1982–83 Divizia A season was a one full of emotions, avoiding the relegation was the target in the mind of everyone at each of the games played by the team. 1983–84 season send Petrolul back to Divizia B again, but promotion came after a victory at Galați against Dunărea, former FCM, the team which forbidding the promotion of the oilmen, ten years earlier. In 1987, the yellow and blues signed another coach, a former team player from years of glory, Constantin Moldoveanu. But Moldoveanu did not have in the squad the players who won against Steaua București or Liverpool in the glory times and Petrolul relegated back to the second league. September 1988 brought Ion Radu as the new chairman, helped by Mihai Cristache. The two were often criticized of the post-revolutionary press, but they did some performances like in the times of Mircea Dridea and Mihai Ionescu. Petrolul promoted in 1989 and finished on the 4th place in its first season, helped also by the dissolution (in the winter of 1990) of Victoria București, club sponsored by the Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs (the "Miliția", Police), institution under the former Communist regime.