FC Vaslui

Vaslui

Full name	Sporting Club Vaslui
Nickname(s)	The Yellow-Greens
Founded	July 20, 2002 (2002-07-20)
Ground	Municipal (capacity: 9,240)
Owner	Adrian Porumboiu
President	Ciprian Damian
Manager	Gavril Balint
League	Liga I
2011–12	Liga I, 2nd
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours Third colours
Current season

Sporting Club Vaslui is a Romanian football club from Vaslui, which currently plays in Liga I, the top level of Romanian football. Formed in 2002 as Fotbal Club Municipal Vaslui, the club assumed its final name in 2005 and is currently the top-ranked football club from Vaslui.

Following its promotion to Liga I in 2005, the club has become one of the most prominent in Romania. It has gained a European spot in each of the past five seasons, narrowly missing the championship in 2012, and losing its first Romanian Cup final in 2010. Since their foundation the club have finished each season in a higher rank than in the previous.

The official team colours are yellow and green, giving rise to the nickname yellow-greens, but lately their away strip consisted of white with black stripes.

History

On 20 July 2002, the newly promoted Divizia C side Victoria Galaţi moved to Vaslui, after an agreement between Marius Stan and the Vaslui Municipality to use the Municipal Stadium. Ioan Sdrobiş was appointed as team manager, and the main squad was formed from Dunărea Galaţi players. The club also changed its name to Fotbal Club Municipal Vaslui or FC Vaslui for short. Their main objective was to achieve the promotion in Divizia B. Soon after their formation Adrian Porumboiu took over the club and he immediately changed the colours of the team's strip from white and blue to yellow and green, the same as those used by his company. At the end of the season, despite the achievement of promotion, Marius Stan, the club president, resigned and Adrian Porumboiu, the club owner decided to stop sponsoring the team, because of what he perceived as the Vaslui Municipality's lack of interest in the team. With a whole new management team, the objective for the newly promoted Divizia B team was to avoid relegation. With a strong start to the season, and with Adrian Porumboiu back at the club, the objective was changed from avoiding relegation, to promotion to Divizia A. The club managed to secure promotion the following season, setting a new record by being the club promoted to Divizia A in the quickest time, only three years after their foundation.

With his club in Divizia A, Adrian Porumboiu set an impressive budget for a newly promoted team in the top flight. Despite signing Claudiu Răducanu, Sabin Ilie, Nana Falemi and Cătălin Cursaru, FC Vaslui had a poor record in the top flight: not a single victory at the end of the first part of the season. In the winter break, Mircea Rednic changed SC Vaslui's transfer policy. The club went on a good run and had one of the best records for the second half of the season. However the club was embroiled in controversy when they faced Steaua Bucuresti in the 30th round of matches. In order to secure the championship Steaua had to win at Vaslui. Steaua duly won by four goals, and as a consequence secured the league title, but the easy win was highly contested by not only by the officials at Steaua's great rivals FC Rapid București, but also by Adrian Porumboiu, who decided the following day to give up ownership of SC Vaslui. With no sponsorship, and with no squad, the media speculated that Vaslui would sell its Divizia A spot, although the club president denied those rumours.

With a completely different team from the previous season, SC Vaslui had the same poor season start as before. Despite this, SC Vaslui finished 8th at the end of the season, the club's best performance at the time. Fortunes had changed markedly under new team manager Viorel Hizo, who has been appointed on 24 September after Mulţescu was sacked. However, despite his solid performances, Hizo decided to resign at the end of the season, because of SC Vaslui's poor infrastructure. Adrian Porumboiu, who had returned to the club after his earlier departure, decided to invest the club's budget in improving the crumbling infrastructure, instead of new players.

After Dorinel Munteanu was revealed as the new team manager, the main objective was set: qualification for European competition. The season was one with ups and downs for the Moldavian team, SC Vaslui securing the final spot for European competition, thanks to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Vaslui contested Oţelul Galaţi's decision to include two players, both of whom had been sent off in the previous matchday, in a league game between the two clubs. CAS awarded Vaslui the three points, and as a result SC Vaslui finished 7th, ahead of Oţelul.

With his team in the Intertoto Cup, Adrian Porumboiu invested a significant amount of money in new players. Viorel Hizo had also been reinstated as the team manager. After defeating Neftchi Baku, SC Vaslui qualified for the UEFA Cup, but ultimately failed to qualify for the Group Stages, after they were eliminated by Slavia Prague because of the away goal. The championship was one with ups and downs for the team, Vaslui sitting in 9th place for almost the entire season. After a win against Universitatea Craiova in the final round, and thanks to the other results, SC Vaslui finished 5th, and secured a spot in the Europa League, for the second year in a row (Europa League being the new name for the UEFA Cup). The team also reached the Romanian Cup semi-final, where they were beaten by CFR Cluj, after a number of errors by the referee.

In its second season in the European competitions, despite winning in the first leg, SC Vaslui failed to qualify in the Europa League Group Stages for the second time, after they lost by three goals against AEK Athens. Despite its unsuccessful European season, Vaslui had an excelennt domestic season, finishing 3rd in the championship, and reaching the Romanian Cup final.

Because SC Vaslui failure to qualify for the European Group Stages Adrian Porumboiu appointed Spaniard Juan López Caro as club manager. The appointment was not a success however because he not only failed to get the team into the Group Stages, but he also won only three matches in the first ten rounds, and the team was eliminated from the Romanian Cup by Liga III side Alro Slatina. Because Caro had a $1,000,000 release clause, Adrian Porumboiu decided to suspend the Spanish manager, with the club sixth in the league, only 7 points behind the leader, and reinstate Viorel Hizo, for the third time as the team manager. Hizo not only managed to revive the team, but he turned it into a real title contender. Meanwhile, on 4 January 2011, SC Vaslui received a nine-month transfer ban from FIFA, following a complaint by its former player, Ljubinkovic. Despite Porumboiu appealing to the CAS, the decision remained, with the ban expiring on 6 September 2011. At the end of the season, despite having made no transfers in the winter break, SC Vaslui finished 3rd for the second year in a row.

After the Romanian Football Federation denied a licence to FC Timişoara, and therefore barred their participation in the European competitions, SC Vaslui took its place in the UEFA Champions League's Third qualifying round. However SC Vaslui was eliminated from the competition and so dropped into the Europa League Play-Off. Vaslui faced Sparta Prague with major squad problems. No less than nine players were unable to play: Kuciak and Pouga refused to return to the team; Papp, Canu, Adailton, Wesley and Gladstone were injured; Milisavljevic and Pavlovic were excluded from the squad. Despite this, SC Vaslui gained its most important victory from its history, a 2–0 home win against Sparta Prague. Despite losing in the second leg, SC Vaslui managed to qualify for the UEFA Europa League Group Stages for the first time. The team managed to make some great games in the 2011-12 UEFA Europa League Group Stages against teams like Sporting Lisbon, S.S. Lazio and FC Zurich.In the same season the team finished 2nd in Liga I.

Stadium

Municipal Stadium

Main article: Stadionul Municipal (Vaslui)

The Municipal Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Vaslui, Romania. It was opened in 1972, and it is owned by The Vaslui municipality. In 2002, when Victoria Galaţi (as they were then known) moved to Vaslui, they reached an agreement with the Vaslui municipality, and since then host their home games at this ground. The stadium has 18000 , and has a natural grass playing surface. Municipal also has an official stand, covered cabins for the guests and the press, a drainage and automatic irrigation system, internet access for the media, and a new club headquarters. The floodlighting system, with a density of 2000 lux, was inaugurated in 2008, this stadium being the 11th in Romania with a floodlighting system. It is rated at two stars by UEFA.

Current squad

As of 19 February 2013

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Dănuț Coman 3 DF Fernando Varela 5 DF Piotr Celeban 6 DF Valter Heil 8 MF Liviu Antal 9 FW Sabrin Sburlea 10 MF Nicolae Stanciu 11 FW Emile Paul Tendeng 12 GK Vytautas Černiauskas 16 MF Cauê 17 MF Sergiu Popovici 18 MF Lucian Sânmărtean (captain) 19 FW Mike Temwanjera

No. Position Player 20 DF Zhivko Milanov 23 DF Adrian Sălăgeanu 30 MF Raul Costin 33 DF Elias Charalambous 40 FW Alexandru Buziuc 67 DF Andrei Cordoș 70 MF Nderim Nedzipi 77 MF Eduardo Jumisse 78 MF Ousmane N'Doye 88 MF Vasile Buhăescu 89 GK Cătălin Straton

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player FW Daniel Mih (at Ardealul Cluj until 30 June 2013)

Reserves team

For more details, see FC Vaslui II.

Captains

The first FC Vaslui captain was Cătălin Popa, who previously captained the other Vaslui team, Sportul Municipal Vaslui. After his departure, Sorin Frunză took over the captaincy. While he was either injured or loaned out, the vice-captains were Ionuţ Badea, Marius Croitoru or Bogdan Buhuş. After Frunză's departure, Buhuş was appointed captain, but only for a short period, because when Viorel Moldovan became manager, he offered the captaincy to Gabriel Cânu. With the start of the new season, Buhuş was made once again captain, until his departure. Starting 2010-11 season, Cânu has been reinstated as Vaslui captain, with vice-captain Wesley taking over when he was injured. Following Cânu's long-term injury, Wesley has been appointed team captain for the entire 2011-12 season. Starting 2012-13 season, following Wesley's departure, Ousmane N'Doye has been appointed captain, but only for a short spell since Lucian Sânmărtean took over the armband on 22 August.

#	Name	Years	Years captain	Notes
1.	Cătălin Popa	2003–04	2003–04
2.	Sorin Frunză	2002–08	2003–08	When S. Frunză was long-time injured, the captains were I. Badea, Croitoru, Buhuş or Panait.
3.	Gabriel Cânu	2008–00	2008–09 2010–11	When Cânu was long-time injured, the captain was Wesley.
4.	Bogdan Buhuş	2005–10	2009–10	When Buhuş was long-time injured, the captain was Wesley.
5.	Wesley	2009–12	2011–12	When Wesley was suspended, the captain was Adaílton.
6.	Rotation		2012–00	During the 2012-13 season, captains were N'Doye, Sânmărtean Coman and Marius Niculae

Managers

Name	Years	Matches	Record	Win Rate
Basarab Panduru	1 July 2005–14 Sept 05
Mircea Rednic	15 Sept 2005–12 June 06
Gheorghe Multescu	5 July 2006–25 Sept 06	9	1 - 2 - 6	11.11%
Viorel Hizo	26 Sept 2006–30 June 07	25	12 - 9 - 4	48%
Dorinel Munteanu	1 July 2007–5 April 08	26	11 - 9 - 6	42.31%
Emil Sandoi	6 April 2008–30 June 08	8	1 - 2 - 5	12.50%
Viorel Hizo	1 July 2008–1 Nov 08	13	5 - 2 - 6	38.46%
Viorel Moldovan	1 Nov 2008–26 May 09	19	10 - 4 - 5	52.63%
Cristian Dulca	27 May 2009–2 Oct 09	9	5 - 1 - 3	55.56%
Marius Lacatus	11 June 2010–8 Oct 10	26	15 - 7 - 4	57.69%
Juan Ramón López Caro	11 June 2010–8 Oct 10	10	4 - 3 - 3	40.00%
Viorel Hizo	8 Oct 2010–27 Jan 12	42	23 - 11 - 8	54.76%
Augusto Inácio	28 Jan 2012–4 July 12	16	13 - 1 - 2	81.25%
Marius Sumudica	11 July 2012–24 Sept 12	9	4 - 3 - 2	44.44%
Eduard Iordanescu (interim)	24 Sept 2012–27 Sept 12	0	0 - 0 - 0	0%
Viorel Hizo	27 Sept 2012–8 April 13	16	7 - 4 - 5	43.75%
Gavril Balint	9 April 2013–	6	2 - 3 - 1	33.33%

Statistics and records

Main article: List of FC Vaslui statistics and records

SC Vaslui's first competitive game was a 3–1 victory in Divizia C against Viitorul Hârlău. Mike Temwanjera holds SC Vaslui's overall appearance record - he played 155 matches over the course of 6 seasons from 2007 to date, and he also holds the record for League appearances with 129.

SC Vaslui's all-time leading scorer is Wesley, who scored 77 goals while at the club from 2009 to 2012. He also holds the record for the most goals in a season with 37 in 2011–12. The most goals scored by a player in a single match is four; Valentin Badea achieving this feat. Cătălin Andruş holds the club record for the fastest hat trick: he scored three goals in five minutes against CFR Paşcani in the 2002–03 season. Wesley is also FC Vaslui's all-time leading goalscorer in European competition with 6 goals.

SC Vaslui's biggest victory is 9–0 against Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ II in 2003. SC Vaslui's heaviest defeat, 2–5, came against UTA Arad in 2006. SC Vaslui's 3–1 win against FK Liepājas Metalurgs in the UEFA Cup was the largest victory in Europe competition for the club.

Honours

Domestic

Liga I:

• Runner-up (1): 2011–12

Liga II:

• Winners (1): 2004–05
• Runner-up (1): 2003–04

Liga III:

• Runner-up (1): 2002–03

Romanian Cup:

• Runner-up (1): 2009–10

European

UEFA Intertoto Cup:

• Winners (1): 2008

European record

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away
2008–09	UEFA Intertoto Cup	Third round	Neftchi Baku	2–0	1–2
	UEFA Cup	Second qualifying round	Liepājas Metalurgs	3–1	2–0
		First round	Slavia Prague	1–1	0–0 (a)
2009–10	Europa League	Third qualifying round	Omonia Nicosia	2–0	1–1
		Play-off round	AEK Athens	2–1	0–3
2010–11	Europa League	Play-off round	Lille OSC	0–0	0–2
2011–12	Champions League	Third qualifying round	FC Twente	0–0	0–2
	Europa League	Play-off round	Sparta Prague	2–0	0–1
		Group Stage	Sporting CP	1–0	0–2
			S.S. Lazio	0–0	2–2
			FC Zürich	2–2	0–2
2012–13	Champions League	Third qualifying round	Fenerbahçe	1–4	1–1
	Europa League	Play-off round	Internazionale Milano	0–2	2–2

Notable former players

List includes players who played at least 50 matches for the club, who scored at least 15 goals, and who set a club record

For more details on this topic, see List of FC Vaslui players.

Romania Emanuel Amarandei (2002–05) Ştefan Apostol (2006–08) Ionuţ Badea (2005–06) Valentin Badea (2002–06) Silviu Bălace (2007–11) Bogdan Buhuş (2005–10) Lucian Burdujan (2008–10) Gabriel Cânu (2008–12) Marius Croitoru (2006) Sorin Frunză (2002–08) Adrian Gheorghiu (2006–12) Cristian Hăisan (2002–10) Ştefan Mardare (2006–08) Bogdan Panait (2003–09)

Romania Paul Papp (2009–12) Marius Niculae (2012) Bosnia and Herzegovina Petar Jovanović (2005–12) Brazil Adaílton (2010–12) Wesley (2009–12) Bulgaria Stanislav Genchev (2008–11) Moldova Viorel Frunză (2004–06) Portugal Hugo Luz (2008–12)

Serbia Milorad Bukvić (2006–08) Marko Ljubinković (2006–10) Nemanja Milisavljević (2009-12) Miloš Pavlović (2009–12) Slovakia Pavol Farkaš (2009–12) Dušan Kuciak (2008–11)

Player of the year

Year	Winner
2002–03	Sorin Frunză
2003–04	Sorin Frunză
2004–05	Valentin Badea
2005–06	Valentin Badea
2006–07	Cristian Hăisan
2007-08	Marko Ljubinković
2008–09	Stanislav Genchev
2009–10	Wesley
2010–11	Adaílton
2011–12	Wesley

External links

• Official website (Romanian)
• Supporters website (Romanian)