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First Professional Football League

Founded	1924 (as BSFC) 1948 (as A Group) 2016 (as Parva Liga)
Country	Bulgaria
Confederation	UEFA
Divisions	1
Number of teams	14
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	Second League
Domestic cup(s)	Bulgarian Cup Bulgarian Supercup
International cup(s)	Champions League Europa League
Current champions	Ludogorets Razgrad (7th title) (2017–18)
Most championships	CSKA Sofia (31 titles)
TV partners	Nova Broadcasting Group
Website	www.fpleague.bg
2018–19 season

The First Professional Football League (Bulgarian: Първа професионална футболна лига) is a Bulgarian professional league for men's association football clubs. Standing at the top of the Bulgarian football league system, it serves as the country's primary football competition. The league determines the champion of Bulgaria and is contested by fourteen teams. It operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the second tier of the Bulgarian football league pyramid, the Second League. Known by its previous name A Group, the Bulgarian top-tier was fully restructured during the summer of 2016, when new licensing criteria were introduced.

The Bulgarian football championship was inaugurated in 1924 as the Bulgarian State Football Championship and has been played in a league format since 1948, when the A Group was established. The champions of the First League have the right to participate in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League based on the league's European coefficient. Additionally, two UEFA Europa League spots are allocated to the second team in the final standings and the winner of the European playoffs. A further fourth spot may also be granted to the fourth placed team in the final league ranking, given that the Bulgarian Cup holder has finished among the top three teams at the end of the season.

A total of 67 clubs have competed in the Bulgarian top-tier since its establishment. In the last decade, many teams such as the current champions Ludogorets were introduced for the first time in the league. In 2016–17, Vereya Stara Zagora became the 67th club to participate in the competition. Since 1948, eleven different teams have been crowned champions of Bulgaria. The three most successful clubs are CSKA Sofia with 31 titles, Levski Sofia with 26 titles and Slavia Sofia with 7 titles respectively. The current champions Ludogorets Razgrad won their seventh consecutive title in their seventh First League season in 2017–18.

History

Foundation

The first football championship of Bulgaria started in 1924 in a knockout format. An attempt to form a league as the top division of the Bulgarian football league system was made in 1937–1940, when the National Football Division was created. There were 10 teams, each playing twice against all the others, once home and once away. The team that finished first in the table became champions.^[1] (needs direct citations)

A Republican Football Group

The first season of the A Republican Football Group started in the autumn of 1948. In that season, ten teams participated in the league: Levski, Septemvri, Lokomotiv, Slavia and Spartak from the capital city Sofia, and Botev (Varna), Slavia (Plovdiv), Marek (Stanke Dimitrov), Benkovski (Vidin) and Luybislav (Burgas). The first football champion of the A Republican Football Group was Levski in 1948–49.^{[citation needed]}

The 1949/50 season in the A Group was not completed. The league was stopped after the first fixture. It was then decided that the championship of Bulgaria would be played in a spring-autumn cycle as in the Soviet Union. In the autumn of 1949, qualification tournaments were played to determine the teams that would play in the next 1950 season. In the next two seasons the number of teams in the league was increased to 12, and for the 1953 season there were 15 teams (the 16th team was the Bulgarian National Football Team). In seasons 1954 and 1955 there were 14 teams in the league, and in seasons 1956 and 1957 there were 10.^{[citation needed]}

In 1958, the championship was again stopped after the spring half-season, as had happened in 1948. New re-organizations were accepted and the league was again going to be played in the autumn-spring format. Despite the fact that the teams had played just 1 match, CDNA was crowned as the champion of Bulgaria.^{[citation needed]}

The frequent changes in the number of teams in A Group continued in the 1960s. In the first two seasons after the reforms in 1958, the number of teams in the league was 12, in the period 1960–1962 – 14, until season 1967/68, when the teams were 16.

There were new reforms at the end of the 1960s. There were many mergers between Bulgarian clubs. The most-famous are between CSKA Red Flag and Septemvri Sofia in CSKA September Flag, the capital teams Levski and Spartak in Levski-Spartak, Lokomotiv and Slavia in Slavia, the Plovdiv teams Botev, Spartak and Academic in Trakiya. Mergers happened between other Bulgarian clubs too. These mergers between clubs and reforms in A Group where made at the winter break of the 1968/69 season.

After the winter reforms in 1968 until 2000, A Group remained with 16 teams, except in seasons 1971/72 and 1972/73, when 18 teams competed in the league.

Premier Professional Football League

The Bulgarian Football Union decided to make reforms. The Premier Professional Football League, created in the autumn of 2000, had 14 teams participating in it. At the end of the 2000/01 season, the last two teams were directly relegated to the lower division and the team that finished 12th had the chance to compete in the promotion/relegation play-off for the remaining place in the league. Levski Sofia became champions in the first season of the Premier League.

In the 2001/02 season there was experimentation with the regulations. The championship was divided into two phases. In the first phase the teams played a regular season, each team playing twice against all the others, once home and once away. The second phase was a play-off phase.

In the following season, 2002/03, the championship returned to the regulations of 2000/01 – 14 teams playing in a home and away format. For the first time in 6 years, CSKA Sofia became champions.

A Group

The A Group Trophy as of 2005

The Bulgarian A Professional Football Group was created in 2003. The group was formed by 16 teams, each playing twice against all the others, once home and once away. In the first season of the newly created A Group, the 2003/04 season, for the first time in history, Lokomotiv Plovdiv became champions, finishing with 75 points. In 2004/05, CSKA Sofia won A Group for the 30th time.
For the next two seasons, Levski Sofia were champions under manager Stanimir Stoilov. From 2005/2006 the league's name has been A Football Group. In 2007/08, CSKA became champions of A Group for a record-breaking 31st time without a loss out of 30 matches. But in the summer, UEFA didn't give a license for the club to play in the UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds and Levski Sofia entered to play in the tournament instead of CSKA. In the following season Levski Sofia won their last A Group title, finishing one point ahead of CSKA. Later on, two years in a row Litex Lovech won another two titles like in 1997/98 and 1998/99. In 2011/12, after winning promotion from B Group, Ludogorets Razgrad became the second team after Litex to win the A Group in their first season.

The Bulgarian Football Union decided to make some changes in the format of A Group prior to season 2014–15 with the reduction of the number of the teams participating in the top league from 16 to 12.

First for season 2013–14, the number of teams competing in A Group was reduced from sixteen to fourteen. The championship was divided into two stages. In the first stage, the regular season, each team must play two times against the other thirteen teams on a home-away basis until each team has played with each of the other teams twice, for a subtotal of 26 matches per team. In the second stage, the playoffs, the top seven teams and the bottom seven were divided into two subgroups, which were to play twice with each of their respective group rivals, again on a home-away basis, for a subtotal of 12 games per team. The top seven teams determined the champion of Bulgaria as well as the teams eligible to play in the European tournaments because of their position at the end of the season. The bottom seven determined the four teams that are to be relegated to B Group for season 2014–15 and two teams promoted in their place from the lower level division.^{[citation needed]}

First Professional Football League

On June 7, 2016 the league's name was changed to First Professional Football League, following approval of new licensing criteria for the clubs.^[2]

Competition format

Starting from the 2016-17 season, a new league format was approved by the Bulgarian Football Union, in an attempt to improve each participating club's competitiveness, match attendance and performance in the league. It involves 14 teams playing in two phases, a regular season and playoffs. The first phase includes each club competing against every other team twice in a double round-robin system, on a home-away basis at a total of 26 games per team and played in 26 fixtures. Seven matches are played in every fixture at a total of 182 games played during the first phase. In the second phase, the top six teams form a European qualifying table, while the bottom eight teams participate in a relegation group. The winner of the top group is declared as Champions of Bulgaria and is awarded with the title.

International qualification

The six top teams compete against each other on a home-away basis. Three matches are played in every fixture of the top six, with the results and points after the regular season also included. At the end of the stage, every team will have played a total of 36 games. The winner of the group is declared as Champions of Bulgaria and automatically secures participation in the 2017-18 UEFA Champions League second qualifying round. The team that ranks second is awarded with a place in the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds. The third team in the final standings would participate in a play-off match against a representative team from the bottom eight. Depending on the winner of the Bulgarian Cup final, a possible fourth team from the first six may compete in a play-off match for an UEFA Europa League spot instead of the third ranked team.

Note: If the Bulgarian Cup winner has secured its qualification for the European tournaments for the next season through results from Parva Liga, then the place in the UEFA Europa League play-off is awarded to the fourth ranked team in the final standings.

Relegation

The teams in the bottom eight are split in two sub-groups of four teams, Group A and Group B, depending on their final position after the regular season standings. The teams that enter Group A are the 7th, 10th, 11th and the 14th, and the teams that participate in Group B are the 8th, 9th, 12th and the 13th. Every participant plays twice against the other three teams in their group on a home-away basis. The teams from the bottom eight also compete with the results from the regular season. After the group stages, every team will have played a total number of 32 games. Depending on their final position in Group A and Group B, two sections will be formed, one for a play-off spot in next season's European competitions and one to avoid relegation. The first two teams from each group continue in the semi-finals, and the last two teams of each group continue to the semi-finals for a relegation match. After this phase, one team is directly relegated to the Second League and the remaining two teams will compete in two relegation matches against the second and the third ranked clubs from the Second League.^[3]

Tiebreakers

In case of a tie on points between two or more clubs, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:^[4]

1. Number of wins;


2. Goal difference;


3. Goals pro;


4. Goals away;


5. Fewer red cards;


6. Less number of yellow cards;


7. Draw

Current clubs

The following clubs are competing in First Professional Football League during the 2018–19 season.

Sofia

Beroe
Vereya

Dunav

Cherno More

Etar

Ludogorets

Botev
Lokomotiv

Botev Vratsa

Vitosha

Location of teams in 2018–19 First League

CSKA

Levski

Septemvri

Slavia

Sofia 2018–19 First League football clubs

List of champions

Performance by club

• 
  Bold indicates clubs currently playing in the top division.


• 
  Italics indicates clubs which no longer exist.

Notes:

• 
  Cherno More was created after Vladislav (Varna) and Ticha (Varna) merged. The titles include those won by both teams.


• 
  CSKA Sofia titles include those won as Septemvri pri CDNV, CDNA, and CFKA-Sredets.


• 
  Levski Sofia titles include those won as Levski-Spartak and Vitosha, as well as the re-awarded 1984/85 title.


• 
  Botev Plovdiv total does not include the Trakia originally awarded the 1984/85 title.

All-time league table (1948-present)

Last updated following the 2017–18 season^[5][update]

Key

Currently, Sliven 2000, Spartak Plovdiv and Tundzha Yambol have only youth academies.

Bulgarian derbies

Several football matches have been dubbed as derbies in the Bulgarian First League. The football rivalry, which has attracted the most domestic and international attention over the years has been played between the two most successful clubs in the history of Bulgarian football, CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia, otherwise known as the Eternal derby of Bulgarian football. The second largest Bulgarian city Plovdiv also has its own derby match, known as the Plovdiv derby, and is contested between the two historic clubs in the city, Botev and Lokomotiv.

Other notable rivalries include matches contested between Cherno More and Spartak in the city of Varna and cross-city rivals Chernomorets and Neftochimic in Burgas. In recent years, a regional derby between Beroe Stara Zagora and Botev Plovdiv, dubbed alternatively as "The Battle of Thrace" also ignited significant domestic attention.

The Eternal Derby

The Eternal Derby of Bulgarian football is contested between the two most successful football clubs in Bulgaria – CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia.^{[citation needed]}

Plovdiv derby

Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, also has its own football derby match. It is contested between the city's two most successful clubs, Botev and Lokomotiv.^{[citation needed]}

The two teams are the most supported ones in Plovdiv and the games between them are well known to the Bulgarian football community. Botev is the country's oldest team, created in 1912, whereas Lokomotiv grew popular in the 1970s. Traditionally, Lokomotiv drew support from the lower working classes of society, whereas Botev's fanbase was formed from the middle and upper classes, although that no longer applies.^[6]

Media coverage

Georgi Hristov from Slavia (white) playing for the ball against Nikolay Bodurov from Litex (orange) in a 2011 A Group match

From 2000 to 2008, the Bulgarian National Television broadcast all matches from A Group on its first channel – Kanal 1.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, the broadcasting rights were purchased by the private channels TV2 and Ring TV for three plus two years at a price of $33 million. BNT had the first pick for each fixture and broadcast the most interesting match for the weekend. For seasons 2009-10 and 2010-11, PRO.BG (the former TV2) and RING.BG (formerly as Ring TV) bought the rights to broadcast the full pack of six matches from each fixture. At the end of season 2010-11, after bTV bought PRO.BG, the channel was re-branded to bTV Action and got on broadcasting only on cable networks. The new owners didn't want to fully pay to every club in the league, because of the unmet stadium requirements for journalists and cameramen places at some stadiums. The clubs weren't happy and they threatened to ban cameras at their matches. The league matches in this period were also broadcast in Romania. During the 2008–09 season, the Romanian sports channel Sport.ro broadcast the Friday game, and in the following 2009-10 season, only the league matches of CSKA Sofia.^{[citation needed]}

Days before the start of the 2011-12 season, the private terrestrial channel TV7 bought the rights to broadcast two matches per fixture. As before, the national television BNT1 got the first pick to broadcast the most interesting match in the fixture. The rest of the games were broadcast online live on the websites Topsport.bg,^[7] Livesport.bg,^[8] Bookmakers.bg,^[9] and Sportline.bg.^{[10][citation needed]}

For the start of the new 2012-13 season, the football clubs rejected requests from four TV stations due to the low payments being offered – Bulgarian National Television, Nova Television, TV7 and TV+. Finally after the first set of fixtures, the satellite broadcaster Bulsatcom with its channel TV+ bought the rights, along with BNT. Before the start of the spring half-season the rights were bought by TV7 and News7, who had rights for the first, third and fourth pick, and BNT 1 along with the international channel BNT World broadcasting the second pick of a match.^[11]

For the 2013–14 season, 7 Media Group bought the full rights for another three seasons prior to 2016 and will broadcast six matches per fixture on their channels – TV7 and News7. In 2014 however due to financial problems, TV7 opted-out of its league contract for the championship and the rights were transferred to Nova Broadcasting Group. The 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons will be broadcast by Nova, Diema, Nova Sport and Diema Sport.^{[citation needed]}

The next seasons will also be broadcast on the Nova Broadcasting Group channels Diema, Diema Sport and Diema Sport 2, part of the Diema Extra paid pack, as their contract with the league was additionally extended.^[12]

Sponsorship

Until 2011 the official sponsor of the championship was TBI Credit and the league was officially known as TBI A Football Group.^[13]

In 2011–12, A Group had a new sponsor, the Victoria FATA Insurance, and therefore the league name in that season was rebranded to Victoria A Football Championship.^[14]

In early 2013, for a short period of time the naming rights of A Group were bought from the news television network News7, eventually renaming the competition's name to NEWS7 Football Championship.^[15]

UEFA ranking

As of the 2018 UEFA Country Ranking^[update],^[16][17][18] previous year rank is shown in brackets.

• 25 (22) Norwegian Eliteserien
  


• 26 (26) Azerbaijan Premier League
  


• 
  27 (29) Bulgarian First League
  


• 28 (27) Serbian SuperLiga
  


• 29 (28) Kazakhstan Premier League
  

Records

All-time top appearances

Marin Bakalov is the all-time appearances leader in First League with 454 caps

Top 10 by appearances in Parva Liga

Rank	Player	Period	Appearances
1	Marin Bakalov	1980–1999	454
2	Dinko Dermendzhiev	1959–1978	447
3	Vidin Apostolov	1959–1976	444
4	Georgi Iliev	2000–present	433
5	Todor Marev	1972–1994	422
6	Hristo Bonev	1964–1984	410
7	Zapryan Rakov	1983–1999	403
8	Malin Orachev	1990–2007	398
9	Todor Yanchev	1997–2014	395
10	Dimitar Mladenov	1979–1997	389
10	Yordan Todorov	2000–2016	389
Bold displays footballers currently playing in First League As of 3 March 2019[update]

All-time top scorers

Petar Zhekov is the all-time top goalscorer in First League with 253 goals

Top 10 goalscorers in Parva Liga

Rank	Player	Period	Goals
1	Petar Zhekov	1962–1975	253
2	Martin Kamburov	1998–present	217
3	Nasko Sirakov	1980–1998	196
4	Dinko Dermendzhiev	1959–1978	194
5	Hristo Bonev	1964–1984	185
6	Plamen Getov	1977–1998	164
7	Nikola Kotkov	1956–1971	163
8	Stefan Bogomilov	1962–1976	162
9	Petar Mihtarski	1982–2001	158
10	Petko Petkov	1968–1980	152
Bold displays footballers currently playing in First League As of 25 February 2019[update]

Other records

As of December 16, 2018

• Youngest player to appear in the league - Yanko Kirilov (aged 15 years and 72 days)^[19]


• Foreign player with the most appearances in the league - Vančo Trajanov (328)


• Foreign player with the most goals in the league - Claudiu Keșerü (79)


• Fastest goal scored in the league - Miroslav Manolov (7 seconds)^[20]


• Player with most appearances for a Bulgarian team in European club tournaments - Svetoslav Dyakov (70 - 69 for Ludogorets Razgrad and 1 for Lokomotiv Sofia)

Top scorers by season

^[21]

Bold indicates all-time highest.

Season	Player (Club)	Nat.	Goals
1937–38	Krum Milev (Slavia Sofia)	BUL	12
1938–39	Georgi Pachedzhiev (AS 23 Sofia)	BUL	14
1939–40	Yanko Stoyanov (Levski Sofia) Dimitar Nikolaev (FC 13 Sofia)	BUL  BUL	14
1948–49	Dimitar Milanov (CSKA Sofia) Nedko Nedev (Cherno More Varna)	BUL  BUL	11
1950	Lyubomir Hranov (Levski Sofia)	BUL	13
1951	Dimitar Milanov (2) (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	14
1952	Dimitar Isakov (Slavia Sofia) Dobromir Tashkov (Spartak Sofia)	BUL  BUL	10
1953	Dimitar Minchev (Spartak Pleven and VVS Sofia)	BUL	15
1954	Dobromir Tashkov (2) (Slavia Sofia)	BUL	25
1955	Todor Diev (Spartak Plovdiv)	BUL	13
1956	Pavel Vladimirov (Minyor Pernik)	BUL	16
1957	Hristo Iliev (Levski Sofia) Dimitar Milanov (3) (CSKA Sofia)	BUL  BUL	14
1958	Dobromir Tashkov (3) (Slavia Sofia) Georgi Arnaudov (Spartak Varna)	BUL  BUL	9
1958–59	Aleksandar Vasilev (Slavia Sofia)	BUL	13
1959–60	Dimitar Yordanov (Levski Sofia) Lyuben Kostov (Spartak Varna)	BUL  BUL	12
1960–61	Ivan Sotirov (Botev Plovdiv)	BUL	20
1961–62	Nikola Yordanov (Dunav Ruse) Todor Diev (2) (Spartak Plovdiv)	BUL  BUL	23
1962–63	Todor Diev (3) (Spartak Plovdiv)	BUL	26
1963–64	Nikola Tsanev (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	26
1964–65	Georgi Asparuhov (Levski Sofia)	BUL	27
1965–66	Traycho Spasov (Marek Dupnitsa)	BUL	21
1966–67	Petar Zhekov (Beroe Stara Zagora)	BUL	21
1967–68	Petar Zhekov (2) (Beroe Stara Zagora)	BUL	31
1968–69	Petar Zhekov (3) (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	36
1969–70	Petar Zhekov (4) (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	31
1970–71	Dimitar Yakimov (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	26
1971–72	Petar Zhekov (5) (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	27
1972–73	Petar Zhekov (6) (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	29
1973–74	Petko Petkov (Beroe Stara Zagora) Kiril Milanov (Levski Sofia)	BUL  BUL	19
1974–75	Ivan Pritargov (Botev Plovdiv)	BUL	20
1975–76	Petko Petkov (2) (Beroe Stara Zagora) Pavel Panov (Levski Sofia)	BUL  BUL	18
1976–77	Pavel Panov (2) (Levski Sofia)	BUL	20
1977–78	Stoycho Mladenov (Beroe Stara Zagora)	BUL	21
1978–79	Rusi Gochev (Chernomorets Burgas and Levski Sofia)	BUL	19
1979–80	Spas Dzhevizov (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	23
1980–81	Georgi Slavkov (Botev Plovdiv)	BUL	31
1981–82	Mihail Valchev (Levski Sofia)	BUL	24
1982–83	Antim Pehlivanov (Botev Plovdiv)	BUL	20
1983–84	Eduard Eranosyan (Lokomotiv Plovdiv) Emil Spasov (Levski Sofia)	BUL  BUL	19
1984–85	Plamen Getov (Spartak Pleven)	BUL	26
1985–86	Atanas Pashev (Botev Plovdiv)	BUL	30
1986–87	Nasko Sirakov (Levski Sofia)	BUL	36
1987–88	Nasko Sirakov (2) (Levski Sofia)	BUL	28
1988–89	Hristo Stoichkov (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	23
1989–90	Hristo Stoichkov (2) (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	38
1990–91	Ivaylo Yordanov (Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa)	BUL	21
1991–92	Nasko Sirakov (3) (Levski Sofia)	BUL	26
1992–93	Plamen Getov (2) (Levski Sofia)	BUL	26
1993–94	Nasko Sirakov (4) (Levski Sofia)	BUL	30
1994–95	Petar Mihtarski (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	24
1995–96	Ivo Georgiev (Spartak Varna)	BUL	21
1996–97	Todor Pramatarov (Slavia Sofia)	BUL	26
1997–98	Anton Spasov (Naftex Burgas) Bontcho Guentchev (CSKA Sofia)	BUL  BUL	17
1998–99	Dimcho Belyakov (Litex Lovech)	BUL	21
1999–00	Mihail Mihaylov (Velbazhd Kyustendil)	BUL	20
2000–01	Georgi Ivanov (Levski Sofia)	BUL	22
2001–02	Vladimir Manchev (CSKA Sofia)	BUL	21
2002–03	Georgi Chilikov (Levski Sofia)	BUL	23
2003–04	Martin Kamburov (Lokomotiv Plovdiv)	BUL	25
2004–05	Martin Kamburov (2) (Lokomotiv Plovdiv)	BUL	27
2005–06	Milivoje Novaković (Litex Lovech) José Emílio Furtado (Vihren and CSKA Sofia)	SVN  PRT	16
2006–07	Tsvetan Genkov (Lokomotiv Sofia)	BUL	27
2007–08	Georgi Hristov (Botev Plovdiv)	BUL	19
2008–09	Martin Kamburov (3) (Lokomotiv Sofia)	BUL	17
2009–10	Wilfried Niflore (Litex Lovech)	FRA	19
2010–11	Garra Dembélé (Levski Sofia)	MLI	26
2011–12	Ivan Stoyanov (Ludogorets Razgrad) Júnior Moraes (CSKA Sofia)	BUL  BRA	16
2012–13	Basile de Carvalho (Levski Sofia)	GNB	19
2013–14	Wilmar Jordán (Litex Lovech) Martin Kamburov (4) (Lokomotiv Plovdiv)	COL  BUL	20
2014–15	Añete (Levski Sofia)	ESP	14
2015–16	Martin Kamburov (5) (Lokomotiv Plovdiv)	BUL	18
2016–17	Claudiu Keșerü (Ludogorets Razgrad)	ROM	22
2017–18	Claudiu Keșerü (2) (Ludogorets Razgrad)	ROM	26

See also

• List of foreign football players in A PFG


• 
  Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria)

References

External links

• Official website


• 
  League at UEFA


• 
  Bulgaria – List of Champions, RSSSF.com


• 
  Table, at xscores.com