First Professional Football League (Bulgaria)

For other sports leagues which may be referred to by this name, see List of professional sports leagues.

First Professional Football League

File:First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) logo.jpg
Founded	1924 (as BSFC) 1948 (as A Group) 2016 (reformed as First League)
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 (5th title) (2015–16)
Most championships	CSKA Sofia (31 titles)
TV partners	Nova Broadcasting Group
Website	www.fpleague.bg
Current: 2016–17 season

The First Professional Football League (Template:Lang-bg) is a Bulgarian professional league for association football clubs. 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 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. First League was formed during the summer of 2016 with the restructure and rebranding the name of the top division of Bulgarian football.

The First League is formed by a regular season and playoffs. Each of the fourteen teams participating in the league must play at least two times against every other team on a home-away basis before starting the playoffs stages. Seasons run from late July to May in the following year with a winter break, which usually lasts two months. Most games are played on Saturdays and Sundays, with some played during weekday evenings, mainly on Friday and Monday. The TV rights for the league matches are owned by the media company "Football Pro Media" and the games are broadcast live on the channels Diema, Diema Sport and Diema Sport 2, part of the Diema Extra paid pack.

The Bulgarian football championship was inaugurated in 1924 as BSFC and it has been playing as a league format since 1948 when A Group was created as the top tier of the Bulgarian football league pyramid. The top division of Bulgarian football has been restructured for season 2016–17 with the participating teams taking ownership stake in the tournament and rebranding the name to First League while it is still being administered by the Bulgarian Professional Football League and the Bulgarian Football Union. The champion of First League has the right to take part in the UEFA Champions League from the stage allowed by the league's coefficient. The two UEFA Europa League spots are allocated to the second team in the final standings and the winner of the playoffs. All teams qualify for the Bulgarian Cup which also offers UEFA Europa League spot. In every season, the teams in First League start participating in the competition from Round 2 (Round of 32) in the middle of November.

A total of 67 clubs have competed in the top tier of Bulgarian football. In the last several seasons, many teams such as the current champions Ludogorets made their debuts in the top division of Bulgarian football. In the first season of Parva Liga - season 2016–17, Vereya from Stara Zagora became the 67th club to ever participate in the top division competition. Since season 1948, eleven 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. The current champions Ludogorets Razgrad won their fifth consecutive and overall championship title in their fifth A Group season of 2015–16.

History

File:APFG.png

Former A Group logo

Bulgarian State Football Championship

Main article: Bulgarian State Football Championship

The first football championship of Bulgaria started in 1924 with 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. (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.

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.

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.

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.

Bulgarian A Professional Football Group

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 2 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 has been 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.

For the next 2014–15 A Group season the teams that have taken part were 12, with Ludogorets winning their fourth consecutive championship.

Before the beginning of season 2015–16, the Sofia teams, including title record-holder CSKA and Lokomotiv were excluded from the league due not receiving license to play in A Group.

First Professional Football League

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

Competition format

There are fourteen teams that participate in Parva Liga, which is formed by two phases - Regular season and Playoffs. In the first phase, the Regular season, each club must play every other team twice in a double round-robin system, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents for a total of 26 games per team played in 26 fixtures. Seven matches are played in every fixture for a total of 182 games played during the first phase. In the second phase, the Playoffs, the teams that finished from first to sixth place after the regular season are forming the First six, and the teams that finished from seventh to fourteenth place after the regular season are forming the Bottom eight.

The six teams in the First six must play two games against every other of the remaining five, again once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents for another 10 games per team played in 10 playoff fixtures. Three matches are played in every fixture of the First six. The teams in this phase continue playing with the results from the previous - the Regular season. At the end of the stage, every team will have played a total of 36 games. The team that finish first is crowned as Champion of Bulgaria and automatically qualifies for the next season's UEFA Champions League qualifying rounds. The team that finishes second is awarded with a place in the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds. The third team in the final standings is going to participate in a play-off match against a representative team from the Bottom eight (one of the teams that finished from seventh to fourteenth place after the regular season). Depending on the winner of the Bulgarian Cup final, it is possible that the fourth team from the First six will play a play-off match for a UEFA Europa League spot instead of the third:

• If the Bulgarian Cup winner has secured it's qualification for European tournaments for the next season through results from Parva Liga, than the place in the UEFA Europa League play-off is going to the fourth in the championship leaving the third with a direct place in the qualifying rounds of European tournaments.

The teams in the Bottom eight (from seventh to fourteenth) are split in two sub-groups of four teams - Group A and Group B, depending on the final position after the regular season. The teams that enter in Group A are the 7th, 10th, 11th and the 14th, and the teams that enter Group B are the 8th, 9th, 12th and the 13th. Every club must play two times against the other three in their group once home and once away for another 6 matches per team played in 6 fixtures. Like in the First six, the teams in the Bottom eight also continue playing with the results from the previous phase - the Regular season. After the group stage every team will have played a total of 32 games. Depending on the final positions in Group A and Group B, there are formed two sections - one for a spot in next season's European competitions and one for relegation. The first two teams of each group continue in the semi-finals for a place in a UEFA Europa League play-off match, and the last two teams of each group continue to the semi-finals for avoiding relegation. After that one team is directly relegated to Second League, been replaced with the team that finish first, and two teams will play two play-out matches against the second and the third in the Second League.

A club's place in the league table is determined by the number of points it has earned during the season. This is only for the ranking of the teams in the league table during the Regular season, for the teams in the First six and the teams from the Bottom eight that are split in two groups. Three points are awarded for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. If two or more teams have equal points in the standings, the team with the most points won in the matches between those teams is placed higher. If some of the teams are tied in this statistics, then the team with the better goal difference in the matches between those teams is placed higher. If tied again, the tea, with the most goals scored in the matches between those teams is placed higher. If tied again, the team with the most away goals scored is ranked higher - only if exactly two teams are tied.

Current clubs

The following clubs are competing in First Professional Football League during the 2016–17 season.

CSKA
Levski
Slavia

Beroe
Vereya

Dunav

Cherno More

Ludogorets

Lokomotiv

Neftochimic

Botev
Lokomotiv

Pirin

Montana

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Location of teams in 2016–17 First League

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Botev	Plovdiv	Hristo Botev Stadium Plovdiv
Cherno More	Varna	Ticha Stadium
Levski	Sofia	Georgi Asparuhov Stadium
Lokomotiv	Plovdiv	Lokomotiv Stadium Plovdiv
Pirin	Blagoevgrad	Hristo Botev Stadium Blagoevgrad
Ludogorets	Razgrad	Ludogorets Arena
Beroe	Stara Zagora	Beroe Stadium
Montana	Montana	Ogosta Stadium
CSKA	Sofia	Balgarska Armia Stadium
Slavia	Sofia	Ovcha Kupel Stadium
Vereya	Stara Zagora	Trace Arena
Dunav	Ruse	Gradski Stadium
Neftochimic	Burgas	Lazur Stadium
Lokomotiv	Gorna Oryahovitsa

List of champions

Main article: List of Bulgarian football champions

Performance by club

A list of the most successful clubs in the championship is listed below.

• Bold indicates clubs currently playing in the top division.
• Italics indicates clubs no longer exist.

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Winning Year(s)
CSKA Sofia	31	22	1948, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1966, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1997, 2003, 2005, 2008
Levski Sofia	26	32	1933, 1937, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1979, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009
Slavia Sofia	7	10	1928, 1930, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1996
Ludogorets Razgrad	5	–	2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
Lokomotiv Sofia	4	6	1940, 1945, 1964, 1978
Cherno More		6	1925, 1926, 1934, 1938
Litex Lovech		1	1998, 1999, 2010, 2011
Botev Plovdiv	2	2	1929, 1967
Spartak Varna	1	2	1932
Spartak Plovdiv		1	1963
Lokomotiv Plovdiv		1	2004
Beroe Stara Zagora		1	1986
Etar Veliko Tarnovo		–	1991
Sportklub Sofia		–	1935
Athletic Slava 1923		–	1931

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 1984/85 title.

All-time table (1948-present)

The A Group Trophy as of 2005

• Clubs marked in Bold were participating in the 2015–16 season.

Pos.	Team	N	S	G	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	1º	2º	3º
1	CSKA Sofia	3rd	66	1912	1161	433	314	3955	1678	3159	31	22	6
2	Levski Sofia	1st	67	1912	1139	438	335	3770	1716	3143	26	31	9
3	Slavia Sofia	1st	66	1890	826	451	613	2860	2198	2383	7	10	10
4	Lokomotiv Sofia	4th	63	1835	770	460	605	2644	2215	2279	4	3	10
5	Botev Plovdiv	1st	60	1725	668	401	656	2505	2391	1916	2	2	10
6	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	1st	54	1594	621	363	609	2177	2187	1836	1	1	4
7	Cherno More Varna	1st	51	1473	521	378	572	1760	1869	1599	–	–	2
8	Beroe Stara Zagora	1st	48	1421	477	326	618	1732	2092	1419	1	1	1
9	Litex Lovech	1st	20	608	354	123	131	1113	552	1149	4	1	3
10	Spartak Varna	N.E.	43	1202	378	270	554	1385	1829	1144	–	–	2
11	Minyor Pernik	3rd	38	1055	330	248	477	1175	1594	1000	–	–	–
12	Spartak Pleven	3rd	35	994	314	245	435	1150	1511	886	–	–	1
13	Chernomorets	N.E.	29	866	277	188	401	1057	1410	775	–	–	–
14	Botev Vratsa	2nd	28	848	288	185	375	1055	1266	774	–	–	1
15	Etar Veliko Tarnovo	Y.A.	24	726	264	161	301	951	1043	731	1	–	2
16	Marek Dupnitsa	4th	29	838	251	177	410	920	1374	737	–	–	1
17	Sliven 2000	3rd	25	750	246	164	340	906	1109	675	–	–	–
18	Pirin Blagoevgrad	1st	23	688	220	167	301	743	934	650	–	–	–
19	Dunav Ruse	2nd	25	699	220	172	307	747	1064	609	–	–	–
20	Neftochimic Burgas	N.E.	13	394	161	76	157	560	512	538	–	1	–
21	Akademik Sofia	4th	18	505	163	136	206	589	676	467	–	–	2
22	Spartak Plovdiv	3rd	17	441	158	121	162	562	581	455	1	1	–
23	Dobrudzha Dobrich	2nd	14	414	126	82	206	448	682	411	–	–	–
24	Spartak Sofia	N.E.	15	377	135	124	118	456	416	394	–	1	–
25	Belasitsa Petrich	3rd	12	368	116	68	184	377	590	360	–	–	–
26	Ludogorets Razgrad	1st	5	130	87	28	15	268	73	359	5	–	–
27	Chernomorets Burgas	3rd	7	218	92	53	73	288	223	329	–	–	–
28	Velbazhd Kyustendil	3rd	7	201	98	27	76	299	269	314	–	–	3
29	Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa	2nd	9	268	95	48	125	280	390	259	–	–	–
30	Montana	1st	7	210	55	48	107	212	321	213	–	–	–
31	Shumen 2010	N.E.	7	212	61	38	113	219	368	201	–	–	–
32	Pirin Blagoevgrad	N.E.	6	178	53	41	84	189	254	200	–	–	–
33	Yantra Gabrovo	3rd	7	214	65	50	99	239	332	174	–	–	–
34	Vihren Sandanski	3rd	4	118	38	14	66	117	173	128	–	–	–
35	Haskovo	4th	7	212	52	31	129	210	400	139	–	–	–
36	Vidima-Rakovski	3rd	5	150	28	36	86	126	271	120	–	–	–
37	Rodopa Smolyan	4th	4	118	31	17	70	106	194	110	–	–	–
38	Akademik Svishtov	3rd	4	120	36	26	58	136	195	97	–	–	–
39	Maritsa Plovdiv	3rd	4	120	28	25	67	129	225	89	–	–	–
40	Tundzha Yambol	3rd	3	97	28	22	47	98	152	78	–	–	–
41	Zavod 12 Sofia	N.E.	3	74	23	27	24	72	80	73	–	–	–
42	Metalurg Pernik	4th	2	58	22	6	30	60	77	72	–	–	–
43	Hebar Pazardzhik	N.E.	3	86	20	21	45	85	141	68	–	–	–
44	Lokomotiv Mezdra	N.E.	2	60	17	13	30	69	89	64	–	–	–
45	Pirin Gotse Delchev	3rd	2	68	16	8	44	62	148	56	–	–	–
46	Septemvri Sofia	3rd	3	78	16	20	42	101	160	56	–	–	–
47	VVS Sofia	N.E.	2	54	13	21	20	60	63	47	–	–	–
48	Stroitel Sofia	N.E.	2	50	13	18	19	47	53	44	–	–	–
49	Kaliakra Kavarna	3rd	2	60	10	11	39	45	117	41	–	–	–
50	Cherveno Zname Sofia	N.E.	2	40	13	13	14	46	50	39	–	–	–
51	Rilski Sportist	4th	2	56	11	6	39	51	116	39	–	–	–
52	Olimpik Teteven	4th	1	30	11	2	17	26	50	35	–	–	–
53	Rakovski Ruse	N.E.	2	60	9	6	45	41	151	33	–	–	–
54	Torpedo Pleven	N.E.	3	66	9	14	43	48	137	32	–	–	–
55	Akademik Varna	N.E.	1	28	9	7	12	26	43	25	–	–	–
56	Lyubimets	3rd	1	38	6	3	29	35	104	21	–	–	–
57	Dimitrovgrad	3rd	1	30	8	6	16	32	66	21	–	–	–
58	Himik Dimitrovgrad	N.E.	1	30	7	6	17	36	60	20	–	–	–
59	Nesebar	3rd	1	30	5	5	20	26	63	20	–	–	–
60	Rozova Dolina	3rd	1	30	7	5	18	30	53	19	–	–	–
61	Sportist Svoge	3rd	1	30	5	4	21	23	59	19	–	–	–
62	Slavia Plovdiv	N.E.	1	18	4	8	6	16	21	16	–	–	–
63	Pavlikeni	3rd	1	26	5	4	17	12	45	14	–	–	–
64	Etar 1924	N.E.	1	30	4	4	22	20	75	13	–	–	–
65	Bdin Vidin	3rd	1	18	2	4	12	13	35	8	–	–	–
66	Svetkavitsa	3rd	1	30	1	5	24	8	71	8	–	–	–
67	Chernomorets Burgas Sofia	N.E.	1	30	0	1	29	8	131	−2	–	–	–

• N.E. – Club currently doesn't exist.
• Y.A. – Club currently have only youth academy.

The Derbies

There are some matches that can be called derby matches. Of course the matches between the two most successful clubs in the history of Bulgarian football, CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia are called as the Eternal Derby. The second largest city in Bulgaria Plovdiv has its own derby match that is called The Plovdiv Derby between the two historic clubs of the city, Botev and Lokomotiv. Other derby matches with teams from one city are the derby of the third largest city Varna between Spartak and Cherno More and the derby of the fourth largest city Burgas between Chernomorets and Neftochimic. The oldest Sofia derby is between Levski (1914) and Slavia (1913).

The Eternal Derby

Main article: Eternal derby of Bulgarian football

The Eternal Derby of Bulgarian football is contested by the two most successful football clubs in Bulgaria – CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia.

The Plovdiv Derby

The second largest city in Bulgaria, Plovdiv also has a football derby match. It is called The Plovdiv Derby, performed by the two historic clubs of the city, Botev (created 1912) and Lokomotiv.

The first match between the two teams in A Group was in 1951 when Lokomotiv Plovdiv won 3–0. The biggest win for Lokomotiv was 7:3 (on 8 September 1974), and the biggest win for Botev is 5:0 twice, in seasons 1988/89 and 1995/96.

The two teams are the most supported ones in Plovdiv and the games between them are well known to the Bulgarian football community. This is maybe one of the fiercest rivalries in the world. 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 drew support form the middle and upper classes, although that no longer applies.

Broadcasting rights

Georgi Hristov from Slavia playing Nikolay Bodurov from Litex 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.

In 2008, the broadcasting rights were purchased by the private channels TV2 and Ring TV for three plus 2 years for the 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 (the former 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. Matches in that period were broadcast also in Romania. In the 2008–09 season, the Romanian sports channel Sport.ro broadcast the Friday game, and in the next 2009/10 season, only the matches of CSKA Sofia.

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 and broadcast the most interesting match for the fixture. The rest of the matches were broadcast live online on the websites Topsport.bg, Livesport.bg, Bookmakers.bg and Sportline.bg.

For the start of the new 2012/2013 season, the clubs refused the rights requests from four TV stations because of low payments 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.

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 because of financial problems TV7 lost the rights for the championship and they were transferred to Nova Broadcasting Group. The 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons will be broadcast by Nova, Diema, Nova Sport and Diema Sport.

The next seasons will be broadcast on the channels Diema, Diema Sport and Diema Sport 2, part of the Diema Extra paid pack.

Sponsorship

Until 2011 the official sponsor of A Group was TBI Credit and the league was officially known as TBI A Football Group.

For 2011–12, A Group had new sponsor – the Victoria FATA Insurance and therefore the league name in that season was Victoria A Football Championship.

In early 2013, for a short period of time the naming rights of A Group were bought from the news television network News7 and therefore the league's name was NEWS7 Football Championship.

UEFA ranking

The national league rankings for the 2013/14 season of UEFA competitions is based upon results in UEFA competitions from the 2008/09 through 2012/13 seasons.

Current Bulgarian A Group ranking (2013)

• 22 (19) Czech Gambrinus Liga
• 23 (25) Slovak First League
• 24 (24) Swedish Allsvenskan
• 25 (27) Serbian SuperLiga
• 26 (28) First league
• 27 (26) Norwegian Tippeligaen
• 28 (18) Scottish Premier League
• 29 (29) Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnokság I
• 30 (31) Georgian Umaglesi Liga
• Full List

Records

Teams

• Most consecutive matches without scoring a goal — Rakovski Ruse – 19 matches (during 1996/97 season)

All-time top scorers

(Needs to be checked)

All-time top scorers in A Group

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Petar Zhekov	253
2	Nasko Sirakov	195
3	Dinko Dermendzhiev	194
4	Hristo Bonev	185
5	Martin Kamburov	178
6	Plamen Getov	164
7	Nikola Kotkov	163
8	Stefan Bogomilov	162
9	Petar Mihtarski	158
10	Petko Petkov	152
In bold Currently playing in A Group Goals updated in September 17, 2016.

Topscorers

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

See also

• List of foreign football players in A PFG

External links

• Official website
• League at UEFA
• Bulgaria – List of Champions, RSSSF.com
• Table , at xscores.com