Bulgarian football league system

The Bulgarian football league system or the Bulgarian football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Bulgaria. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, and allows even the smallest club to dream of rising to the very top of the system.

History

The first organised national tournament was founded in 1924. It was called the National championship (Bulgarian: Държавно първенство). The teams taking part in the tournament were separated in different regional divisions and the winners of each division then played for the Championship title via play-offs.

In 1948 A Republican Football Group (Bulgarian: „А“ Републиканска футболна група) was founded, a new national top division. The second level of the football league system - the B Republican Football Group (Bulgarian: „Б“ Републиканска футболна група) was founded two years later. The lower levels of the pyramid - V Republican Football Group (Bulgarian: „В“ Републиканска футболна група) and below - were structured in 1959.

This system (with minor changes during the years) existed until 2000. Then experimentally a new Bulgarian Premier Football League (Bulgarian: Висша лига по футбол) was founded replacing A Football Group. B Football Group was replaced by the new Bulgarian First Football League (Bulgarian: Първа лига по футбол). But these changes lasted for just three years - in 2003 the old A and B Football Groups were restored at the top of the football pyramid.

The system

Currently the Bulgarian football league system consists of 56 different divisions forming 5 levels of the pyramid.:[1][2]

From 2016 the top level league name was changed to First Professional Football League and B Group name to Second Professional Football League.[3]

Level Group(s)
1 First Professional Football League

14 teams

2 Second Professional Football League

16 teams

3 North-West Amateur Football League

18 teams

 South-West Amateur Football League

18 teams

 North-East Amateur Football League

18 teams

 South-East Amateur Football League

18 teams

4 A OFGs
(A OFGs - A Oblast Football Groups)

39 in total (all divisions run in parallel):

  • A OFG Blagoevgrad Struma
  • A OFG Blagoevgrad Bistritsa
  • A OFG Blagoevgrad Mesta
  • A OFG Burgas
  • A OFG Varna
  • A OFG Veliko Tarnovo
  • A OFG Vidin
  • A OFG Vratsa
  • A OFG Gabrovo West
  • A OFG Gabrovo East
  • A OFG Dobrich West
  • A OFG Dobrich East
  • A OFG Kardzhali
  • A OFG Kyustendil Osogovo
  • A OFG Kyustendil Rila
  • A OFG Lovech
  • A OFG Montana
  • A OFG Pazardzhik
  • A OFG Pernik North
  • A OFG Pernik South
  • A OFG Pleven
  • A OFG Plovdiv
  • A OFG Razgrad
  • A OFG Rousse West
  • A OFG Rousse East
  • A OFG Silistra
  • A OFG Sliven
  • A OFG Smolyan
  • A OFG Sofia (capital) North
  • A OFG София (capital) South
  • A OFG Sofia West
  • A OFG Sofia East
  • A OFG Stara Zagora
  • A OFG Targovishte East
  • A OFG Targovishte Middle
  • A OFG Targovishte West
  • A OFG Haskovo
  • A OFG Shumen
  • A OFG Yambol

5 B OFGs
(B OFGs - B Oblast Football Groups)

10 in total (all divisions run in parallel):

  • B OFG Burgas North
  • B OFG Burgas South
  • B OFG Veliko Tarnovo
  • B OFG Pazardzhik North
  • B OFG Pazardzhik South
  • B OFG Pleven West
  • B OFG Pleven East
  • B OFG Plovdiv North
  • B OFG Plovdiv Centre
  • B OFG Plovdiv South

All-time table 1924-2012

Pos. Team S P W D L F A Pts 1º 2º 3º
1 Levski Sofia 73 1737 1020 412 305 3416 1605 2452 26 28 7
2 CSKA Sofia 63 1682 1017 377 288 3577 1565 2411 31 20 4
3 Slavia Sofia 72 1732 778 416 538 2737 2011 1972 7 10 13
4 Lokomotiv Sofia 62 1604 666 409 529 2323 1946 1738 4 6 9
5 Botev Plovdiv 64 1531 604 360 567 2287 2110 1568 2 2 12
6 Lokomotiv Plovdiv 59 1398 537 333 527 1918 1925 1407 1 1 5
7 Cherno More Varna 60 1294 444 338 512 1583 1724 1226 4 6 3
8 Beroe Stara Zagora 43 1148 373 262 513 1428 1789 1008 1 1 1
9 Spartak Varna 49 1143 375 252 516 1384 1738 1002 1 1 3
10 Spartak Pleven 51 1053 323 255 475 1211 1650 901 – – 1
11 Minyor Pernik 36 910 287 211 412 1028 1402 785 – – –
12 Chernomorets Burgas 43 924 287 198 439 1131 1563 772 – – –
13 Botev Vratsa 38 822 281 173 368 1050 1267 735 – – 1
14 Etar Veliko Tarnovo 27 730 265 161 304 959 1060 691 1 – –
15 Dunav Ruse 42 784 250 190 344 862 1193 690 – 1 –
16 Marek Dupnitsa 37 768 240 164 364 896 1239 644 – – 1
17 Pirin Blagoevgrad 24 690 220 167 303 744 940 607 – – –
18 OFC Sliven 2000 23 661 225 144 292 823 980 594 – – –
19 Spartak Sofia 21 443 161 142 140 566 514 464 – 2 1
20 Akademic Sofia 17 485 158 131 186 573 625 447 – – 2
21 Spartak Plovdiv 18 445 160 121 164 568 592 441 1 1 –
22 Litex Lovech 12 326 185 65 76 594 319 435 3 1 –
23 Naftex Burgas 12 356 154 72 130 534 420 380 – 1 –
24 Dobrudzha Dobrich 17 419 128 82 209 457 695 338 – – –

References

  1. ↑ Bulgarian Football Union Regulation on the Divisions and Cup Tournaments for Season 2006/07, visited on 22.11.2007
  2. ↑ Bulgarian Football Union Information System Archived June 6, 2008, at the Wayback Machine., visited on 22.11.2007
  3. ↑ Официално 14-те отбора в родния елит, новият формат и новото име на първенството

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.