COMMUNIST FOOTBALL AND URBAN HISTORY IN BUCHAREST

This book investigates the communist politics of sports in Bucharest, Romania (1944-1989), focusing on the research of the stadiums built for the benefit of the working class and the strategies used by the great teams of Bucharest (Steaua, Dinamo, Rapid) to house their athletes. After 23rd August 1944, when the new communist regime started to grow in power, up until 1989, sports represented an important direction of their social policies. Characterized by a new ideology and the people's right to practice sports, the regime invested considerable amounts of resources in developing the sportive infrastructure all over the country, both for professionals and amateurs, with significant results. After 1989, this policy stopped and with it the decline of the Romanian football begun.