The Liga 3, most often spelled as Liga III, is the third level of the Romanian football league system. It was founded in 1936 and was called Divizia C until 2006. An exception was the seasons 1992–93 to 1996–97, in which the league was called Divizia B. Its name was changed from Divizia C to Liga III before the start of the 2006–07 season.[1]
Divizia C was founded in 1936 with the task of forming both an organizational and managerial buffer between national and regional football. In this sense, it was abolished several times, when a totally local management was opted for. Even on other occasions, its format was highly unstable.
Until 1963 the competition was only held irregularly. After the first two seasons in 1936–37 and 1937–38, the Divizia C was discontinued and only resumed for one season in 1946–47. After another year's break, a new attempt was made in 1948–49, which was canceled after the first half of the season. The fourth edition of the Divizia C took place in 1956, which was followed by the two seasons 1957–58 and 1958–59. After a further four-year break, the next season only came in 1963–64, since which the Divizia C has now been held annually.
Since the 2021–2022 season Liga III was reorganized from 5 to 10 groups, each with 10 teams, based on the geographic position. In each group, teams play each other twice, before the play-off, with the 4 best teams, and the play-out, with the remaining 6 teams, starts.
The top 2 teams form each group goes in the promotion semi-final, first in group 1 plays second in group 2 and vice versa all the way to group 9 and group 10, and then the final, winners of the games between the group 1 and group 2 teams all the way to groups 9 and 10, ending with 5 winners getting promoted to Liga II.
The bottom two teams from each group are relegated at the end of the season to the Liga IV. From the 4th placed teams in the play-out, the team with the least points is relegated.
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