Cetatea Suceava

First years of football (1932–1949)

Cetatea Suceava was originally established in 1932 under the name Cetatea Sucevei, a name inspired by the Medieval Seat Fortress of Suceava. The first team from Suceava included players such as Lazăr Andrian, Fleghel, Ioanițchi, Cosmovici, N. Scobeniuc, Marcean, A. Scobeniuc, Hariga, Semenov, Cozma, Buliga, Curcă, Schwartz, Curcă, Borosan, Salpeter, and Radu Dan.

Cetatea Sucevei initially competed in the Eastern League Championship, a regional competition. Later, the team participated in the Eastern League of Divizia C, the newly formed third division of Romanian football. Initially, Divizia C's Eastern League was organised as a single group, but it was later expanded into two groups. During its first season in Divizia C, Cetatea Sucevei finished seventh and last in the Eastern League. In the 1937–38 season, the team finished second in Group II of the Eastern League, while also reaching the Round of 32 in the 1938–39 Cupa României.

In 1946, following World War II and the rise of the communist regime, Romanian football underwent drastic changes as the new Soviet model was implemented. This model required all sports associations to align themselves with trade unions or governmental institutions. As a result, Cetatea Sucevei was absorbed into CFR Ițcani, a team from a village that later became a neighbourhood of Suceava.

In the 1947–48 season, Suceava was represented in Divizia B by a team named Dinamo, which finished 16th in Series II and was relegated to Divizia C. There, it competed in the first half of the 1948–49 season, finishing 11th in Series III, before the competition was dissolved in February 1949 and the team returned to the regional championship.

From Spartac to CSM (1950–1997)

In 1950, another team was founded near the Prodaliment abattoir in the village of Burdujeni (now a neighbourhood of Suceava), under the name Spartac Burdujeni. In the 1953 season, Spartac Burdujeni won the Suceava Regional Championship and qualified for the promotion play-off for Divizia B. However, it finished fifth in Series I, held in Ploiești. Despite this, the second division was expanded the following season, and alongside the four group winners, an additional eight teams, including Spartac, were promoted.

In the 1954 Divizia B season, Spartac finished seventh in Series III and ranked fifth in the following season under the guidance of Gheorghe Hedeș. In the 1956 season, the team was renamed Flamura Roșie Burdujeni, finished 12th, level on points with Locomotiva Iași, and narrowly avoided relegation on goal difference.

In 1957, Flamura Roșie Burdujeni was officially relocated to Suceava and renamed Progresul Suceava. This moment was considered a rebirth of football in Suceava after more than a decade of inconsistency, during which the villages of Ițcani and Burdujeni had been better represented. Progresul played in Series II of Divizia B for the next two seasons, finishing 11th in 1957–58, before another rebranding followed on 12 April 1959, when the club became Victoria Suceava. The team finished 12th in the 1958–59 season.

For the next decade, the club experienced a lack of stability, reflected in its frequent name changes and fluctuating results. In 1959–60, under the name Dinamo Suceava, the team played in Series I of Divizia B, finishing fourth, followed by a sixth-place finish in the 1960–61 season. In 1961–62, the club dropped to 13th place and was relegated to the regional championship. Dinamo Suceava quickly returned to the national competitions after winning the Suceava Regional Championship in 1962–63, earning promotion to the newly re-established Divizia C, where it finished third in the East Series in 1963–64.

Renamed Viitorul Suceava in 1964, the team finished ninth in the 1964–65 season, before becoming Chimia Suceava following a takeover by the Combinatul de Celuloză și Hârtie (lit. 'Cellulose and Paper Mill Complex'). In 1965–66, Chimia won its Divizia C series and secured promotion to Divizia B under the guidance of Radu Gologan and Vasile Frânculescu, with a squad that included Sidac, Petcu, Moraru, Vicovan, Gumő, Cotipolis, Arhire, Roșu, Marosi, Borcău, Găinaru, Tudor, Nicolau, Asiminoaiei, Luca, and Belizna.

CSM Suceava was founded on 19 July 1972, incorporating football, track and field, rugby, and volleyball sections. Over the years, more sections were added and made available to its members, including archery, baseball, boxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, handball, ice hockey, rowing, speed skating, and swimming. The current structure includes archery, boxing, ice hockey, rugby, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling.

As one of the founding sections, the football team rose through the ranks of the Romanian league system before eventually gaining promotion to Divizia A at the end of the 1986–87 season. However, the competition proved too strong, and the team was relegated back to Divizia B, a league in which it played for the remainder of its existence. Before the 1993–94 season, the club was renamed Bucovina Suceava, after the historical region of Bukovina.

In the summer of 1997, Foresta Fălticeni was moved from Fălticeni to Suceava and renamed Foresta Suceava, thus bringing the CSM era to an end.

Foresta Fălticeni, a side story (1997–2003)

Foresta Fălticeni was founded in 1954 in Fălticeni, under the name Avântul Fălticeni. Foresta was the first team representing Divizia C to play in a Romanian Cup final, losing 0–6 to Steaua București at the end of the 1966–67 season. In 1997, the club was moved to Suceava after earning promotion to Divizia A for the first time in its history. The main reason for the move was the inadequate condition of Foresta's stadium in Fălticeni, which was small and had a cracked stand. Another reason for the move was that the city's main team, CSM Suceava, had failed to achieve any notable results during the previous decade.