crazy way :(

[@vaxuvax]

As a romanian I say you made an amazing video about the situation on romanian football. Sadly ,because in communism sport was controlled by the state , now in democracy, people still dont know how to manage sport as private entity. That is why many football teams are still dependent by state money like city halls or local government.

[@guilhermeandradedaveiga5605]

Sorry, but even in the premier league the newer bigger teams are still state sponsored... by other nation's States. Or some investment venture with nationsized budgets. And watching the video it seems that under socialism the east european teams were more competitive. When was the last time a club east of germany came any close to winning european championships?

[@Albent]

You should do one of these videos about Brown de Arrecifes from Argentina. They made their national debut on the first season of the Argentino B (created as the 4th tier for teams outside AFA) in 95/96, winning promotion. Next season they also won promotion, from the Argentino A (3rd tier) to the Nacional B, the 2nd tier and lowest national division. They spent six seasons there, getting into the playoffs for promotion to the First Division in two ocasions, one of which had Gerardo Martino a their manager on his debut on the role. Then they got relegated again to the Argentino A, were they lost all 20 games and got relegated to the Argentino B, where they tied 2 and lost 18 games to be relegated again in two consecutives seasons, where they tied 2 games and lost 38 out of 40. The now extinct Argentino C (5th tier) had its teams formally invited by the asociation, and Brown de Arrecifes was so bad that they didn't even got invited. They never recovered, playing on their county league since 2005, with two unsuccessful campaings in the Argentino C in 2009 and 2014. Another one would be Tiro Federal de Rosario. While their fall wasn't so quick, it was from the top tier in 2006 (their only season in the First Division), to their current situation in the 6th tier in 2019, playing on the Second Division of their county league. They got relegated five times in just 13 years.

[@RetroGamingAndTech]

Viitorul Constanta actually have a very different situation, where the owner, Gheorghe Hagi, acquired the rights to use the name "Farul Constanta", which was in use by a 2nd division club in the same city, and so the clubs simply changed names

[@ondrash4160]

i'm actually so grateful that you remembered our country, man

[@mihutalexandru6121]

Can you also make a video with all the former champion teams of Romania that no longer exist or are in lower tiers? Name it something like: "Europe's cemetery - Fallen Champions" :)

[@edi0157]

A video won t be enough, man will need a whole series for that lol

[@strasbourgsteve]

What a marvelous video! I had only asked for it for 2 or 3 days about Astra Giurgiu thats crazy!

[@thefloorballdude8113]

Hi Alfie, like your content very much!! Could you please do a vid on the downfall of the Slovakia National team, my homeland. Whilst they managed to qualify to the Euros 2016 and 2020 recently and narrowly escaped the 2018 WC, they now play in the Nations League C where they finished third in a Group with Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Belarus, winning just 2 out of 6 possible matches against those underdogs and losing three times. As a result of this lackluster, they're now seeded in pot 5 of the EURO 2024 qualifiers, alongside Gibraltar, Malta and even below Faroe Islands

[@adrianstere]

As a Steaua (FCSB) fan I hated Astra because they took a title away from us and completely trashed us in Romanian league! They use to have very good players, decent budget, and good management. They just come out of nowhere and trash all bigger teams from Bucharest and Cluj that were used to play on European coups every year. That’s why football is a beautiful sport I guess 😅 sometimes bigger teams deserve to be reminded that just because they have bigger budgets, history and fan base is not meaning that they can’t lose. I used to hate them with passion! But now I feel sorry for what happened to them! I wish I see them back in the first league. Every time they played in European coups they represent our country with proud and they give the best they could. Last time when Astra eliminated West Ham, they been already in big trouble as the owner was jailed, best players left, and the ones that stayed they didn’t been paid on time. That’s even more impressive as how they mobilized against a team with a much bigger history and budget!

[@cinamonroll2701]

Great video bro

[@ZebreI10I]

Viitorul didn't relegate, it changed its name to Farul, which was in the second league at the time. Interesting fact, Viitorul won the championship while Farul was in the third league, but now Farul considers that championship as their championship. Even though they were in the 3rd tier

[@Tefal007]

poza de profil cu cel care uraste :))

[@teck1294]

This is legendary! Great video Alfie

[@brzilac9889]

Viitorul Constanta was fusioned with Farul Constanta, since that club was owned and coached by Romanian football legend Gheorghe Hagi.

[@ry_jayy]

My only knowledge of them is from when my team (Inverness Caledonian Thistle) lost to them in a Europa League play off a few years ago. I think they knocked West Ham out in the next round after us too

[@Tee3-Co]

As a West Ham fan, I am enjoying every. single. moment of this.

[@albino1803]

cry baby

[@RelfMushTV]

This is so weird I had just seen them lose 12-0 tonight 60 conceded in 6 games was literally going to put on your recent video a potential vid on it but you read my mind lol

[@Jose-mh2om]

I love these videos, keep up the great work.

[@RoseColored_]

Did not expect to learn about the history of Shell today

[@bogdanbotezan7162]

15:57, the RARELY got prosecuted and now almost never. We are not that better😂 Plus after just two weeks from releasing the video, Astra retired from the third league and as a result the team disbanded. Also Pandurii Tg. Jiu also disbanded in the last few days. Another two teams with tradition in the RO league disbanded and the situation is very dire.

[@mafiousbj]

Add Shell to the list of companies (together with the likes of Bayern or IBM) you should not ask what they were doing in Germany during WW2

[@Ionut-7]

This season of the newly-branded "Superleague" we have an increased attendance compared to what we had last season

[@niggardlylad2008]

Because of the new stadiums and because people want to go back to normal after covid, not because of the rebranding lol

[@Ionut-7]

Lol... Never said that the increase was due to the rebranding. Clinceni and Mediaș weren't bringing people to the stadiums with their uncompetitive teams... Teams from various cities that have some history are attracting more fans than teams from villages and mid-sized towns.

[@adrianstere]

It’s because U Cluj, Petrolul among others come back in the first league and they have beautiful stadiums and big fan base. Also Sibiu new stadium will be ready this year.

[@michaelfarrow5817]

I imagine Giurgiu fans refer their their decline as "the curse of Dom".

[@mkgky15]

Forever giving West Ham Fans PTSD. We're still bitter even while they're on their deathbed...

[@adrianstere]

😂😂😂

[@serbanski]

Great video and great Information

[@MartinParnham]

As a West Ham fan who has spent a lot of time in Hull and the East Riding, I found the first bit of this video borderline offensive and you'd never catch me making jokes about how Kerker Curler is a brand name soft drink in Hull, for example.... ;-)

[@jimibaboza]

To clear up any confusion, did Astra Giurgiu beat West Ham in successive seasons?

[@adrianstere]

Yes 😂😂

[@karlsiddall9358]

This club shut down on 19th October 2022 😔

[@zeusat3485]

bruh...the team dissolved a couple of weeks ago💀💀💀💀

[@Cat23416]

And now Astra Giurgiu has dissolved

[@themoyesiah100]

As a West Ham fan, a lot of our fans been following their demise closely, and we were celebrating it, especially after we got back into Europe as we knew that we can’t get them in Europe again.

[@MihailBFC]

😂😂😂

[@adrianstere]

That’s kind of pathetic! Just because you couldn’t beat them on the pitch it doesn’t mean Astra deserve this fate!

[@jimbob-robob]

A tad obscure but well researched and put together as usual...

[@matiasorcio]

Thanks for Making something about Romanian football 🇷🇴

[@gm2407]

What is up with all the no license relegations in that league. Do they have to gain one each year? Or is it insolvency issues? @20:10 Relegation round, now I am confused. Imagine that in EPL you can qualify for Europe or the Relegation round. That is it. No automatic relegation just the relegation round.

[@DGAMINGDE]

Unlike Astra Giurgius founding date, I know when I started commenting this suggestion (I mean I write the day every time I comment). So I suggest again: Day 14: The biggest wins in every european top flight (Athletic Bilbio 12-1 FC Barcelona; Gladbach 12-0 Dortmund; Ajax 13-0 VVV Venlo).

[@MaxLeCnkerant]

Psg gimgamp 9-0, Liverpool-Southampton 9-0

[@vlad-emanuelpetreanu2793]

As a Romanian, i have to admit that you made a very accurate video. What happend to Astra G happend to several other clubs, like Vaslui, Univ. Craiova, FC Arges, Poli Timisoara and so on... After the president of the club goes to jail the team vanish an it might, or might not come back if they have the fans or the money. Now the biggest teams are in the second divison like Steaua and Dinamo and the others are just patetic. I can' t watch romanian games, i prefer premier league or primera divison beacuse it is more entertaining.

[@SeanDJames]

First thing that went through my mind was this interview from West Ham Fan TV 🤣

[@MrCr1spy1]

Romanian here. Thanks for the video

[@maciejek1910]

Well. As Polish and Widzew Łódź fan, I know what if club has a huge debt. Our club annouced bancruptcy in 2015 to come back to Ekstraklasa in 2022. We are currenty in 2nd place in table. If we would finished as 2nd, we will play in Conference League qualifications

[@alfis4344]

Video Suggestion: The ongoing world cup fiasco with Ecuador and their allegedly ineligible player.

[@babamukuru666]

>Astra also lacks the resources to pay the referee This part sounds absolutely hilarious when taken out of context

[@adrianstere]

😂😂😂

[@stefanmunteanu66]

You're too good at this!

[@mumulusul]

Thanks for representing my country!!

[@thegreendog]

You should really do a video on Dinamo Bucharest as well. In my opinion, what went on at Astra is child's play to the complete CHAOS that is still taking place at Dinamo.

[@depekthegreat359]

Astra Giurgiu is one of my favourite Romanian footballing clubs,just like most of the respective Romanian men's footballing clubs from the top till bottom tiers respectively daily and ever in this world and other planets,good friends!!!From an extraordinary success to a massive failure,I feel extremely so sad to see their downfall but fully hope to see them bouncing back with their massive hardwork with their full effort and smart transfer businesses to slowly step up from being in the Romanian third tier to the top tier of the country's league,good friends!!!LONG LIVE,ASTRA GIURGIU!!!🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️🏋️‍♂️

[@louielouie95]

Do A Video On What On Earth Is Going On At Ruban Kazan They Got Relegated From The Russian Premier League Last Season

[@23_CM]

Crazy to think it wasn’t that long ago when they were in the Champions League

[@strasbourgsteve]

Day 1: You should make a video about Kardemir Karabükspor 🇹🇷 (they've won 5 games in the past 6 seasons)

[@oboykenningtonsavage7535]

Remember them beating Saint Etienne to qualify. Or Osmanlispor who beat Villareal

[@chris-ib8hf]

OMG a romanian team mentioned in a video!!!🇷🇴

[@delsinnisled9443]

you should make a video about the Rapid Bucharest comeback.cheers

[@stevenmacdonald9619]

Never mind Astra Gurgle, what about a 20 team league that you can finish 7th in, and get relegated 👀

[@tedski69]

I'm no expert on Romanian football. All I know about Romania comes from international footy and Bucharest, which I partied there for a few days. BUT, why don't they just move back to their home in Ploesti? It sounds like to move forward they have to get rid of their owner. If they do, I'd love to use my genius and make them a force again. ;)

[@joeheaton7607]

Could you make a painstaking video of worst debuts for each PL club

[@doesntmatter964]

Well, the thing with the Romanian football is a bit deeper than you would think First: most Romanian football clubs are not profitable, mainly because they can not sell tickets for games and the tv money are still low(compared to the wage bill of a club). The only profitable clubs in Romania are Farul(which is making all of their money from selling young players to foreign clubs or fcsb) and fcsb(which is usually buying players from clubs of a smaller reputation in Romania and selling them to foreign clubs). All the other clubs are either selling players that they got as free agents(like botosani, which is one of the best run clubs in the country) just to cover their costs(usually a club spends around 3 million euros in expenses, and receive around 1.5 from tv and tickets, most bank been made from actually selling players) Two: most of the Romanian football is so dysfunctional due to owners trying to get in the champions league group stages(where a club receives at least 20 mils euro for been part of that) operating at high wage bills, running debt up and eventually going bust(I am looking at you cfr cluj) Third: a lot of clubs go bust due to their owner’s corruption or perceived corruption. For the first case of corruption you have the transfer scandal from the late 2000’s, where a lot of owners went to prison for owning a percentage of their players contracts(similar to what the owners of Dinamo Zagreb are still doing). For the second case of corruption, is pretty much people in power, from the central government, feeling threatened by these owners getting a lot of potential political influence(the owner of badly, porumboiu is one of the cases) So yeah things are kinda fucked, maybe in the future more clubs will realize that the only sustainable way of making money from football is through developing academies and selling youngsters for profit( the hagi way), heck, even the owner of fcsb, becali, realized that

[@wolfmauler]

Man, Alfie certainly read my mind on this one: took the words right out me mouth, he did lol....Been keeping me up at night and no mistake :)

[@wolfmauler]

Just having a laugh of course! The subject merely may be a touch esoteric for some, as these sometimes are, but I'm always interested to learn more about the Beautiful (and sometimes not so beautiful) game.

[@maradona1012]

Please do a video on FC Zurich. They were champion last season but are currently languishing at the bottom of the Swiss league

[@lucianboar3489]

That PSD candidate is now the deputy secretary general of NATO I don't think attendances and the fortunes of Romanian club football are going down, it's getting better both in Europe and at home after some years of hardship. Maybe the glory days of 2004-2014 when it was in the top 10 leagues in Europe are on their way back.

[@raducujohnson]

don't let these pictures fool you, Romania is a beautiful country with beautiful people, great night life and culture.