ACF Gloria Bistrița
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| Full name | Academia de Fotbal Gloria Bistrița |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) |
Vampirii Albaștri (Blue Vampires) Alb-albaștrii (The White and Blues) Glorioşii (The Glorious Ones) Echipa lui Dracula (Dracula's squad) Struții (The Ostriches) |
| Short name | Gloria |
| Founded | 6 July 1922 as FC Gloria Bistrița 7 August 2015 as AF Gloria Bistrița |
| Ground | Jean Pădureanu |
| Capacity | 7,800 |
| Chairman | Valentin Petrina |
| Manager | Gheorghe Hurloi |
| League | Liga IV |
| 2015–16 | Liga V, Bistrița-Năsăud County, Seria II, 1st (promoted) |
| Website | Club home page |
AF Gloria Bistrița (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈɡlori.a ˈbistrit͡sa]) is a Romanian professional football club from Bistrița, Bistrița-Năsăud County.
The club was founded on 6 July 1922 and among the founding staff members there were: Simion Sbârcea as the club's president; Teofil Moldovan as the club's secretary; Ion Bota; Dumitru Hara; Simion Pop; Ioan Archiudean; and others as the club's administration committee members.
Throughout its earlier history, the club had several other names: Ceramica Bistrița (before World War II), CS Bistrița (after World War II) and Progresul Bistrița until 1956, when the old name, Gloria, was readopted.
In 1954, the team participated at Liga II promotion playoffs but missed the promotion, although at Gloria were playing in that period future Romania national team players, the Munteanu brothers.
The club played in Divizia C (now Liga III) three times. It promoted for the first time in 1957, then for the second time in the 1960s. Gloria played in Diviza C for a third and final time during the 1974–75 season, after which they were relegated from Divizia B.
Gloria earned its first Divizia B (now Liga II) promotion in 1958, just one year after they had promoted to Divizia C. They secondly promoted to B in 1970, under coach Titi Popescu and after the one year relegation during 1974–75 season, they finally promoted the 3rd time under Gheorghe Nuțescu's reign. The team played in Divizia B for 15 years, between 1975 and 1990, possessing many valuable players as Daniel Iftodi, Gheorghe Hurloi, Victor Ciocan and others.
The team earned its promotion to the Romanian first league, Divizia A (now Liga I), in 1990 under coach Remus Vlad, league in which Gloria played uninterrupted until 2011. Also the club gave Romanian football remarkable players such as Viorel Moldovan, Gavril Balint, Lucian Sânmărtean, Ciprian Tătărușanu, Emilian Dolha, Cristian Coroian and others. After shy beginnings of the team in the top division, in 1993, Gloria finished fifth place and qualified in premiere into a European competition, UEFA Cup. They draw 0–0 with Maribor at home, but were eliminated after 2–0 defeat in the second leg played away. In 1994, Gloria Bistrița won the Romanian Cup after defeating Universitatea Craiova with 1–0. After finishing in seventh place, Gloria qualified in UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. They defeated the future UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winners Real Zaragoza with 2–1 in Bistrița, but were eliminated after losing 4–0 at the Estadio La Romareda. After a season of pause, even if finished 12th place, Gloria returned in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup after losing with 3–1 in the final of Romanian Cup against league champions Steaua București. They qualified in first round after defeating Valletta FC with 2–1 in both legs. In first round, Gloria drawn 1–1 in Bistrița against Italian giants Fiorentina, but were eliminated by losing 1–0 in Florence.
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