On Romanian Football: 2021–2022 brands in Romanian First League
1. Nike — 5 teams out of 16
Teams: FCSB, Farul, Rapid, CFR Cluj, Voluntari
For Nike sponsorship, there are at least four different tiers of teams — Elite, Premium, Standard & Third Party. There is also a fifth level, of which Nike is not responsible — clubs that buy their shirts themselves.
Third party teams have no direct contract with Nike but with a third-party, who manage contracts for Nike in particular countries. These teams are not paid by Nike to wear their products.
CFR Cluj, Rapid and FC Voluntari are these third-party clubs in Romania. The third-party deals are often managed by local retailers. So these clubs are not in any way sponsored by Nike. But have a contract with a third-party supplier in Eastern Europe.
These 3 clubs mentioned above have the “Made in Georgia”, Nike DRI-FIT basic templates. Without any special customisation or design pattern. They are just one color shirts with the team crest added.
The switch of FC Voluntari to the the basic Nike templates even sparkled an overall rebrand of the traditional club colors, which now is a kebab of purple, neon and light blue. Rapid, newly promoted in Liga 1, also signed a contract with a third party supplier. CFR Cluj has been playing in Nike DRI-FIT since last season.
For the first time in history, Nike dominates football brands in Romania. That is due to their recent opening of Nike factory in Georgia which now supplies/supports lots of third-party suppliers in Eastern Europe and Asia
Minor.
FCSB and Farul use Nike too but they are premium teams on the Nike pyramid. Premium teams are on the second level of Nike’s pyramid. Premium Teams get custom kit designs, streamlined pre-match shirts and some custom lifestyle / training gear.
FCSB got a new home shirt, kind of a template, design this year while Farul is the first and only team in Romanian First League with Nike Vaporknit technology. FCSB are using the DRI-FIT slim fit model. FCSB change their shirts every two years. The away FCSB was introduced last year and still in use.
FCSB is using a different color scheme than what AS Roma used for their third kit in 2020–21.
Farul is managed and owned by Gheorghe Hagi. Mr. Hagi is a “Nike athlete” and has a personalised contract for himself and the team he owns. That is why you will see him only wearing Nike products or other unbranded clothes during matches and interviews. The Farul management also has the habit of not printing the player name on the shirt unless there is a special game.
Edit 14.09.2021:
One month after publishing this story, after already 10 games played in Romanian First League, CFR Cluj has announced they will switch to Nike Vapor Knit, same as Farul. Non-personalised design. Just basic template. Video below:
https://youtu.be/vkohtEOuV2M
2. Adidas — 2 teams out of 16
Teams: Sepsi, FC U Craiova
Similar to Nike, Adidas has four levels of football team partnerships — A Teams, B Teams, Standard & Third-Party. Adidas does not have a strong foothold in Eastern Europe like other brands. They decided to move away from these parts of the world and the perfect example for me is the relationship between Romania national team and Adidas that ended in 2014. The adidas influence borders in Eastern Europe stop in Hungary.
Beyond Hungary you have, same as Nike, third party teams which have no direct contract with Adidas but with a third-party, who manage contracts for Adidas in those countries. FC U Craiova is one example. Who got latest “Condivo 21 Prime Blue” templates from a supplier and apply further customisation to them.
FC U Craiova, newly promoted, uses same as last year, the Adidas Condivo templates, design too is the basic template. It is the first team in Romanian First League history that uses the Condivo template.
Here are other teams that are using Adidas Condivo 21 Prime Blue this season:
FC Orenburg (Russia), Algeria national team, Rosenborg BK (Norway)
I am not sure what status has Sepsi with adidas but they do play in adidas Squadra templates with climacool/climalite technology.
3. Joma — 3 teams out of 16
Teams: Gaz Metan, Chindia, Clinceni
Joma lost 3 clients and is not dominating anymore the top tier of the Romanian football as it did in the past years.
Romania x Joma is a strong partnership that started in 2017 when the Romanian Football Federation signed with them. Ever since more and more local teams adopted Joma.
What Joma does for Romania national team is special. Rather than introducing templates. The technology and materials are the same as any other Joma product though. I think Romania national team is among the best sponsored teams out there which is sponsored by the Spanish brand.
But as it goes for the clubs check it out below:
4. Macron — 3 teams out of 16
Teams: Dinamo, Mioveni, FC Arges
Dinamo gets a new design for their shirts even since they signed with the Italian brand in 2018. While Mioveni and FC Arges are getting design templates.
Dinamo Bucharest promised to the fans a new macron shirt personalised with the name of 200 supporters that helped financially the club during 2020–2021 season. Although this design was not finalised as I wrote this article (August, 2021) so as we speak Dinamo still plays in 2020–2021 macron shirts.
5. Puma — 1 team out of 16
Team: Universitatea Craiova
Universitatea Craiova has also a template design for their Puma dryCELL shirts. They are fresh, they are new and break the standards of shirts in Romanian First League. So far only FCSB had something worth mentioning in matter of shirts but this year Universitatea Craiova has a strong say as well. Sassuolo uses the same template.
I wrote a review on Universitatea Craiova puma kits from previous season 2020–2021
6. Errea — 1 team out of 16
Team: Botosani
Long time partnership between these two. FC Botosani uses for the 4th season in a row the same errea kit design. Nothing worth mentioning here.
7. Saller — 1 team out of 16
Team: UTA Arad
Long time agreement between these two as well. Same as FC Botosani they reuse saller templates every year without any customised design. But what it stands out here is that their sponsors are being adapted to match their red-white color scheme rather than using the proper sponsor logo.
Personal top:
1. Farul home shirt
2. FCSB home shirt
3. Universitatea home shirt
4. FC U Craiova shirt
5. Sepsi home shirt
6. Farul away shirt
7. Universitatea Craiova away shirt
8. FC Arges away shirt
FCSB and Universitatea Craiova are slowly showing interest in shirts. They have been pioneers for years in being bold with their shirts thus my affinity to their shirts is bigger than to the others.
FCSB like in every year they made again a poor font choice and Universitatea Craiova stripes are random. But once again this year both of the clubs have failed miserably in marketing their shirt/product. Craiova does not have customisation available online or in their shop. While FCSB sells match issue shirts but for 125€. The average salary in Bucharest per month is around 800€. So a FCSB shirt is really exquisite and the most expensive from Romanian First League to possess.
Farul is helped by the Nike technology and their template design giving that “simplicity” to their white home shirt. But what sells it for me is the Petrom logo which adds that bit of color and making it overall “more than enough”.
CFR Cluj is among the fewest clubs in the league that have established a proper shop. Selling match-issue shirts or signed player shirts. Affordable for everybody.
Fun fact: There are two local rival teams with same logo, name and both of them with the same kit colors for home, away and third: Universitatea Craiova (puma) and FC U Craiova (adidas)
Both of them with such a strong ego that none considered an alternative kit color.
I regularly post stories about Romania match worn shirts on Instagram.
If you want to get in touch with me you can find me there as onromanianfootball:
https://www.instagram.com/onromanianfootball/
