Rumeenia I liiga 03/30 13:45 2 FC Botosani v CSM Politehnica Iasi - View
Rumeenia I liiga 04/08 14:30 3 CSM Politehnica Iasi v FC U Craiova 1948 - View
Rumeenia I liiga 04/13 18:00 4 Bukaresti Dinamo v CSM Politehnica Iasi - View
Rumeenia I liiga 04/20 18:00 5 CSM Politehnica Iasi v FC Voluntari - View
Rumeenia I liiga 04/27 18:00 6 Universitatea Cluj v CSM Politehnica Iasi - View
Rumeenia I liiga 05/04 18:00 7 CSM Politehnica Iasi v ACS UTA Batrana Doamna - View
Rumeenia I liiga 05/11 18:00 8 AFC Hermannstadt v CSM Politehnica Iasi - View
Rumeenia I liiga 05/18 18:00 9 CSM Politehnica Iasi v Petrolul Ploiesti - View

Asociația Club Sportiv Municipal Politehnica Iași (Romanian pronunciation: [po.liˈteh.nika ˈjaʃʲ]), commonly known as Politehnica Iași or simply Poli Iași, is a Romanian professional football club based in the city of Iași, Iași County, that competes in the Liga I.

The team was formed as ACSMU Politehnica Iași in 2010, following the dissolution of the original FC Politehnica Iași the same year. Because it was created by merging Tricolorul Breaza with Navobi Iași and started to play directly from the Liga II, the club is not generally considered to hold the record of the old entity. Between 2011 and 2016, the team was rebranded CSM Studențesc Iași, but returned to the name of Politehnica afterwards. It made its Liga I debut in the 2012–13 season, and equalled the best result of its predecessor by finishing sixth in the 2017–18 Liga I season.

Politehnica Iași plays in white and blue uniforms at the inherited Emil Alexandrescu Stadium, which was built in 1960 and has a capacity of 11,390 persons.

History

Foundation and first years (2010–2014)

The original Politehnica Iași was established in April 1945 and folded in 2010 because of unpaid debts. In August that year, Tricolorul Breaza merged with Navobi Iași and formed ACSMU Politehnica Iași. Playing in the Liga II, the club's objective was to return to the first tier of Romanian football.

Ionuț Popa was appointed manager of the newly founded club and Grigore Sichitiu was elected as executive president.

In the summer of 2011, the club was renamed Clubul Sportiv Municipal Studențesc Iași, or simply CSMS Iași. For the second half of the 2011–12 season ex-Romanian international Florin Prunea was brought in as president. On 2 June 2012, after the 4–2 victory against Farul Constanța. the team gained promotion to Liga I, after two years in the second tier of Romanian football.

On 29 August, Liviu Ciobotariu was appointed head coach. The Moldavian team finished the 2012–13 season in 17th place and were relegated to the second division. Even though there were hopes that they would be accepted for the 2013–14 Liga I season, eventually CS Concordia Chiajna secured the last place in the first league, due to the relegation of FC Rapid București for financial reasons.

For the 2013–14 Liga II season, promising young coach Costel Enache was brought in to head a team that retained the services of its young talent, the likes of Alexandru Crețu, Adrian Avrămia and Andrei Hergheligiu.

Return to the top division (2014–present)

Former logo, used between 2016 and 2018

After Marius Lăcătuș replaced Enache as manager, Politehnica finished 1st in the 2013–14 Liga II and were promoted back to Liga I. For the 2014–15 season, the club played for their first time in the Cupa Ligii, defeating ASA Târgu Mureș and advancing to the last-16, where they eliminated former Romanian Cup and Liga I winner CFR Cluj.

Name Period
Politehnica Iași 2010–2011
CSM Studențesc Iași 2011–2016
Politehnica Iași 2016–present

The 2015–16 Liga I season was one of the best in the short history of Politehnica Iași and in the football history of Iași. After a great campaign, the team finished 7th and qualified for the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League under the command of Italian coach Nicolò Napoli, with a team that relied on experienced players like: Andrei Cristea, Bojan Golubović, Ionuț Voicu and Branko Grahovac. In the second round of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League, Politehnica encountered Croatian team Hajduk Split and after a 2–2 draw at Iași, they were defeated at Split 1–2, prematurely leaving the competition.

On 22 July 2016, the club announced that it had changed its name, from CSM Studențesc Iași to CSM Politehnica Iași, a name more closely linked to the Iași football tradition and dissolved FC Politehnica Iași (1945).

In June 2017, president Florin Prunea was let go after five years at the helm of Politehnica Iași. Adrian Ambrosie was subsequently appointed to the position. After a number of major departures, with the likes of Lukács Bőle and Daisuke Sato finishing their contracts, the team went into major reconstruction and signed a number of foreign internationals, like Denis Rusu, Kamer Qaka, Luwagga Kizito and Platini. On 24 February 2018, despite a 0–1 loss to defending champions Viitorul Constanța, Poli Iași became the first team from Moldavia to qualify for the Liga I play-off round since its introduction in 2015. To the delight of manager Flavius Stoican, they went on to finish the league in 6th place, thus equalling the best result of predecessor FC Politehnica Iași.