In the shadow of football temples, billion-dollar balls and megalomaniac takeovers, clubs live on the margins. Where the enthusiast is still courted with history, character and sincere romance. For the section Cult clubs is reading Football zone from the fairy tale books of the football library. In this edition: Jiul Petrosani, the folk club whose success parallels the productivity of the coal mines in the surrounding valley.
At the end of the nineteenth century, a group of Romanian students are introduced to football in England. When they take the sport back to their homeland, it eventually descends to the Jiu Valley as well. The region in Southwestern Transylvania is mainly used for its mines. It is therefore the miners from the largest city of the area, Petrosani, who competed against their colleagues from the city of Lupeni in 2014. This game of football would be the beginning of the sport in the mining area. In 1915, a number of workers started their association: the Petrosani Miners’ Athletic Club, which four years later became an official football club.
The mines of the Jiu Valley have long been regarded as the main source of income
That did not go without a hit or a hit. The region’s income came mainly from work in the coal mines. The fact that chairman of the mining community Ion Sinklehner set aside money for a football club did not go down well with everyone. In the end, the fate as a football city was accepted. Playing in the color of the coal-stained people: white-black. CAMP merged in 1922 with the club from the region’s second largest city: CSM Vulcan. Uniunea Cluburilor Sportive ale Societatii Petrosani (UCASP) becomes regional champion in 1924-25, dissolves the merger and again mixes in 1927 with another club, this time from Lupeni. That collaboration also ends two years later, after which Petrosani decides on the current name, inspired by the Jui River that flows through the valley: Jiul Petrosani.
The way up
Like the city’s miners, Petrosani spends some time in the depths of national football. When the Divizia A, Romania’s top division, was founded, the club is barely on the map. It was not until Divizia B was founded in 1934 that Petrosani could compete with other clubs in the country. Finally, the team is promoted to the Divizia A in 1936/37. A turbulent existence follows: Petrosani is continuously relegated and promoted from A to B. It has to dig deep into golden times, which are finally found in the seventies.
Jiul plays the final of the Romanian Cup in the year 1972. However, Rapid Bucharest proves to be too strong: Petrosani loses 2-0. But, two years later sports recovery follows. The 1974 cup final is reached and this time Petrosani wins 4-2 against Politehnica Timisoara, the Romanian club that will eventually be dissolved in 2012 due to financial problems. The following season, Petrosani is allowed to participate in the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, the predecessor of the UEFA Cup in which only national cup winners were allowed to participate. In the first round, unfortunately, the Scottish Dundee United is too strong. Petrosani still wins 2-0 at home, but due to the previously lost away game (3-0), it is out of the tournament. Nevertheless, not a disaster for the small folk club.
The true catastrophe takes place in that same season. During a match against Politehnica Lasi on May 25, the only stand of the stadium catches fire. The home of the club that has stood untouched since 1922 is no more. In 1982 the small club gets a new stadium in Lanca Juilui. The Stadionul Jiul can hold 15,500 people. Like the valley it is part of, it is lower than the mountains and houses around it. With grandstands where the grass still grows between the seats. In 2019, during the centenary of the club, the stadium will be given a new name. Stadionul Petre Libardi is named after the eponymous midfielder who played no fewer than 238 matches for the club between 1963 and 1975. With the captain’s armband, which he wears for a total of ten years, he lifts the national cup in 1974 and also plays the club’s only European match against Dundee United. In the end, the midfielder also plays two international matches for the Romanian national team, making him an icon for the club.
Meat in the tub
Unfortunately, the stadium that bears the name of a great player no longer fits the stature of the club. From 1990, when mine production was gradually shut down, Petrosani suffered from a financial crisis. The valley’s mines can no longer provide the cities with profitable trade, forcing the region to find other ways to stimulate the economy. In this it can take an example from certain football clubs, according to a high-profile transfer.
In 1998, when Petrosani had just been relegated from Divizia A, midfielder Ion Radu was put up for sale at Chimia Ramnicu Valcea, a club that won the national cup in 1973 and eventually ceased to exist in 2004. Valcea has been in sporting and financial problems since 1983. According to various Romanian and British media, they therefore use a striking medium of exchange. Radu does not earn Petrosani any money, but an undetermined weight in pork. The sources do not agree on the exact amount, but they do agree on the inspiring words of the chairman. “The meat will be sold to pay our players.”
The end near
When Romania joins the European Union in 2007, one of the requirements is that the mines in the Jiu Valley be completely closed. The Union criticizes the excessive costs to the mining sector by several Romanian governments trying to counteract the losses since 1970. The definitive closure of the former core of the region also symbolically heralds the downfall of Jiul Petrosani. The club is relegated again in the same year to the Divizia B, now renamed Liga 2.
With the sporting malaise also follow personnel problems. In August 2007, player Mihai Lungan claims, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, that he was beaten up by owner Alin Simota’s bodyguards because he wanted his contract destroyed. The downturn continues. With a sixth, eleventh and sixteenth consecutive position, including the financial problems, Petrosani is even relegated to fourth position. From then on, where it previously fluctuated between A and B, it fluctuates in the same way between Romania’s third and fourth levels. Like the once so vibrant mine, that one after production strikes and unproductive strikes too the valley of tears was mentioned, the lovers of Jui Petrosani also cry. Although with an eighth, seventh and sixth place in the last seasons of the Liga 3, the club hopes to rise again from the jet-black surfaces of Romanian football.