RRI Sports Club

Romania at the World Cup (part I)

Florin Orban, 08.10.2025, 13:45

Romania’s campaign to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, to be hosted jointly by the United States, Mexico and Canada, continues this autumn. Waiting for the results that may take the national squad to the American continent, we will look back at the history of Romania’s participation in the World Cup.

Let’s begin with the very first edition of the World Cup, which was hosted by Uruguay in 1930. No qualifying matches were held for that competition. 13 teams were registered, including 8 from Latin America, 4 from Europe, and the United States. Apart from Romania, the European teams included the Yugoslav, Belgian and French sides.

Romania played in the same group as Peru and Uruguay. In their opening match, they met Peru. Despite a rough match from Peru and the fact they had lost a player to injury and at that time it wasn’t allowed to replace a player, Romania won 3-1. In the following match, Romania met the host nation Uruguay. The latter opened the score through an irregular goal, with the scorer being outside of play. Romania equalised, but the referee annulled the goal for an imaginary out of play. So, the Romanian players realised they could not possibly win, gave up and received three more goals. The final score was 4-nil and Uruguay would go on to win the final 4-2 to Argentina.

The following edition of the World Cup, hosted by Italy in 1934, did require qualifying matches. In the preliminary group, Romania defeated Yugoslavia, lost to Switzerland and made it to the World Cup from the second position in the group. At the final tournament, which was a single-elimination format, Romania only got to play one match, against Czechoslovakia, which they narrowly lost 1-2, having led 1-nil. Czechoslovakia would go on to reach the final, which they lost to Italy 1-2. Other sides eliminated in the first round at the tournament included Brazil, Argentina, The Netherlands, France and Belgium.

The 1938 World Cup was held in France. In the qualifying matches, Egypt and Argentina, the teams Romania were supposed to play, withdrew, sending Romania to the final tournament. In their opening match, they met Cuba, drawing 3-all. The match was replayed, and Romania this time lost 1-2. Cuba went on to lose to Sweden 0-8.