In order to stop the decline of Timisoara football, Dr. Cornel Lazăr, the former president of the Chinez, set up the first professional club in Romania. On 21 October 1928, FC Ripensia was founded in Timișoara as a joint-stock company. Colours, red and yellow.

On 26 October 1930, professionalism was finally admitted by the FRFA, which created the Central Commission for Professional Football, based in Timișoara and chaired by Dr Cornel Lazăr. However, Ripensia could not take part in the domestic amateur championship, so the new team would only play friendly matches, many of them against foreign teams, until 1932, when it would receive the “green light” for the championship. After initially being disliked by the spectators (because of the massive recruitment of players from other clubs), Ripensia became one of the most beloved teams in the history of Romanian football.

Ripensia, which will dispute its supremacy with Venus Bucharest, wins both the first national championship played in the divisional system, in 1933, and the first edition of the Romanian Cup, a year later, or the first championship – cup event in the history of Romanian football, in 1936. In 1938 they eliminated Milan from the Central European Cup, but then lost to Ferencvaros in the quarter-finals.

He won four national titles (1933, 1935, 1936, 1938) and two Romanian Cups (1934, 1936). Here is a 1935 line-up: D. Pavlovici – Bürger, Hoksary – Deheleanu, Kotormany, Lakatos II – Bindea, Beke, Ciolac, Al. Schwartz, Dobay.

Unlike Chinezul, Ripensia had several Romanian players, such as D. Pavlovici, Chiroiu II, Deheleanu, Bindea, Sepi II, Ciolac (some of them were released by Politehnica Timisoara). One of the leaders of the club was Dr. Coriolan Băran, former mayor of Timișoara. The team played on the arena located on the site of the former UMT stadium. Almost all the time during the interwar period, Ripensia had Hungarian or Austrian coaches.

In 1948, as a result of the changes brought about in sport by the Bolshevik ‘new order’, the club was disbanded.

It was re-established no less than 64 years later, in 2012. Then it entered the last tier (Municipal Championship) and in just five years it reached the second league. It also had two extraordinary seasons in the Romanian Cup, even eliminating a first league team, “U” Cluj, at a time when Timisoara were in the 5th echelon! Since 2017 they have been in the second division.

It has its home ground at the Electrica stadium, right next to the former UMT stadium.

Between Politehnica and Ripensia a beautiful rivalry has been born in recent years. The memorable match remains the one in 2015, in League IV, when the white-violet won 6-2, a match considered away. There were 6,000 spectators at the Dan Paltinisanu arena then!

Ripensia is in a collaboration protocol with the West University of Timișoara.