# 2017–18 Liga Națională (men's handball)

The 2017–18 Liga Națională was the 60th season of Romanian Handball League, the top-level men's professional handball league. The league comprises 14 teams. Dinamo București were the defending champions, for the second season in a row.

## Teams

| Club | Ground(s) | Capacity |
| CSM București | Sala Sporturilor "Rapid" | 1,500 |
| CSM Făgăraș | Sala Colegiul National "Radu Negru" | 150 |
| CSM Focșani | Sala Sporturilor "Vrancea" | 1,400 |
| CSU Suceava | Sala Sporturilor | 500 |
| Dinamo București | Sala Dinamo | 2,538 |
| Dobrogea Sud Constanța | Sala Sporturilor | 2,100 |
| Dunărea Călăraşi | Sala Polivalentă | 1,500 |
| Minaur Baia Mare | Sala Sporturilor "Lascăr Pană" | 2,048 |
| HC Odorheiu Secuiesc | Sala Sporturilor | 1,250 |
| HC Vaslui | Sala Sporturilor | 1,500 |
| Politehnica Iași | Sala Polivalentă | 1,500 |
| Politehnica Timișoara | Sala Constantin Jude | 1,540 |
| Potaissa Turda | Sala de sport "Gheorghe Bariţiu" | 600 |
| Steaua București | Sala Sporturilor "Concordia" | 600 |

## League table
### Standings

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Steaua București | 26 | 20 | 1 | 5 | 696 | 609 | +87 | 61 | Qualification to Play-Off |
| 2 | Potaissa Turda | 26 | 19 | 0 | 7 | 726 | 648 | +78 | 57 | Qualification to Play-Off |
| 3 | Dinamo București | 26 | 18 | 2 | 6 | 736 | 649 | +87 | 56 | Qualification to Play-Off |
| 4 | CSM București | 26 | 18 | 1 | 7 | 735 | 636 | +99 | 55 | Qualification to Play-Off |
| 5 | Politehnica Timișoara | 26 | 17 | 2 | 7 | 683 | 607 | +76 | 53 | Qualification to Play-Off |
| 6 | Dobrogea Constanța | 26 | 15 | 4 | 7 | 701 | 636 | +65 | 49 | Qualification to Play-Off |
| 7 | Dunărea Călărași | 26 | 13 | 4 | 9 | 648 | 648 | 0 | 43 | Qualification to Play-Off |
| 8 | Odorheiu Secuiesc (R) | 26 | 10 | 2 | 14 | 427 | 482 | −55 | 32 | Relegation to Divizia A |
| 9 | Minaur Baia Mare | 26 | 10 | 1 | 15 | 642 | 674 | −32 | 31 | Qualification to Play-Off |
| 10 | CSU Suceava | 26 | 7 | 4 | 15 | 654 | 676 | −22 | 25 | Qualification to Play-Out |
| 11 | CSM Focșani | 26 | 7 | 3 | 16 | 601 | 650 | −49 | 24 | Qualification to Play-Out |
| 12 | HC Vaslui | 26 | 7 | 1 | 18 | 637 | 730 | −93 | 22 | Qualification to Play-Out |
| 13 | CSM Făgăraș | 26 | 5 | 1 | 20 | 585 | 676 | −91 | 16 | Qualification to Play-Out |
| 14 | Politehnica Iași (R) | 26 | 2 | 2 | 22 | 573 | 723 | −150 | 8 | Relegation to Divizia A |
* ↑ HC Odorheiu Secuiesc withdrew from the championship in the second part of the championship due to financial problems and lost matches by forfeit.
* ↑ Politehnica Iași withdrew from the championship in the second part of the championship due to financial problems and lost matches by forfeit.

## Play-Off
### Knockout phase

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| Steaua București | 2 | | |
| Minaur Baia Mare | 0 | | |
| Minaur Baia Mare | 0 | Steaua București | 2 |
| | | CSM București | 1 |
| CSM București | 2 | CSM București | 1 |
| Politehnica Timișoara | 1 | | | | |
| Politehnica Timișoara | 1 | | | Steaua București | 1 |
| | | | | Dinamo București | 2 |
| Potaissa Turda | 2 | | | Dinamo București | 2 |
| Dunărea Călărași | 0 | | | | |
| Dunărea Călărași | 0 | Potaissa Turda | 0 | | |
| | | Dinamo București | 2 | Third place | Third place |
| Dinamo București | 2 | Dinamo București | 2 | Third place | Third place |
| Dobrogea Constanța | 1 | | | | |
| Dobrogea Constanța | 1 | | | CSM București | 1 |
| | | | | Potaissa Turda | 2 |

### League table – positions 1–4

| | Team | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Dinamo București (C, Q) | 2018–19 EHF Champions League |
| 2 | Steaua București (Q) | 2018–19 EHF Cup |
| 3 | Potaissa Turda (Q) | 2018–19 EHF Cup |
| 4 | CSM București (Q) | 2018–19 EHF Challenge Cup |

### League table – positions 5–8

| | Team |
| 5 | Dobrogea Constanța |
| 6 | Politehnica Timișoara |
| 7 | Dunărea Călărași |
| 8 | Minaur Baia Mare |

## Play-Out

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 9 | Universitatea Suceava | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 309 | 299 | +10 | 23 | |
| 10 | CSM Focșani | 12 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 293 | 279 | +14 | 20 | |
| 11 | CSM Făgăraș (O) | 12 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 296 | 309 | −13 | 15 | Relegation play-offs |
| 12 | HC Vaslui (O) | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 297 | 309 | −12 | 12 | Relegation play-offs |
| 13 | Politehnica Iași (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Relegation to Divizia A |
| 14 | Odorheiu Secuiesc (R) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Relegation to Divizia A |
* ↑ Politehnica Iași withdrew from the championship in the second part of the championship due to financial problems and lost matches by forfeit.
* ↑ Odorheiu Secuiesc withdrew from the championship in the second part of the championship due to financial problems and lost matches by forfeit.

## Relegation play-offs

The 11th and 12th-placed teams of the Liga Națională faced the 2nd and 3rd-placed teams of the Divizia A, from both Seria A and Seria B. The first place from each play-off group promoted to Liga Națională.

### Serie I

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or qualification |
| 1 | CSM Făgăraș (P) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 42 | +23 | 6 | Promotion to Liga Națională |
| 2 | HC Buzău (Q) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 46 | 55 | −9 | 3 | Qualification to Third place |
| 3 | Universitatea Cluj | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 49 | 63 | −14 | 0 | |

### Serie II

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Promotion or qualification |
| 1 | HC Vaslui (P) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 27 | +17 | 3 | Promotion to Liga Națională |
| 2 | Atletico Alexandria (Q) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 44 | −17 | 0 | Qualification to Third place |
| 3 | CSU Târgu Jiu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
* ↑ CSU Târgu Jiu withdrew from the relegation play-offs.

### Third place

Because the winner of Divizia A, Seria B, CSM Oradea declined the participation in the 2018–19 Liga Națională, another play-off match was organised to establish the third place and implicitly the last team promoted. The match was played between the 2nd places from the two Relegation play-offs series.
| Team 1 | Score | Team 2 |
| HC Buzău | 30–27 | Atletico Alexandria |
Notes:
* HC Buzău qualified for 2018–19 Liga Națională and Atletico Alexandria qualified for 2018–19 Divizia A.

## Season statistics
### Number of teams by counties

| Pos. | County (județ) | No. of teams | Team(s) |
| 1 | Bucharest (capital) | 3 | CSM București, Dinamo and Steaua |
| 2 | Brașov | 1 | CSM Făgăraș |
| 2 | Călărași | 1 | Dunărea Călăraşi |
| 2 | Cluj | 1 | Potaissa Turda |
| 2 | Constanța | 1 | Dobrogea Constanța |
| 2 | Harghita | 1 | Odorheiu Secuiesc |
| 2 | Iași | 1 | Politehnica Iași |
| 2 | Maramureș | 1 | Minaur Baia Mare |
| 2 | Suceava | 1 | CSU Suceava |
| 2 | Timiș | 1 | Politehnica Timișoara |
| 2 | Vaslui | 1 | HC Vaslui |
| 2 | Vrancea | 1 | CSM Focșani |