Football in Bulgaria

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Bulgarian Football Association logo

Football ( Bulgarian футбол , futbol ) is the most popular sport in Bulgaria . The Bulgarian Football Association ( Bulgarian Български футболен съюз / Bulgarski futbolen Sajus , or BFS for short) is the association of Bulgarian football clubs. It was founded on June 27, 1985 in the Bulgarian capital Sofia . Members of the FSO are 44 professional and 490 amateur clubs. The FSO is the successor to the Bulgarian Football Federation (bulg. Българска федерация по футбол / Balgarska federazija po futbol, ​​BFF for short), which existed between 1962 and 1985. He has been a member of FIFA since 1923and UEFA since 1954.

The A Grupa

In the A Grupa , the highest Bulgarian league, the following teams are represented in the 2012/13 season :

The B Grupa

The 14 teams in B Grupa in the 2012/13 season:

team city Stadion capacity
Bansko Bansko St. Peter 3,000
Chavdar Etropole Chavdar 5,000
Kaliakra Kavarna Kaliakra 5,000
Lyubimez Lyubimez Lyubimez 5,000
Neftochimic Burgas Lasur Stadium 18,037
Pirin Raslog Pirin 2,000
Rakovsky 2001 Rakovsky Rakovsky 3,000
Septemwri Simitli Goiter 8,000
Panayot Wolov Shumen Panayot Wolov 24,390
Spartak Pleven Pleven 22,000
Spartak Varna Spartak 13,000
Sliven 2000 Sliven Hadji Dimitar 10,000
Svetkavitsa Targovishte Dimitar Burkow 8,000
Widima-Rakovsky Sevlievo Rakovsky 8,816

Bulgarian national team

In July 2004, Christo Stoitschkow succeeded Plamen Markow, who resigned after the European Football Championship in 2004, as coach of the Bulgarian national football team . The team has played twice at the European Championships ( 1996 and 2004 ) and seven times at the World Championships .

The Bulgarian team played their first international match against Austria on May 21, 1924 in Vienna and lost the game 6-0.

Well-known Bulgarian players

Participation of Bulgaria in the European Football Championship

At the 10th European Football Championship in England in 1996 , Bulgaria took part in a final round for the first time. For the 2004 European Football Championship in Portugal, the national team under coach Plamen Markow was able to qualify again. In both tournaments, the Bulgarians were eliminated in the preliminary round.

Participation of Bulgaria in the soccer world championship

For the first time, a Bulgarian team qualified for the World Cup in 1962: In qualifying, France was defeated 1-0 after a play-off. At the finals in Chile , Bulgaria initially lost just 1-0 to Argentina before losing 6-1 to Hungary. The last group game against England ended in a goalless draw.

In England in 1966 , Bulgaria was able to prevail again through a play-off, this time against Belgium, but the team again failed to get beyond the preliminary round. All three games were lost (0: 2 against Portugal, 0: 3 against Brazil and 1: 3 against Hungary). Georgi Asparukhov scored the Bulgarians' only goal.

Four years later in Mexico they were close to their first victory in a final tournament, against Peru they had already taken a 2-0 lead in the 50th minute of the game. However, the Peruvians struck back and defeated the Bulgarians 3-2. After the 2: 5 against the German selection, Bulgaria was eliminated again prematurely, against Morocco there was then a disappointing 1: 1.

In the fourth final round participation in 1974 in the Federal Republic of Germany , Bulgaria could not survive the preliminary round again, but the Bulgarians managed with two points from three games their best appearance so far in a final round. After that you couldn't qualify for 12 years.

The 1986 World Cup in Mexico was the first to qualify for the round of 16, but there they lost 2-0 to the hosts.

In 1994 in the USA, the Bulgarians were able to end their negative series of 16 World Cup games without a win with a 4-0 victory over Greece. In the second round they eliminated Mexico on penalties, in the quarterfinals defending champion Germany (2-1). Ultimately, the Bulgarians came in fourth. Christo Stoitschkow was the top scorer with 6 goals.

In 1998 Bulgaria was unable to match the performance of four years earlier. They only got one point out of three games, the last group game against Spain even ended in a 1: 6 debacle. Bulgaria could not qualify for the World Championships in 2002 in South Korea / Japan , 2006 in Germany and 2010 in South Africa .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Donna Buchanan: Soccer, Popular Music and National Consciousness in Post-State-Socialist Bulgaria, 1994–1996. , in: British Journal of Ethnomusicology 11.2 (2002), pp. 1-27.
  2. ↑ Български футболен съюз: За БФС >> История ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. History of the association. (Bulgarian) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bfunion.bg