Romanian League

Liga I

The image representing the competition
Country	Romania
Confederation	UEFA
Founded	1909
Number of teams	14 (from 2015–16)
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Liga II
Domestic cup(s)	Cupa României Supercupa României
League cup(s)	Cupa Ligii
International cup(s)	UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League
Current champions	Astra Giurgiu (1st title) (2015–16)
Most championships	Steaua București (26 titles)
TV partners	Look TV Look Plus Dolce Sport Digi Sport
Website	lpf.ro
2016–17 Liga I

Liga I (also spelled Liga 1) is a Romanian professional league for men's association football clubs. It is currently sponsored by Orange, and thus officially known as the Liga 1 Orange. At the top of the Romanian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 14 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with Liga II. The teams play 26 matches each in the regular season, and then enter the play-off or the play-out according to their position in the regular season.

Liga I was established in 1909 and commenced play for the 1909–10 campaign, being currently on the 17th place in UEFA's league coefficient ranking list. It is administrated by the Liga Profesionistă de Fotbal (LPF). Before the 2006–07 season, the competition was known as Divizia A, but the name had to be changed following the finding that someone else had registered that trademark.

As of 2016, Liga I ranked first in the number of teams sent to participate in European competitions since 1955. No less than 40 different clubs have played at least one match in European cups.

The first football club's organization formula was "A Divisional College" (Colegiul Divizionar A) founded on 5 October 1970 and led by Mircea Angelescu. Until 1990, the "A Divisional College" was formal without remarkable decisions. During the 90's many changes were implemented, reflected in the new names of the organization, e.g. "A Divisional Team's League", " National Football League", "Professional Club's League", etc. On 10 October 1992, the organization's name became "Professional Football A Division League", led by Mircea Angelescu as president, Dumitru Dragomir as vice-president and Daniel Lăzărescu as general secretary. On 22 January 1993, the name of the organization became "Professional Football League of Romania", an A-Division professional football clubs representation. On 13 October 1993, the Liga II - or B Division - club's members were included. On 30 September 1996, Dumitru Dragomir has been elected president of the "Professional Football League of Romania". The headquarters has been located on 47 Mihai Eminescu Street since February 1997. In December 1977, it was decided that the league would organize the A-Division Championship starting with the 1997–98 championship.