CS Universitatea CraiovaCS Universitatea Craiova is the only Romanian club to have eliminated a team from each of the five strongest leagues in European football — England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. That record was built by the side known as Craiova Maxima, the club's golden generation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, featuring players such as Ilie Balaci, Rodion Cămătaru and goalkeeper Silviu Lung. In the 1982–83 season, having knocked out Fiorentina, Bordeaux and Kaiserslautern along the way, Universitatea became the first Romanian club to reach a UEFA semi-final, losing in the UEFA Cup last four to a strong Benfica side on away goals after two draws (0–0 in Lisbon, 1–1 in Craiova). A year earlier, the club had also reached the European Cup quarter-finals, where it was eliminated by Bayern Munich.
The club was founded on 5 September 1948 by a group of professors and students from the University of Craiova, adopting the white-and-blue colours it still wears today. Playing as the football section of the city's multi-sport university club until 1991, it won four Romanian championships (1974, 1980, 1981, 1991) and five Romanian Cups in that period.
After the fall of communism, the football section split from the public sports club and was privatised. Following several changes of ownership, it passed into the hands of businessman Adrian Mititelu and operated as FC Universitatea Craiova, but conflicts with the national federation and financial problems led to its exclusion from league competition in 2011, and the club was ultimately dissolved.
A double reactivation followed in 2013. City authorities, together with the original public sports club, re-established the football section as CS Universitatea Craiova. At the same time, Adrian Mititelu formed a new entity, FC U Craiova 1948, also claiming continuity with the historic club. This triggered a lengthy legal battle over rights to the name, crest and honours list. Rulings by Romanian courts and the Liga Profesionistă de Fotbal ultimately recognised the city-backed club as the legal successor, granting it the historic lion crest and the full record of titles won between 1948 and 1991, while FC U Craiova 1948 was treated as a new legal entity without those rights — a dispute that still divides the local fan base into two camps.
Since its 2013 refoundation, CS Universitatea Craiova has played at the Ion Oblemenco Stadium, named after the club's former coach and legend, who died in 1996; the ground was rebuilt and reopened in 2017. The club won its first trophy since refoundation in 2018, lifting the Romanian Cup, and added the Romanian Super Cup in 2021.
