Article by Daniel Grigore – Published Wednesday, 06 May 2026, 16:31 / Updated Wednesday, 06 May 2026 16:36
An analysis by CIES, the International Center for Sports Studies, places the Romanian Superliga in the top 3 elite divisions in Europe in terms of instability on the technical bench: only 18.7% of the coaches in the Romanian championship, i.e. 3 out of 16, have been in office for more than 365 days!
The latest study by CIES looks at how long the “life” of coaches in 55 world championships is. Not only the first leagues were analyzed, but also the second echelons of countries with strong football.
In only one of the 55 championships, that of Cyprus, there is no coach who has NOT been in office for more than a year. But in the TOP 10, with a percentage of 18.7%, the Romanian Superliga also appears.
The Romanian Superliga, the 2nd place in Europe in instability on the technical bench
Our championship occupies 10th place in the ranking of all 55 analyzed leagues and it is the second if we refer only to the elite echelons in Europeafter Cyprus (100%) and on par with Serbia (81.3%).
That's because only 3 of the current 16 Superliga coaches were in office, at the same club, and more than 365 days ago.
These are are Bogdan Andone (1 year and 7 months at FC Argeș), Zeljko Kopic (2 years and 5 months at Dinamo), respectively Robert Ilyes (3 years and one month at Csikszereda).
At the opposite pole, FCSB has been working under the command of “interim” Lucian Filip for 14 days, Farul has had Flavius Stoican on the bench for 23 days, and Petrolul (Mehmet Topal), Otelul (Stjepan Tomas) and FC Botoșani (Marius Croitoru) have installed their coaches in the last two months.
As an average length of mandates, with 8.8 months, the Romanian Superliga is 45th out of 55 championships taken into account. The first division of Cyprus is also a tailspin in this ranking, with the coaches there, in office, on average, only 4.2 months.
As for the average duration of collaborations, the second leader is Eliteserien, Norway's first league, with 31.5 months. It is followed by La Liga (Spain) with 29.1 months and Premier League (England) with 27.8 months.
The study also includes a column of young coaches (under 40) from each analyzed championship. In the Romanian Superliga, the only coach younger than 40 is the interim Lucian Filip (FCSB), in Austria 41.7% (5/12) are under 40!
