Stadionul Ion Moina – historical stadium description

In 1911 there was one wooden stand here. In this scenery Galatasaray played their first European game and lost severely 1:8. Back then winners were not Universitatea, but the older of Cluj’s football teams – CFR Cluj. That team remained hosts until 1967, but since 1919 had to share the ground with the “U”.

In 1961 all stands were moved and new ones raised in their place. This time of concrete, all single-tiered, connected in the letter “U”, like the host team. The stadium retained its shape until 2008, when bulldozers came in to make way for a new arena. For most of its life the ground carried the name of Ion Moina, Europe’s fastest runner from 1948. However that eventually changed, when close to ending construction works on new venue, it was renamed to simply Cluj Arena.