2008–09 A Group

The 2008–09 A Group was the 85th season of the Bulgarian national top football division, and the 61st of A Group as the top tier football league in the country. It began on 9 August 2008 and ended on 13 June 2009. CSKA Sofia were the defending champions, but they were unable to retain it and Levski Sofia won the title, which was their 26th overall.

A Group

Season	2008–09
Dates	9 August 2008 – 13 June 2009
Champions	Levski Sofia (26th title)
Relegated	Vihren Spartak Belasitsa
Champions League	Levski
Europa League	CSKA Cherno More Litex (via domestic cup)
Matches played	240
Goals scored	619 (2.58 per match)
Top goalscorer	Martin Kamburov (17 goals)
Biggest home win	Cherno More 6–0 Belasitsa Levski 6–0 Botev
Biggest away win	Belasitsa 1–7 Levski
Highest scoring	Vihren 3–5 Chernomorets Belasitsa 1–7 Levski
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

Promotion and relegation

Three teams were promoted from the 2007–08 B Group. These include the champions of the East and West B Groups, as well as the promotion playoff winner, decided through a one match between the runners-up of the two B Groups. The promoted teams were Lokomotiv Mezdra, Sliven, and Minyor Pernik. Lokomotiv Mezdra made their debut in the top tier of Bulgarian football, Sliven return after a fifteen-year absence, while Minyor Pernik return to the top tier after a seven-year absence. The promoted teams replaced Marek Dupnitsa, Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo and Beroe Stara Zagora, who were relegated after respective top flight spells of seven, one, and four years in the A Group.

Teams promoted from B PFG after the 2007–08 season

• West group champions: Lokomotiv Mezdra
• East group champions: OFC Sliven
• Play-offs: Minyor Pernik

Teams relegated to B PFG after the 2007–08 season

• Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo
• Marek Dupnitsa
• Beroe Stara Zagora

Team overview

Sofia

Botev
Loko Pd

Cherno More
Spartak

Belasitsa

Chernomorets

Litex

Loko Mz

Minyor

Pirin

Sliven

Vihren

Location of teams in 2008–09 A Group

CSKA

Levski

Lokomotiv

Slavia

Sofia 2008–09 A Group football clubs

Club	Location	Manager	Venue	Capacity
Belasitsa	Petrich	Miroslav Mitev	Tsar Samuil Stadium	9,500
Botev	Plovdiv	Kostadin Angelov	Hristo Botev Stadium, Plovdiv	22,000
Cherno More	Varna	Nikola Spasov	Ticha Stadium	8,250
Chernomorets	Burgas	Dimitar Dimitrov	Naftex Stadium	18,037
CSKA	Sofia	Luboslav Penev	Balgarska Armiya Stadium	22,015
Levski	Sofia	Emil Velev	Georgi Asparuhov Stadium	29,800
Litex	Lovech	Stanimir Stoilov	Lovech Stadium	7,000
Lokomotiv Mezdra	Mezdra	Georgi Bachev	Lokomotiv Stadium, Mezdra	5,000
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Plovdiv	Ayan Sadakov	Lokomotiv Stadium, Plovdiv	13,800
Lokomotiv Sofia	Sofia	Dragomir Okuka	Lokomotiv Stadium, Sofia	22,000
Minyor	Pernik	Dimitar Aleksiev	Minyor Stadium	16,500
OFC Sliven	Sliven	Georgi Dermendzhiev	Hadzhi Dimitar Stadium	10,000
Pirin	Blagoevgrad	Petar Tsvetkov	Hristo Botev Stadium, Blagoevgrad	7,500
Slavia	Sofia	Stevica Kuzmanovski	Ovcha Kupel Stadium	18,000
Spartak	Varna	Dragoljub Simonović	Spartak Stadium	8,000
Vihren	Sandanski	Filip Filipov	Sandanski Stadium	6,000

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Levski Sofia (C)	30	21	6	3	57	18	+39	69	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	CSKA Sofia	30	21	5	4	54	22	+32	68	Qualification for Europa League third qualifying round
3	Cherno More	30	18	6	6	48	19	+29	60	Qualification for Europa League second qualifying round
4	Litex Lovech	30	17	7	6	53	26	+27	58	Qualification for Europa League play-off round[lower-alpha 1]
5	Lokomotiv Sofia	30	16	6	8	52	29	+23	54
6	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	30	12	7	11	40	43	−3	43[lower-alpha 2]
7	Chernomorets Burgas	30	11	10	9	41	37	+4	43[lower-alpha 2]
8	Lokomotiv Mezdra	30	10	7	13	39	41	−2	37[lower-alpha 3]
9	Slavia Sofia	30	11	4	15	41	38	+3	37[lower-alpha 3]
10	Pirin Blagoevgrad	30	10	5	15	35	50	−15	35[lower-alpha 4]
11	Minyor Pernik	30	9	8	13	24	39	−15	35[lower-alpha 4]
12	Sliven	30	8	8	14	32	40	−8	32
13	Botev Plovdiv	30	8	6	16	31	50	−19	30
14	Vihren (R)	30	8	2	20	29	50	−21	26	Relegation to 2009–10 B Group
15	Spartak Varna (R)	30	5	10	15	19	46	−27	25
16	Belasitsa Petrich (R)	30	4	5	21	24	71	−47	17

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. Litex Lovech won the 2008–09 Bulgarian Cup and qualified for the play-off round of the UEFA Europa League.
2. Lokomotiv Plovdiv ahead of Chernomorets Burgas on head-to-head record; Chernomorets Burgas–Lokomotiv Plovdiv 1–3, Lokomotiv Plovdiv–Chernomorets Burgas 1–1.
3. Lokomotiv Mezdra ahead of Slavia Sofia on head-to-head record; Slavia Sofia–Lokomotiv Mezdra 0–0, Lokomotiv Mezdra–Slavia Sofia 1–0.
4. Montana ahead of Slavia Sofia on head-to-head record; Minyor Pernik–Pirin Blagoevgrad 0–0, Pirin Blagoevgrad–Minyor Pernik 1–0.

Results

Home \ Away	BEL	BOT	CHM	CHB	CSK	LEV	LIT	LME	LPL	LSO	MIN	OFC	PIR	SLA	SPV	VIH
Belasitsa Petrich		0–2	2–0	0–1	0–3	1–7	1–1	1–3	1–2	2–4	0–0	2–1	1–4	2–5	0–0	1–2
Botev Plovdiv	5–0		2–2	0–1	0–2	0–1	1–1	3–1	2–2	0–4	1–2	1–3	1–0	2–1	1–0	3–1
Cherno More	6–0	1–0		0–1	1–0	0–0	0–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	4–0	3–0	1–0	2–0	5–0	2–0
Chernomorets Burgas	2–0	2–1	0–0		0–1	2–2	3–1	2–2	1–3	1–1	1–1	1–1	3–1	2–1	2–0	1–3
CSKA Sofia	1–0	2–1	1–1	2–1		0–2	2–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	3–0	4–1	2–1	3–0	2–0
Levski Sofia	2–0	6–0	3–0	3–1	1–1		2–0	3–1	1–0	0–3	1–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	5–0	3–2
Litex Lovech	4–1	5–1	1–0	2–2	1–0	1–2		2–1	3–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	3–0	0–1	2–1	2–0
Lokomotiv Mezdra	3–1	0–0	1–3	1–1	2–2	0–1	2–4		1–1	4–0	3–1	2–0	4–0	1–0	1–1	0–1
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	1–1	3–0	1–0	1–1	1–3	2–3	1–3	0–2		3–2	1–0	2–1	3–2	2–1	2–1	0–1
Lokomotiv Sofia	3–1	2–0	3–2	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	1–2		5–1	3–2	1–0	0–1	2–2	2–0
Minyor Pernik	0–3	1–0	2–2	1–0	0–1	0–2	0–0	2–0	2–2	0–1		0–2	0–0	1–0	3–1	3–2
OFC Sliven	0–2	3–1	0–1	0–0	3–1	0–0	2–2	2–0	1–1	0–0	0–1		2–1	1–1	0–1	2–0
Pirin Blagoevgrad	2–0	0–3	1–2	2–1	2–2	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–0	0–4	1–0	3–1		3–2	0–0	2–1
Slavia Sofia	3–0	4–0	0–2	2–0	1–2	0–1	0–3	0–0	2–0	2–2	1–1	3–1	2–3		1–2	2–0
Spartak Varna	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–3	0–2	0–1	0–4	2–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	2–2	2–0	1–2		1–1
Vihren	4–1	0–0	0–2	3–5	1–4	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–2	1–0	0–1	0–2	1–3	1–2	2–0

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

Champions

Levski Sofia

Goalkeepers
01	Georgi Petkov	17	0(0)
12	Bozhidar Mitrev	07	0(0)
29	Daniel Kiss	03	0(0)
31	Tsvetan Dimitrov	03	0(0)

Defenders
02	Viktor Genev	14	0(0)
03	Zhivko Milanov	23	0(2)
05	Youssef Rabeh	22	0(0)
14	Veselin Minev	18	0(0)
15	Chakib Benzoukane	03	0(0)
20	David Bystroň	19	0(2)
25	Lúcio Wagner	16	0(0)
26	Martin Dimov	01	0(0)
33	Stefan Stanchev	01	0(0)
34	Dimitar Dimitrov	01	0(0)
37	Simeon Ivanov	01	0(0)
55	Yordan Miliev	04	0(0)

Midfielders
04	Georgi Chakarov	02	0(0)
06	Rachid Tiberkanine	14	0(3)
08	Georgi Sarmov	21	0(2)
16	Mariyan Ognyanov	01	0(0)
17	Georgi Nedyalkov	01	0(1)
18	Miroslav Ivanov	20	0(0)
20	Joãozinho	19	0(4)
21	Zé Soares	25	0(3)
22	Darko Tasevski	23	0(6)
24	Nikolay Dimitrov	17	0(1)
30	Lachezar Baltanov	15	0(0)
45	Vladimir Gadzhev	23	0(1)
70	Filipe da Costa	08	0(0)
	Boyan Iliev*	02	0(0)

Forwards
07	Jean Carlos*	04	0(1)
09	Georgi Ivanov	23	(12)
10	Hristo Yovov	11	0(4)
11	Georgi Hristov	25	(11)
19	Ivan Tsachev	09	0(4)
27	Enyo Krastovchev	03	0(0)
32	Boyan Tabakov	01	0(0)

Manager
	Emil Velev

• Iliev and Jean Carlos left the club during a season.

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Martin Kamburov	Lokomotiv Sofia	17
2	Dormushali Saidhodzha	CSKA Sofia1	14
3	Georgi Ivanov	Levski Sofia	12
4	Yordan Yurukov	Cherno More Varna	11
	Georgi Hristov	Levski Sofia
6	Zoran Baldovaliev	Lokomotiv Sofia	10
	Pavle Delibašić	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
	Michel Platini	Chernomorets Burgas
9	Krum Bibishkov	Litex Lovech	9
	Adrián Fernández	Chernomorets Burgas2
	Miroslav Manolov	Cherno More Varna
	Saša Simonović	Lokomotiv Mezdra
	Ivan Stoyanov	Sliven
	Yordan Todorov	CSKA Sofia

<sup>1. Saidhodzha scored 7 goals for Botev Plovdiv and 7 for CSKA Sofia (he was transferred during the winter break)
2. Fernández scored 4 goals for Cherno More Varna and 5 for Chernomorets Burgas (he was transferred during the winter break)</sup>

Annual awards

Team of the season

The team have been voted by selected media representatives (Note: First team members are denoted in bold).^[1]

Petkov

I. Ivanov

Manolev

Minev

Rabeh

Yanchev

Alex

Joãozinho

Tonev

Kamburov

G. Ivanov

A PFG Team of the season, first squad

Position	Name	Club
Goalkeepers	Kiril Akalski	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
	Georgi Petkov	Levski
Defenders	Tanko Dyakov	Cherno More
	Ivan Ivanov	CSKA
	Stanislav Manolev	Litex
	Zhivko Milanov	Levski
	Veselin Minev	Levski
	Youssef Rabeh	Levski
Midfielders	Alex	Cherno More
	Joãozinho	Levski
	Dani Kiki	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
	Aleksandar Tonev	CSKA
	Todor Yanchev	CSKA
	Kosta Yanev	Sliven
Forwards	Spas Delev	Pirin
	Georgi Ivanov	Levski
	Martin Kamburov	Lokomotiv Sofia
	Ivelin Popov	Litex
Head coach	Emil Velev	Levski

See also

• 2008–09 B Group

References

1. "Вижте идеалния отбор на сезона в "А" група - петима от Левски срещу трима от ЦСКА" (in Bulgarian). sportal.bg. 14 June 2009. Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 14 June 2009.

External links

• 2008–09 Statistics of A Group at a-pfg.com