December 9 – Romania’s most famous club Steaua Bucharest, founded in 1947, have been stripped of their name, colours and emblem after losing a long legal battle with the country’s defence ministry over their trademark.
The team with no name has been given permission to carry on using it in Thursday’s Europa League match with Dynamo Kiev, a UEFA competition, but domestically face an uncertain future after Romania’s most powerful court ruled the former army club have used the Steaua brand illegally since 2004 and have cancelled their registration for breaching copyright.
The 1986 European champions, playing in yellow instead of their famous red and blue shirts, were announced at their last league game at the weekend as simply “the champions of Romania”, with their emblem replaced by an empty square.
Reports say the Steaua name has now been wiped off all training kits and official uniforms.
Steaua owner Gigi Becali and general manager Mihai Stoica are currently both serving prison terms for abuse of power.
The legal dispute stems from the club, Romanian champions 25 times, being previously owned by the army. In 1989, the club was separated from the Army Sports Club and became privately owned. It was then renamed Steaua Bucharest but when it was purchased by Becali in 2004, the army took exception, leading to a string of lawsuits.
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