The only opponents Inverness Caley Thistle played in European competition Astra Guirgui no longer exist - We look at what happened to the former champions of Romania
THEY knocked Inverness Caledonian Thistle out of the Europa League, went on to beat West Ham in the next round and would go on to become champions of Romania all in the same season.
But seven years later, Astra Giurgiu would go out of existence as the football club went bankrupt after no longer being able to afford fielding a team.
They were the top force in Romanian football in the season when they beat Inverness Caledonian 1-0 on aggregate in the second qualifying round in July 2015.
But financial problems which dogged the club saw Astra fall down the Romanian football system until they were no longer able to function and led to the end of their 101 year existence.
So how did Caley Thistle’s only ever opponent in European competition fall from grace?
Before getting to that, let’s remember how they came to play Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
In the 2014/15 campaign, the greatest ever season in Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s history, they qualified for European competition, not by winning the Scottish Cup, but by finishing in third place in the Premiership. They finished the campaign on 65 points, 10 points behind second place Aberdeen on 75, and 27 points eventual champions Celtic on 92.
That earned them entry into the Europa League First Qualification Round for the first very first time
But as a result of winning the Scottish Cup in 2015, Caley Thistle would receive a bye into the Europa League Second Qualification Round, after beating Falkirk 2-1 in the final at Hampden Park on Saturday, May 30.
The draw then paired them with Astra Giurgiu, who some Scottish football fans had heard of previously. Two seasons before they faced Inverness, they took on Celtic twice in the Europa League group stages. They lost 2-1 at Celtic Park before holding them to a 1-1 draw in Giurgui and would go on to finish at the bottom of their group.
The first leg of the match took place on Thursday, July 16 , 2015 at the Caledonian Stadium. Despite a spirited effort from Inverness, Astra Guirgiu took a one-goal advantage back to Romania with a 1-0 win.
Constantin Budescu’s free-kick after 24 minutes proved to be enough to give the Romanian side victory as they headed to the Marin Anastastovici Stadium for the second leg a week later.
Caley Thistle were unable to find a goal to put them back into contention as Astra held out for a 0-0 draw for a 1-0 aggregate win and proceeded to the next round.
Astra were to cause a shock in the third round when they knocked out English Premiership outfit West Ham 4-3 on aggregate.
In the Europa League play-off round, Astra missed out on a place in the Europa League Group Stages when they lost to Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar 4-3 on aggregate.
Astra would go on to the greatest moment in their history when they won Romania’s Liga I for the first time, finishing three points ahead of nearest rivals Dinamo Bucharest. They also went on to win the Romanian Super Cup in 2016.
Those were the last trophies that Astra would win in their history, but they did get into the Romanian Cup final three times in 2017, 2019 and 2021.
The financial problems at Astra began to arise in 2018, with reports of players protesting in the media and criticising owner Ioan Niculae as they claimed they were not being paid wages and boycotting training.
In the 2019/20 season, the financial problems continued and Astra were deducted three points as a result. But they still managed to finish in sixth place in the table and earned qualification to the Europa League.
But due to financial reasons, Astra Giurgiu failed to gain a European license, meaning that they couldn't play in the Europa League that season.
Astra’s financial situation worsened during the Covid pandemic as it was reported players’ wages were not being paid. Three of their players were also suspended as they were being investigated for doping charges.
In February 2021, the club’s owner Ioan Niculae was sentenced to five years in prison for corruption and Astra lost his financial support. By the end of the season, Astra‘s poor performances on the pitch led to them being relegated to Romania’s Liga II. They did reach the Romanian Cup final that season, but lost 3-2 to Universitatea Craiova in extra time.
Astra’s decline continued until they finally threw in the towel on October 18, 2022 when they submitted a request to withdraw from Liga III and dissolved, resulting in the club folding after 101 years. They said with them no longer being able to register players, they were left with no option but to withdraw from competition.
In an official statement at the time, they wrote "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.
"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 the withdrawal from the 3rd League National Championship."
Two years later, Inverness Caledonian Thistle would fall into financial troubles of their own as they declared administration in October.
