2011–12 A Group

The 2011–12 A Group was the 88th season of the Bulgarian national top football division, and the 64th of A Group as the top tier football league in the country. The season began on 6 August 2011 and ended on 23 May 2012. Ludogorets Razgrad claimed their maiden title in their debut season, after winning the last round clash against CSKA, which were leading by 2 points prior to the match.^[1] Vidima-Rakovski, Kaliakra and Svetkavitsa were relegated, after finishing at the bottom three places.

A Group

Season	2011–12
Dates	6 August 2011 – 23 May 2012
Champions	Ludogorets Razgrad (1st title)
Relegated	Vidima-Rakovski, Kaliakra, Svetkavitsa
Champions League	Ludogorets Razgrad
Europa League	CSKA Sofia Levski Sofia Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Matches played	240
Goals scored	643 (2.68 per match)
Top goalscorer	Junior Moraes Ivan Stoyanov (16 goals each)
Biggest home win	Levski 7–0 Svetkavitsa
Biggest away win	Minyor 0–7 Ludogorets
Highest scoring	Cherno More 7–1 Kaliakra Botev 6–2 Kaliakra Litex 6–2 Lokomotiv
← 2010–11 2012–13 →

Team information

Akademik Sofia and Sliven were directly relegated after finishing in the bottom two places of the table at the end of season 2010/11. Akademik were relegated after one year in the top league of Bulgarian football, while Sliven ended a three-year tenure in the top flight. Furthermore, Pirin (Blagoevgrad) were excluded from A Group due to financial difficulties and demoted to V Group.

The relegated teams were replaced by Botev Vratsa, champions of West B Group, Ludogorets Razgrad, champions of East B Group and promotion play-off winners Svetkavitsa. Botev Vratsa returned to A Group after twenty-two years, while Ludogorets Razgrad and Svetkavitsa both made their debut on the highest level of Bulgarian football.

There was some controversy regarding the relegation/promotion play-offs at the end of season 2010/11. In the original match-up, 14th-placed Vidima-Rakovski lost 3-0 against B Group play-off winners Chernomorets (Pomorie). However, Pomorie did not receive an A Group licence, so Vidima-Rakovski were spared from relegation. In order to fill the void, a second play-off match was scheduled between Svetkavitsa, 4th-placed team of East B Group, and Etar (Veliko Tarnovo), 3rd-placed team of West B Group. Svetkavitsa won this match by a score of 3-1.

Stadia and locations

As in the previous year, the league comprises the best thirteen teams of season 2010-11, the champions of the two B Groups and the winners of the promotion play-offs.

Sofia

Botev

Beroe

Cherno More

Ludogorets

Svetkavitsa

Chernomorets

Kaliakra

Litex

Lokomotiv Plovdiv

Minyor

Montana

Vidima-Rakovski

Location of teams in 2011–12 A Group

CSKA

Levski

Lokomotiv

Slavia

Sofia 2011–12 A Group football clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Beroe	Stara Zagora	Beroe	17,800
Botev	Vratsa	Hristo Botev	32,000
Cherno More	Varna	Ticha	8,250
Chernomorets	Burgas	Lazur	18,037
CSKA	Sofia	Balgarska Armiya	22,015
Kaliakra	Kavarna	Kavarna	5,000
Levski	Sofia	Georgi Asparuhov	29,200
Litex	Lovech	Lovech	7,050
Lokomotiv	Plovdiv	Lokomotiv	13,800
Lokomotiv	Sofia	Lokomotiv Sofia1	22,000
Ludogorets	Razgrad	Ludogorets Arena	6,000
Minyor	Pernik	Minyor	8,000
Montana	Montana	Ogosta	8,000
Slavia	Sofia	Ovcha Kupel	18,000
Svetkavitsa	Targovishte	Dimitar Burkov	8,000
Vidima-Rakovski	Sevlievo	Rakovski	8,816

Notes

1. Lokomotiv Sofia play their home matches at Vasil Levski National Stadium as their own ground, Lokomotiv Stadium, had not received approval from the BFU license committee.^{[citation needed]}

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Captain[citation needed]	Kit Manufacturer[citation needed]	Shirt Sponsor[citation needed]
Beroe Stara Zagora	Ilian Iliev	Slavi Zhekov	Uhlsport	Bulsatcom
Botev Vratsa	Sasho Angelov	Rosen Vankov	Jumper
Cherno More Varna	Stefan Genov	Georgi Iliev	Misho	Armeets
Chernomorets Burgas	Dimitar Dimitrov	Radostin Kishishev	Macron
CSKA Sofia	Dimitar Penev	Todor Yanchev	Kappa	GLOBUL
Kaliakra	Radostin Trifonov	Ivan Raychev	Uhlsport	Municipality of Kavarna
Levski Sofia	Nikolay Kostov	Hristo Yovov	Nike	VTB Bank
Litex Lovech	Atanas Dzhambazki	Nebojša Jelenković	adidas	b-connect
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Emil Velev	Zdravko Lazarov	Uhlsport	Refan
Lokomotiv Sofia	Anton Velkov	Kristian Dobrev	Puma
Ludogorets Razgrad	Ivaylo Petev	Todor Kolev	adidas	Huvepharma
Minyor Pernik	Stoycho Stoev	Kostadin Markov	Jumper	Municipal Insurance Company
Montana	Stefan Grozdanov	Daniel Gadzhev	Jako	GM Capital
Slavia Sofia	Martin Kushev	Bogomil Dyakov	Puma
Svetkavitsa	Nikola Spasov	Georgi Damyanov	Jako	Vinprom Targovishte
Vidima-Rakovski	Kostadin Angelov	Georgi Stoychev	Asics	VIDEXIM

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager(s)	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Levski Sofia	Yasen Petrov	End of contract	27 May 2011	Pre-season	Georgi Ivanov	27 May 2011[2]
Slavia Sofia	Emil Velev	Sacked	28 May 2011		Martin Kushev	28 May 2011[3]
Kaliakra Kavarna	Antoni Zdravkov	End of contract	28 May 2011		Adalbert Zafirov	28 May 2011[4]
Chernomorets Burgas	Georgi Vasilev	Sacked	30 May 2011		Dimitar Dimitrov	30 May 2011[5]
Montana	Atanas Dzhambazki	End of contract	2 June 2011		Stefan Grozdanov	11 June 2011
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Saša Nikolić	Sacked	14 June 2011		Dragan Kanatlarovski	17 June 2011
Vidima-Rakovski	Dimitar Todorov	Sacked	16 June 2011		Kostadin Angelov	17 June 2011
Lokomotiv Sofia	Dian Petkov	Sacked	3 October 2011	10th	Anton Velkov	3 October 2011
Kaliakra Kavarna	Adalbert Zafirov	Sacked	19 October 2011[6]	15th	Radostin Trifonov	19 October 2011[7]
Svetkavitsa Targovishte	Plamen Donev	Resigned	19 October 2011	16th	Nikola Spasov	23 October 2011[8]
Litex Lovech	Lyuboslav Penev	Resigned	24 October 2011[9]	5th	Atanas Dzhambazki	24 October 2011
CSKA Sofia	Milen Radukanov	Sacked	25 October 2011[10]	2nd	Dimitar Penev	25 October 2011
Levski Sofia	Georgi Ivanov	Resigned	4 November 2011	5th	Nikolay Kostov	7 November 2011[11]
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Dragan Kanatlarovski	Sacked	7 November 2011	6th	Emil Velev	8 November 2011[12]
Levski Sofia	Nikolay Kostov	Resigned	26 March 2012	4th	Georgi Ivanov (caretaker)	March 2012

Note: Georgi Ivanov subsequently stepped down and was replaced by Yasen Petrov as caretaker manager at the helm of Levski, with Ilian Iliev set to take over prior to the 2012/2013 season.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ludogorets Razgrad (C)	30	22	4	4	73	16	+57	70	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	CSKA Sofia	30	22	3	5	60	19	+41	69	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round
3	Levski Sofia	30	20	2	8	61	28	+33	62
4	Chernomorets Burgas	30	17	9	4	57	23	+34	60
5	Litex Lovech	30	17	8	5	57	28	+29	59
6	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	30	17	6	7	44	39	+5	57	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round[a]
7	Cherno More	30	16	4	10	46	25	+21	52
8	Slavia Sofia	30	15	6	9	42	36	+6	51
9	Minyor Pernik	30	8	12	10	35	40	−5	36
10	Beroe	30	9	8	13	30	37	−7	35
11	Montana	30	8	7	15	29	51	−22	31
12	Botev Vratsa	30	7	8	15	30	44	−14	29
13	Lokomotiv Sofia	30	5	9	16	26	50	−24	24
14	Vidima-Rakovski (R)	30	3	6	21	19	59	−40	15	Relegation to 2012–13 B Group
15	Kaliakra (R)	30	2	5	23	26	77	−51	11
16	Svetkavitsa (R)	30	1	5	24	8	71	−63	8

Source: A PFG (in Bulgarian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th head-to-head away goals scored; 6th goal difference; 7th goals scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Ludogorets Razgrad won the 2011–12 Bulgarian Cup competition but were qualified for 2012–13 UEFA Champions League via winning the league, hence their Europa League berth was awarded to the cup runners-up, Lokomotiv Plovdiv.

Results

Home \ Away	BSZ	BVR	CHM	CHB	CSK	KAV	LEV	LIT	LPL	LSO	LUD	MIN	MON	SLA	SVE	VRA
Beroe		1–2	2–0	1–2	0–1	3–1	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	0–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–0
Botev Vratsa	1–1		0–1	0–0	2–2	6–2	0–2	1–3	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–0	2–4	0–1	1–0	2–2
Cherno More	2–0	1–0		0–2	0–0	7–1	3–1	0–1	1–2	3–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	2–1
Chernomorets Burgas	2–2	3–1	3–2		2–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–3	6–0	4–0
CSKA Sofia	1–0	2–0	4–1	1–0		3–1	1–0	4–1	3–0	4–0	2–2	3–1	2–0	1–2	3–0	4–1
Kaliakra	3–1	0–0	0–5	0–4	1–2		1–4	0–2	1–2	0–0	0–4	2–2	2–3	1–2	1–1	3–2
Levski Sofia	2–0	3–0	2–1	2–2	1–0	3–2		3–2	3–2	4–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–0	7–0	2–1
Litex Lovech	2–1	3–1	1–0	0–0	0–2	5–0	1–0		6–2	2–0	2–1	2–2	0–0	1–0	6–0	3–0
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	4–2	2–1	1–0	2–0	0–3	2–0	3–2	2–1		2–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	3–2
Lokomotiv Sofia	3–0	0–1	0–0	0–4	1–2	3–2	1–1	1–2	2–0		0–1	1–1	1–1	0–3[a]	4–1	0–1
Ludogorets Razgrad	3–0	3–0	0–2	3–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	1–1	0–0	4–0		4–1	3–0	6–0	5–0	4–0
Minyor Pernik	1–1	1–3	0–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	2–2	0–0	1–2	0–7		3–1	1–1	3–0	1–0
Montana	0–0	2–0	1–3	2–4	0–5	2–1	0–3	1–0	2–2	1–1	1–4	1–2		1–2	0–0	1–0
Slavia Sofia	0–0	3–2	1–1	1–1	0–1	3–0	0–3	0–2	3–0	2–1	3–2	2–1	1–1		2–0	1–1
Svetkavitsa	1–3	0–0	1–3	0–3	0–3	1–0	0–1	1–3	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–3	1–2	0–3		0–0
Vidima-Rakovski	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–6	1–1	0–3	2–2	0–5	0–3	1–2	1–2	1–0

Source: A PFG (in Bulgarian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. The match between Lokomotiv Sofia and Slavia Sofia was awarded to Slavia by a score of 3–0.^{[citation needed]} The original fixture was not played after police security for the match could not be provided.^{[citation needed]}

Champions

Ludogorets Razgrad

Goalkeepers
01	Uroš Golubović	28	0(0)
13	Radek Petr	02	0(0)
30	Georgi Argilashki	00	0(0)
	Emil Mihaylov*	00	0(0)

Defenders
03	Marián Jarabica	01	0(0)
04	Tero Mäntylä	03	0(0)
05	Alexandre Barthe	29	0(3)
20	Guilherme Choco	27	0(1)
25	Yordan Minev	28	0(0)
26	Diyan Dimitrov	00	0(0)
33	Ľubomír Guldan	28	0(0)
77	Vitinha	10	0(0)
	Jure Travner*	03	0(0)
	Suvad Grabus*	01	0(0)

Midfielders
06	Georgi Kostadinov	05	0(2)
07	Mihail Aleksandrov	28	0(5)
08	Stanislav Genchev	27	0(6)
18	Svetoslav Dyakov	29	0(1)
19	Dimo Bakalov	14	0(2)
22	Miroslav Ivanov	27	0(4)
36	Mladen Kašćelan	11	0(1)
84	Marcelinho	25	0(9)
	Shener Remzi*	00	0(0)
	Dimo Atanasov*	06	0(0)
	Nikolay Dyulgerov*	02	0(0)

Forwards
11	Juninho Quixadá	11	0(5)
23	Emil Gargorov	26	(13)
27	Christian Kabasele	11	0(3)
73	Ivan Stoyanov	25	(16)
	Todor Kolev*	09	0(1)

Manager
	Ivaylo Petev

• Mihaylov, Travner, Grabus, Remzi, Atanasov, Dyulgerov and Kolev left the club during a season.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Below is a list of the top goalscorers at the end of the competition.^[13]

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Júnior Moraes	CSKA Sofia	16
	Ivan Stoyanov	Ludogorets Razgrad	16
3	Emil Gargorov	Ludogorets Razgrad	13
	Ianis Zicu	CSKA Sofia	13
5	Juninho	Slavia Sofia / Levski Sofia	12
6	Svetoslav Todorov	Litex Lovech	11
	Ivan Tsvetkov	Levski Sofia	11
	Gerasim Zakov	Kaliakra Kavarna	11
9	Lourival Assis	Chernomorets Burgas	10
	Aatif Chahechouhe	Chernomorets Burgas	10
	Georgi Iliev	Cherno More Varna	10
	Marcelo Nicácio	Litex Lovech	10

Scoring

• First goal of the season: 19:08 – Georgi Bozhilov for Cherno More against Montana (6 August 2011)^[14]
• Fastest goal of the season: 6 seconds – Miroslav Manolov (Cherno More) against Montana (22 March 2012)^{[citation needed]}

Transfers

• List of Bulgarian football transfers summer 2011
• List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2011–12

References

1. ""Лудогорец" победи ЦСКА с 1:0 и спечели титлата при дебюта си в А група" (in Bulgarian). dnevnik. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
2. "Георги Иванов-Гонзо е новият треньор на Левски" (in Bulgarian). btv.bg. 27 May 2011.
3. "Кушев поема Славия" (in Bulgarian). bsport.bg. 28 May 2011. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 2 June 2011.
4. "Адалберт Зафиров пое Калиакра" (in Bulgarian). topsport.bg. 28 May 2011.
5. "Dimitar Dimitrov is the new head coach of Chernomorets". chernomoretz.bg. 30 May 2011.
6. "Калиакра уволни Адалберт Зафиров" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. 19 October 2011.
7. "Стана ясен новият старши-треньор на Калиакра" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. 19 October 2011.
8. "Никола Спасов стана треньор на Светкавица" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. 23 October 2011.
9. "Любо Пенев напусна Литекс - "оранжевите" представиха новия треньор, изненадата е голяма" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. 24 October 2011.
10. "Официално: ЦСКА се раздели с Милен Радуканов" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. 25 October 2011.
11. "Официално: Николай Костов ще води Левски до края на сезона" (in Bulgarian). gong.bg. 4 November 2011.
12. "Емил Велев е новият треньор на Локо Пд, помага му Ники Митов, тренировката е от 11 часа" (in Bulgarian). gong.bg. 8 November 2011.
13. "Bulgaria - A PFG Top goalscorers". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
14. "Честито! 53 минути за първия гол от новия сезон в А група" (in Bulgarian). gong.bg. 6 August 2011.

External links

• Official website