| Clubname: | Victoria București |
| Fullname: | Victoria București |
| Short Name: | Victoria |
| Founded: | 1949 |
| Dissolved: | 1990 |
| Ground: | Victoria |
| Capacity: | 1,500 |
Victoria București was a Romanian football club based in Bucharest, founded in 1949 and dissolved right after the Romanian revolution of 1989.
The club was sustained by the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs (the "Miliția", Police). In 1985 Victoria played for the first time in the Romanian top division, becoming very fast one of the most important teams, behind Steaua and Dinamo București.
Between 1986 and 1989 they finished every year in 3rd place. However, it was a well-known fact during that time that many victories were due to unfair influences over the referees, other teams' players and even officials. This is why in 1990, right after the Revolution, the team was dissolved by the Romanian Football Federation and the club literally disappeared.[1]
The team was founded in 1949, in the neighborhood of Obor, within the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, being the branch of Dinamo București and promoted to Divizia B at the end of the 1953 season under the name of Dinamo 6.
After three seasons in the second division in which was ranked 9th (1954), 6th (1955) and 4th (1956), in 1957 became Dinamo Obor finished the 1957–58 season in the 5th place.
In 1958 was named A.S. Pompierul, then again Dinamo Obor (1959–1963), Dinamo Victoria (1963–1967), then Electronica Obor since 1967. Dinamo Victoria returns in Division C in 1980, becoming Victoria in 1985 when they promoted in the first division for the first time in history.[2] [3]
It was the sixth club representing Divizia B which reached the Romanian Cup final, which was lost with 0–2 in front of Progresul București.[4] [5]
Victoria was known as a team that enrolled only good players, however not good enough to be enrolled by Steaua or Dinamo. They were either players in their retirement age (such as Ionel Augustin, Costel Orac, Cornel Țălnar or Claudiu Vaișcovici) or talents not good enough for the "big 2" (such as Marcel Coraș, Ovidiu Hanganu, Marian Pană or Sándor Kulcsár). Many players came from Dinamo (in fact, Victoria's stadium was a training field inside the Dinamo Sport Complex). The Victoria Ground is known now as the "Florea Dumitrache Field" in honor of the Romanian striker, who played 11 seasons for Dinamo and 7 years for the Romania national football team.
Even so, during its short existence, the club reached one quarter final in the UEFA Cup 1988–89. They were eliminated by Dynamo Dresden (1–1 in Bucharest and 0–4 in Dresden), a team from former East Germany, where Matthias Sammer was a young rising star.
See main article: Victoria București in European football.
| Competition | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UEFA Europa League / UEFA Cup | 14 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 21 | 17 | + 4 | |
| Total | 14 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 21 | 17 | + 4 |
| Name | Period | |
|---|---|---|
| Dinamo B | 1949–1953 | |
| Dinamo 6 | 1953–1957 | |
| Dinamo Obor | 1957 | |
| A.S. Pompierul | 1958–1959 | |
| Dinamo Obor | 1959–1963 | |
| Dinamo Victoria | 1963–1967 | |
| Electronica Obor | 1967–1980 | |
| Dinamo Victoria | 1980–1985 | |
| Victoria București | 1985–1990 |
Sebastian Taciuc (1951–1958) Nicolae Petrescu (1958–1960) Constantin Teașcă (1960–1961) Gheorghe Timar (1964–1965) Nicolae Dumitru (1965–1967) Constantin Frățilă (1982) Constantin Teașcă (1982–1984) Florin Cheran (1984–1985) Ion Nunweiller (1985–1986) Nicolae Dumitru (1986–1988) Florin Halagian (1988–1989)