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):

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

10 in total (all divisions run in parallel):

All-time table 1924-2012

Pos. Team S P W D L F A Pts 1º 2º 3º
1Levski Sofia731737102041230534161605245226287
2CSKA Sofia631682101737728835771565241131204
3Slavia Sofia72173277841653827372011197271013
4Lokomotiv Sofia621604666409529232319461738469
5Botev Plovdiv6415316043605672287211015682212
6Lokomotiv Plovdiv591398537333527191819251407115
7Cherno More Varna601294444338512158317241226463
8Beroe Stara Zagora431148373262513142817891008111
9Spartak Varna491143375252516138417381002113
10Spartak Pleven51105332325547512111650901––1
11Minyor Pernik3691028721141210281402785–––
12Chernomorets Burgas4392428719843911311563772–––
13Botev Vratsa3882228117336810501267735––1
14Etar Veliko Tarnovo2773026516130495910606911––
15Dunav Ruse427842501903448621193690–1–
16Marek Dupnitsa377682401643648961239644––1
17Pirin Blagoevgrad24690220167303744940607–––
18OFC Sliven 200023661225144292823980594–––
19Spartak Sofia21443161142140566514464–21
20Akademic Sofia17485158131186573625447––2
21Spartak Plovdiv1844516012116456859244111–
22Litex Lovech12326185657659431943531–
23Naftex Burgas1235615472130534420380–1–
24Dobrudzha Dobrich1741912882209457695338–––

References

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