Asociația Club Sportiv Foresta Suceava, commonly known as Foresta Suceava or simply as Foresta, was a professional football club from Romania, based in Suceava, Suceava County and founded in 1946 as Locomotiva Ițcani. Previously, the club changed its name to A.S. C.F.R. Ițcani as well. At the end of the 2017–2018 season finished 18th out of 20 teams and were relegated to the third league. They have last played in Liga III, Seria I, withdrawing on March 5, 2024, because of financial problems and unpaid debts.
History
Foresta Suceava was founded as Rapid CFR Suceava to continue the football tradition in the city of Suceava after the dissolution of FC Cetatea Suceava, CSM Suceava (Bucovina Suceava) and NC Foresta Suceava. In the 2011–2012 season the club managed to win Liga III and as such to gain promotion to Liga II. Thus, since the 2011–2012 season, Rapid CFR Suceava has played in Liga II, the second tier of the Romanian football system.
Rapid started the 2014–2015 Liga II season with good results: 3 wins and 2 draws. One result was the home match against Săgeata Năvodari, a club which had previously played in Liga I for the very first time in its history during the 2013–2014 season, when Rapid fell behind twice but managed to equalise each time. Mircea Negru and Marius Matei managed to score the goals for Rapid in that respective match. In the 5th fixture Rapid encountered CS Balotești. Rapid were losing 1–0 until the 88th minute, but won with two goals scored by Cătălin Golofca and Sascha Marinkovic. Along with this win, Rapid reached second place in Seria I of Liga II with 11 points after 5 matches.
In the 2014–2015 season the club additionally managed to qualify for the Round of 16 of the domestic cup competition Cupa României following a 1–0 win over Liga I side Gaz Metan Mediaș in the Round of 32 on September 23, 2014. After the Round of 32, Rapid Suceava alongside Dacia Mioveni were the only two football clubs from the second division to qualify in the next phase after both having managed to obtain their qualifications from blowout results with teams higher rated than them from the first tier. Nonetheless, beforehand defeating Gaz Metan Mediaș, Rapid did also win two other domestic cup matches against Liga III sides CS Știința Miroslava (3–0) and Cetatea Târgu Neamț (1–0), both away, which made the club obtain a flawless performance with 7 consecutive positive results in both competitions.
At the end of the 2015–16 Liga II season, Rapid CFR Suceava was relegated to Liga III, but maintained the hope to remain in Liga II after more clubs announced that they would not enroll because of the financial problems.
In the middle of 2016 the team changed its name from Rapid CFR Suceava to Foresta Suceava, a name that binds the most important results of the football from Suceava.
Colours and badge
Rapid Suceava used a similar home kit to that of CFR Cluj, namely a white-burgundy one. During away matches they played wearing a black and blue kit. After the rebranding, the new Foresta use a kit that combines yellow and green colors.
Stadium
Foresta Suceava plays its home matches on the Areni Stadium. The stadium has a total capacity of 12,500 seats and was opened in 1963 as the Municipal Stadium. Additionally, the stadium was also renovated between the periods 1976–1977, 1980–1982 and 2002 respectively. It is currently ranked 31st in the all time ranking table of stadiums from Romania.List of football stadiums in Romania
Honours Liga III Winners (2): 2011–12, 2022–23 Runners-up (3): 2019–20, 2020–21, 2021–22 Liga IV – Suceava County Winners (1): 2007–08
League and Cup history
Season Tier Division Place Cupa României 2023–24 3 Liga III (Seria I) 9th (R) 2022–23 3 Liga III (Seria I) 1st (C) 2021–22 3 Liga III (Seria I) 2nd 2020–21 3 Liga III (Seria I) 2nd 2019–20 3 Liga III (Seria I) 2nd Round of 16 2018–19 3 Liga III (Seria I) 5th 2017–18 2 Liga II 18th (R) 2016–17 2 Liga II 12th Round of 32 2015–16 2 Liga II (Seria I) 10th Round of 32 2014–15 2 Liga II (Seria I) 5th Round of 16
Season Tier Division Place Cupa României 2013–14 2 Liga II (Seria I) 10th 2012–13 2 Liga II (Seria I) 10th 2011–12 3 Liga III (Seria I) 1st (C, P) 2010–11 3 Liga III (Seria I) 12th 2009–10 3 Liga III (Seria I) 5th 2008–09 3 Liga III (Seria I) 9th 2007–08 4 Liga IV (SV) 1st (C, P) 2006–07 4 Liga IV (SV) 4th 2005–06 4 Divizia D (SV) 3rd 2004–05 4 Divizia D (SV) 7th
Former managers
Marin Barbu (2013) Constantin Ilie (2015–2016) Daniel Bălan (2016) Cristian Popovici (2016–2017) Dorin Goian (2016–2017) Florentin Petre (2017–2018) Selim Benachour (2018–2019) Petre Grigoraș (2019–2020) Dorin Goian (2020) Ivan Gvozdenović (2020–2021) Ivan Gvozdenović (2022) Dorin Goian (2022–2023)
References
External links Foresta's page at frf.ro Foresta's page at liga2.ro Foresta's page at campionate.ro
Rapid a incheiat campania de transferari Rapidistii vor intra pe gazonul de pe Areni odata cu adversarii din prima etapa Supporters website