against Steaua București, also reaching the Romanian Cup Final, where they lost 2–4, this time against Rapid București, at the end of a spectacular match. After two great seasons, "the bankers" remained for the next years in the first part of the table, but they slipped slightly down: 1997–98 – 5th, 1998–99 – 7th and 1999–2000 – 9th. The last performances and an unexpected relegation (2000–2009) After a 7th place obtained at the end of the 2000–01 season, FC Național started the 2001–02 edition of Divizia A with a new ownership and new hopes to repeat the performances achieved in the middle of the last decade. On 17 July 2001 in the Sycamore Park entered Mugdin Hadzibegović, a Bosnian businessman willing to buy 60% of the club's shares. Iorgulescu stepped aside and Cosmin Olăroiu became the general manager of the club, but as no one tried to verify the Bosnian's creditworthiness, the financial problems seemed to be even higher than before. On 23 August, 15 players have announced their departure and the situation look very bad, but a Balkan business was resolved in the Romanian style, next day the executive committee of the Romanian Football Federation withdrew Hadzibegović license and the team went back to its old formula, Gino Iorgulescu president and Cosmin Olăroiu manager. Even if Dinamo had eight points ahead after 20 rounds, from nowhere, totally unexpected, came FC Național. Without the pressure of the supporters, with an elegant stadium and an experienced squad which included players such as Cristian Munteanu, Bogdan Vintilă, Corneliu Papură, Adrian Matei, Dan Potocianu, Gabriel Popescu or Radu Niculescu, among others, "the bankers" were in the top of the league with one point ahead of Dinamo, just before the last day of the season. In the last round, Dinamo won 4–0 against FC Brașov while FC Național was needing a victory on the Ion Oblemenco Stadium, against Universitatea Craiova, in front of 30,000 fans. When things seemed unsolvable for "the Knights of the Sycamore Leaf", a memorable thing happened, Universitatea Craiova fans, well known as being very proud of their team and good connoisseurs of football, started to cheer for "the bankers", thing possible due to bitter rivalry between Craiova and Dinamo, but also due to the fact that many players of the team would leave Craiova for Dinamo, just after the last round, fact that deeply dissatisfied the home fans. In front