“It was not the subject of a transfer” » How many titles does FCSB have after all

The process regarding Stela's track record, disputed by CSA Steaua Bucharest and FCSB, ended definitively on June 5, 2025, the day on which the judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected the related request of FCSB.

With this, the lawyers of Gigi Becali's team wanted “to establish the right to use, in the period 2003-2017, the record of the former professional football team “Steaua Bucharest”. The judgment concerned exclusively this request, which was rejected in the end.

First, a recap:

• The history of the Star since its foundation, 1947, and until 1998, belongs to the Army Sports Club.

• The record achieved between 1998 and 2003 was not legally attributed to any entity. CSA's request to be recognized was rejected on the grounds of lack of procedural quality – that is, the absence of the right to request such a thing, given that in those years the sports activity was carried out under another legal entity (the NGO Asociația Fotbal Club Steaua Bucharest).

• The 2003-present record belongs to Gigi Becali's company, the current Football Club FCSB, former Football Club Steaua Bucharest.

Reasoning for the final decision from Stela's record file: “The record was NOT the subject of a transfer”

At the trial, FCSB's lawyers argued that “it was not necessary to expressly prove the transfer of rights or assets, especially non-patrimonial personal rights”, first from CSA Steaua to AFC Steaua Bucharest, later from AFC to the company known today as FCSB.

An argument made in this regard is the fact that a new football entity should have started from scratch, from the last national league, and that it could not have played 3 years in European cups, while the AFC continued to operate in the 1998/1999 season, both in the Championship and in Europe, based on the results recorded before the football section broke away:

“It is eloquent that the new entity, the Steaua Football Club Association, took over this track record, as it was able to continue the competitions in which the old football entity was engaged before the divisiontaking over the points obtained by the old entity in the 1998-1999 championship edition, until the time of the takeover, and continuing the competitions in which the team was engaged previously”.

The court dismantled this theory, ruling that “the right to participate in Division A, although it derives from the position occupied in the previous rankings, is distinct from the right to records“.

Regarding the transition from 1998, when AFC Steaua was established to continue the activity of the football section within CSA Steaua, the magistrates added: “The continuation by the Association of the sports activity at the level of 1998 it was realized not in consideration of taking over the track recordbut of the mentions in the constitutive acts regarding such a continuation”.

The High Court judges also concluded that “there was no takeover of the right to the record of the former football team “Steaua Bucharest”“, based on the fact that “the mention in the Association's statute and in its constitutive act cannot lead to the conclusion that the track record existing until 1998 will be taken over by the newly established entity”.

That's because “at the level of 1999, no [fost] operated a (full) transfer of assets from CSA to the Association”.

AFC Steaua took over from the parent club “only the right to use certain spaces for free, [în plus] employees of the former professional football section were seconded, debts and claims contracted before July 8, 1998 in relation to this football section were taken over”.

How many titles does FCSB have after all

The expression of the judges, namely that they rejected the FCSB's request for “establishment of the right to use during the period 2003-2017 the record of the former professional football team “Steaua Bucharest””, caused confusion, being interpreted in the idea that FCSB would remain in the “showcase” only with the results and trophies recorded after 2017when the commercial company changed its name from Fotbal Club Steaua Bucharest to Fotbal Club FCSB.

But the reality is that FCSB remains with its own track record, achieved as a private company, starting in 2003. In fact, including in the trial, CSA Steaua representatives accepted this:

“In the period 2003-2017, the record of the FCSB team belongs to this team and this record is not of interest to the respondent (no – CSA Steaua), which does not track identity theft“.

The problem, as you can see from the statement of reasons, is that the FCSB lawyers drafted the related application in such a way that it was understood that the private company would have had the right to use the 2003-2017 track record as a continuation of the historical one. If the court had approved their request, it would have certified the idea that FCSB would have been the successor of the historical Star, established in 1947.

In conclusion, the record remains divided as follows:

• 1947 – 1998: CSA Steaua Bucharest

• 1998 – 2003: not officially assigned

• 2003 – present: FCSB (7 Romanian championship titles, 3 Romanian Cups, two League Cups, 4 Romanian Supercups)