FC Arda Kardzhali
Bulgarian football club / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FC Arda 1924 Kardzhali (Bulgarian: ПФК Арда Кърджали) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Kardzhali, that competes in First League, the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system.
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Full name | Професионален Футболен Клуб Арда 1924 Кърджали (Professional Football Club Arda 1924 Kardzhali) | |||
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Nickname(s) | Сините от Кърджали (The blue ones from Kardzhali) Господарите на Родопите (The Lords of the Rhodopes)[1] | |||
Short name | Арда (Arda) | |||
Founded | August 10, 1924; 99 years ago (1924-08-10) (as Rodopski Sokol) | |||
Ground | Arena Arda, Kardzhali | |||
Capacity | 12,000 | |||
Head coach | Aleksandar Tunchev | |||
League | First League | |||
2023–24 | First League, 8th of 16 | |||
Website | Club website | |||
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It was founded on 13 October 1924, as an association football branch of a larger sports society in the town. The club was reestablished in 2015, after its former entity was dissolved.
Named after the Arda river, a tributary of the Maritsa, Arda's home ground is the Arena Arda in Kardzhali, which has a capacity of 15,000 spectators. For the majority of its existence, the club regularly participated in the Second League, with its highest-ever ranking a second-place finish during the 1955–56 Bulgarian Second League. In the Bulgarian Cup, Arda have reached the finals once, in 2021, losing to CSKA Sofia.
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/87/PFC_Arda_by_BISO_2021.jpg/640px-PFC_Arda_by_BISO_2021.jpg)
In 2018–19, Arda won the Second League promotion play-off against Septemvri Sofia, resulting in the club's first-ever appearance in the Bulgarian top division.