Bulgarian Football Season 2016/2017

[levski.bg]

Bulgaria Finishes Last at Kirin Cup After Suffering Two Heavy Defeats



The Bulgarian men's national football team finished fourth at this year's edition of the Kirin Cup tournament after suffering two heavy defeats.

In the semifinal played on Friday, Bulgaria lost to hosts Japan with 2:7. In the third-place match played on Tuesday, Bulgaria was defeated by Denmark with 0:4

Bosnia and Herzegovina won the tournament after defeating Japan with 2:1 in the final. In the semifinal, Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Denmark 4:3 on penalties after the teams had scored 2:2 in regular time.

The future of Bulgaria's head coach, Ivaylo Petev, is unclear after the two disappointing performances of his team.

The two humiliating defeats come after Bulgaria's two victories in friendlies played in March. First, Bulgaria scored a prestigious 1:0 victory over Portugal, followed by 2:0 defeat over Macedonia.

With Bulgaria not taking part in the forthcoming European Championship which starts in France on Friday, the team will prepare for the World Cup 2018 qualifiers which begin in September.

Bulgaria is in one of the toughest groups together with the teams of the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Belarus and Luxembourg.

[levski.bg]

Dimitar Berbatov to Leave PAOK



Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov will leave the Greek football team of PAOK after he has not been offered renewal of his contract.

In a press conference on Friday, the President of PAOK, Lubos Michel, said that Berbatov did his best for the team, but the club had decided to not seek renewal of his contract.

The Bulgarian signed a one-year contract with PAOK in September 2015, joining the team from Thessaloniki after spending two seasons at French Monaco.

Although he suffered several injuries during the season, Berbatov managed to record 25 appearance for PAOK in which he scored four goals.

[gukfvaEU]

New CSKA Sofia are replacing Ltex in A PFG, but... earlier Litex were excluded from the league, so how CSKA could have taken place which had not already existed?

[EuroMinnow]

Can someone explain please? Are there two CSKA Sofia teams now? And a Litex II, but not a Litex?

[Todor]

Can someone explain please? Are there two CSKA Sofia teams now? And a Litex II, but not a Litex?

The original CSKA is in administration and has applied for a profesional licence in order to play in the second level.
Litex was bought by a fourth division club Chavdar Etropole and then was moved to Sofia and renamed to PFC CSKA 1948 Sofia in an attempt to replace the old club without paying back its huge debts. This club has absolutely no connection with the original. Actually it is what used to be Litex. In order to facilitate this sham the Futball Union decided to increase the number of the clubs in the First Division to 14 by adding 4 wild card teams.

[Forza AZ]

So in fact you can look at it like this (?):

1.Litex were excluded from 1st level
2.Litex is automatically relegated to 2nd level
3.Litex merged with Chavdar and is renamed to CSKA 1948
4.1st level increased to 14 teams with adding 5 2nd level teams that get a licence
5.CSKA 1948 is 1 of these 4 teams that get a licence (together with Dunav Ruse, Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa, Vereya Stara Zagora and Neftochimic Burgas). Other higher ranked teams didn't obtain a licence.

Is this correct?

[Todor]

So in fact you can look at it like this (?):

1.Litex were excluded from 1st level
2.Litex is automatically relegated to 2nd level
3.Litex merged with Chavdar and is renamed to CSKA 1948
4.1st level increased to 14 teams with adding 5 2nd level teams that get a licence
5.CSKA 1948 is 1 of these 4 teams that get a licence (together with Dunav Ruse, Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa, Vereya Stara Zagora and Neftochimic Burgas). Other higher ranked teams didn't obtain a licence.

Is this correct?

Exactly.

[EuroMinnow]

Litex was bought by a fourth division club Chavdar Etropole and then was moved to Sofia and renamed to PFC CSKA 1948 Sofia in an attempt to replace the old club without paying back its huge debts. This club has absolutely no connection with the original.

So the owners of Chavdar Etropole/Litex/PFC CSKA Sofia-1948 have no connection at all with the other PFC CSKA Sofia? Who is gaining by creating a new CSKA? Also, where will they play?

[Todor]

Litex was bought by a fourth division club Chavdar Etropole and then was moved to Sofia and renamed to PFC CSKA 1948 Sofia in an attempt to replace the old club without paying back its huge debts. This club has absolutely no connection with the original.

So the owners of Chavdar Etropole/Litex/PFC CSKA Sofia-1948 have no connection at all with the other PFC CSKA Sofia? Who is gaining by creating a new CSKA? Also, where will they play?

The owner of Litex has been trying to acquire CSKA for a long time. 3 years ago he together with Hristo Stoichkov proposed CSKA to be declared bankrupt and to move Litex in Sofia to replace it, but it didn't work out then as it was not legal to move a club outside of the Football Union zone it was in. Last season when CSKA were in the 3rd division he supported the club without officially being part of it. Then at the end of the season he again together with Hristo Stoichkov bought the major share in Chavdar (Etropole). Then he bought Litex from himself and then declared that CSKA could not be saved at its present state and through the president of the club asked the court to liquidate it, thus going back to his plans from 2013. The court rejected the plea, so there will be a meeting of the creditors on 20.07 which will decide if attempts will be made to save the club or its assets will be sold and club will be liquidated.
All in all by creating the new CSKA in this way the club will not pay its debts, nor it will start from the bottom of the pyramith, saving 3 promotions.

[Todor]

deleted

[levski.bg]

Bulgaria's reigning football champion Ludogorets will face their Montenegrin counterpart Mladost Podgorica in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League



This was determined by the draw which took place in Nyon on Monday.

Ludogorets will host the first encounter which will be held on July 12 or 13 and will be visitor in the return match a week later in the capital of Montenegro.

Although Ludogorets claimed its fifth consecutive championship title this season, it had a disappointing performance in the European tournaments.

Last year, the team from Razgrad was ousted in the second qualifying round of the Champions League after losing 1:3 on aggregate to Moldova's Milsami Orhei.

This will be the first participation of Mladost Podgorica in the Champions League qualifiers. The team's greatest achievement so far has been reaching the third qualifying round of the Europe League in the 2013-2014 season.

[shnura]

Can someone explain please? Are there two CSKA Sofia teams now? And a Litex II, but not a Litex?

Yes, there are two CSKA at the moment, but the old one PFC CSKA is in the process of liquidation, thus it has no stadium, no players and no administration. The new PFC CSKA 1948 however will legally inherit the old one in the next couple of months, by buying the original emblem, which is currently seized by the State (the biggest club creditor) and taking on some of the State debts, so the history, titles and honors of the club will be kept There's also gonna be a CSKA double in the Second division.
About Litex there's a rumor a new club wii emerge in the third or fourth division with the same name, but i'm not quite sure about this.

[levski.bg]

Three Teams to Represent Bulgaria in Europa League Qualifiers



The three teams representing Bulgaria in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa League learned their opponents after the draw held in Nyon on Monday.

In the new season of the Europa League, Bulgaria will be represented by the teams which occupied respectively the second, third and fourth place in the country's top football division, namely Levski, Beroe and Slavia.

Levski will start from the second qualifying round, while Beroe and Slavia will commence their participation from the first round.

In the first qualifying round, which takes place on June 30 and July 7, Beroe will face Radnik Bijeljina from Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Slavia will play Poland's Zaglebie Lubin.

In both cases, the Bulgarian teams are hosts in the first leg and visitors in the return match.

The two legs of the second qualifying round take place on July 14 and 21.

Levski will face Slovenian Maribor, being visitor in the first leg and host in the return match.

If Beroe proceeds to the second round, the team from Stara Zagora will play with the winner from the encounter between Lithuania's Atlantas and Finland's Helsinki.

If Slavia makes it to the second round, the oldest team from the Bulgarian capital will face Partizan.

The draw for the Champions League qualifying rounds also took place on Monday.

Bulgaria's reigning football champion Ludogorets will face its Montenegrin counterpart Mladost Podgorica in the second qualifying round.

The team from Razgrad will be host in the first leg which will take place on July 12 or 13 and visitor in the return match a week later.

[levski.bg]

Friendly

Ludogorets - Atletic Kuklen 9-0

[levski.bg]

Ludogorets signed with Igor Plastun from Ukraine.

He is a Ukrainian professional footballer who plays as a defender, coming from Karpaty Lviv.