Romanian club Astra Giurgiu, who won the Liga Profesionista de Fotbal in 2016 have had their professional status stripped away.
Astra recorded a famous victory during the Europa League play-off round in the 15/16 campaign when they were up against Premier League side West Ham United.
Many felt West Ham would win but to everyone’s surprise, Astra came out on top.
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At the London Stadium, the match ended 2-2 but in the return leg, Astra won 2-1 and as a result, dumped the Hammers out of the competition.
During the 16/17 season, Astra faced off against West Ham again and as they did a year ago, got the better of the Hammers with a 1-0 victory.
However, things started to turn sour for the club in recent years.
In 2021, club owner loan Niculae was sentenced to five years in jail for money laundering, from there, the club’s future was in serious doubt.
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They were forced to sell as many players as possible in order to pay their ever-increasing debts.
Astra spent their last year as a professional club in Romanian’s third tier where they recorded a goal difference of 0:66.
The club later requested to be withdrawn from the league. A statement read, as per Pro Sport: “Considering the fact that FIFA imposed the ban on us to register players, the club ended up in the situation of not being able to form its squad.
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“We are in the unfortunate situation of not being able to get out of this impasse, although we do not owe the amounts claimed. We cannot escape the sanction imposed abusively by FIFA and we are in the situation of not having a full batch of players.
“Under these conditions, we are forced to request withdrawal from the 3rd League National Championship.”
Astra has since folded after 101 years of existence, a sad day for the fans of the club and Romanian football in general.
Topics: Romania, West Ham United, Football
Marcus Chan