Steau Bucharest forced to play without name and badge following copyright dispute

A truly incredible story.

Football clubs getting themselves into all sorts of legal bother is not that rare but the mess that Romanian champs Steau Bucharest are in is surely a new low. The club, created out of the Romanian army in 1947, has been in legal wranglings with the country's Ministry of Defence for the best part of a decade over who owns the rights to the team's name and identity and after a ruling last week, the club lost the battle. As a result, for their game yesterday at home against CSMS Iasi, the club had to list themselves as 'Hosts' on the scoreboard, with no badge on show either. The team played in yellow rather than in their home kit of red and blue and every mention of the club's famous name was expunged from view, be it on staff coats or even the pennant handed over before kick off. The man who took these snaps, journalist Emanuel Roşu @Emishor, has just said that the authorities have given Steau a reprive until December 15, so they will get to wear their colours in the Europa League in midweek, but after that it is back to being without an identity.