So long, Steaua Bucharest

So many times, in Italian football, we had to say hello to a noble club fallen in disgrace, often for economic reasons. You just have to look at Parma, that after the bankruptcy had to start over from the lower leagues. This time, even if for different reasons, football had to say goodbye to a big club from the past.

We’re talking about Steaua Bucharest, a team that won the Champions League - European League of Champions at the time - at the free kicks against Barcelona in 1986 and that was capable to won the Romanian Championship for 26 times. The red and blue club, in fact, had to officially give up on its name, following a court sentence. The glory club of the Romanian capital will be called from now on FC FCSB, following a long and bloody dispute by the Defense Department against the actual owner, George Becali.

According to the Department, Becali was illegitimately using the club’s brand from 2004, as Steaua was founded in 1947 as assortment of the Romanian army, becoming successively independent from it. So, the court established that, being decayed the militar control that led to the club’s foundation, Steaua had no longer the right to maintain its original name. An other big of the European football leaves, even if - luckily - just on a formal level.