Second Division. 20 teams, 2 points for a win. The newcomers this season were Spartak (Pleven) and Minyor (Pernik), relegated from First Division, and Septemvriiska slava (Mikhailovgrad), Rozova dolina (Kazanlak), Svetkavitza (Targovishte), and Velbazhd (Kyustendil) from Third Division. No debutantes – all newcomers had long Second Division history. The case of Tundzha (Yambol) remains unclear – fans protest restored them to the league, yet, it is unclear why and when they were out of it: Tundzha finished 12th in the previous season, that is, outside the relegation zone. This season 6 teams were going to be relegated – looked like the league was going to be reduced, but 5 teams were going to be promoted from Third Division, so the whole idea is a mystery – the important thing is 6 teams relegated and the top 3 promoted to First Division. The wisdom of the 3-team exchange between First and Second Division is questionable, but rules are rules. As it happened, 4 teams at the bottom were either too weak or just gave up the fight at one point, so the real battle was trying to escape 2 relegation spots – the other 4 were already occupied by the outsiders. 5 teams fought for to positions, which seems interesting from a time distance, but in reality spoke more of current weaknesses than strength even among the leaders.
Shumen (Shumen) finished last with 18 points and was relegated.
Tundzha (Yambol) – whatever their case provoking fans into demonstrations demanding admittance of the club in the league, games are won on pitch, not on the streets: Tundzha finished 19th with 23 points and was relegated.
Lokomotiv (Stara Zagora) – 18th with 28 points and relegated.
Vihren (Sandanski) – 17th with 28 points and relegated.
Marek (Dupnitza) – 16th with 34 points and relegated. Well, the team never recovered after its great team from the 1979s aged and one by one retired (although there were still 2 or 3 remaining members of the great squad, very old by now). Marek played under the name Rila in the previous season and now restored its popular original name Marek. Not everybody was doing that, though – neither Shumen, nor Tundzha, nor some other clubs attempted name changes presently. As a general note, a transitional season presented even by the mixture of names: some get rid of Communist names, others did not, some restored old popular names, others were looking for new ones to replace Communist ones.
Ludogoretz (Razgrad) – 15th with 36 points and relegated.
Cherveno zname (Pavlikeni) 14th with 38 points. Here is one example for keeping the Communist name of the club – at least for the moment. ‘Cherveno zname’ translates as ‘Red banner’.
Dobrudzha (Tolbukhin) – 13th with 38 points. Perhaps the last season with this name – not of the club, which is politically neutral, but of the city – soon it will restore its original name of Dobrich, but currently still named after the Soviet Second World Marshal Tolbukhin. Top row from left: Ivan Atanassov, Sergey Dimitrov, Atanas Stefanov, Dobrin Dobrev, ?, Tony Zlatkov, Svetozar Dzhilyanov. Middle row: Patzi Kirov – coach, Sasho Trifonov, Georgi Ivanov, Svetoslav Filev, Mladen Stoyanov, Roumen Slavov, Ivan Georgiev, Ivan Manolov – assistant coach. Sitting: Roumen Boev, Valentin Peychev, Doncho Spassov – masseur, Nikola Konanov, Ivan Durev.
Spartak (Pleven) – 12th with 38 points. Freshly relegated from First Division, but despite having a number of good players – the long time national team staple Nikolay Arabov, for instance – and coached by arguably the best Bulgarian coach in the late 70s and the 80s Vassil Metodiev, Spartak was weak. Sitting from left: Angel Marinov, Yury Vassev, Milko Gavrilov, Georgi Tzvetanov, Stefan Kutov, Krassimir Bislimov, Blagovest Petkov. Middle row: Blagoy Krastanov – assistant coach, Dimitar Todorov, Krassimir Traykov, Evgeni Ignatov, Vassil Metodiev – coach, Boyko Tzvetkov, Nikolay Popov, Roumen Monev, Vladimir Popov – assistant coach. Top row: Milen Nikolov, Iliyan Tzankov, Vassil Dyakov, Vesselin Gerov, Krassimir Dossev, Tikhomir Tikhomirov, Svetlin Gatinski, Nikolay Arabov, Boyko Bozhinov.
Velbazhd (Kyustendil) – 11th with 39 points.
Rozova dolina (Kazanlak) – 10th with 39 points.
Akademik (Svishtov) – 9th with 39 points.
Spetemvriiska slava (Mikhailovgrad) – 8th with 39 points. Soon both the city and its club will be renamed to Montana (Montana). It was difficult and conflicting change: the name of the city was Ferdinand, named after the Bulgarian King, who was forced to abdicate at the end of First World War, and after 1944, when the Communist took power, they named the city after one of their own ‘heroes’ – thus, in 1990 both current and old name of the city faced massive objections and the new name was chosen from deep historic past.
Osam (Lovech) – 7th with 39 points. No problem with the club name as such, but the new reality made itself known in another way: the club soon after this season was acquired by business enterprise, which named the club after itself. It was short lived and the club went into different ownership and another name change, but that happened a few years later.
Svetkavitza (Targovishte) – 6th with 39 points.
The top 5 teams were quite above the rest in strength and fought between themselves for the 3 promotions.
Bdin (Vidin) – 5th with 45 points. Very good season, but the squad was somewhat weaker than the other strong teams – perhaps overachieving, thanks to the coaching of Stefan Grozdanov, who became one of the leading Bulgarian coaches in the 1990s. 4th in the middle row is a player just starting his career, but making big impression right away: Daniel Borimirov. Like the coach, he was not going to stay with Bdin.
Spartak (Varna) – 4th with 48 points. Aimed at promotion, but missed.
Haskovo (Haskovo) – clinched 3rd place with 50 points. It was last minute success – away victory against Rozova dolina (Kazanlak) in the last round. Thus, Haskovo was promoted for third time to the top division – did not last in both earlier attempts, so the hope was not just to play again among the best, but to settle there. Sitting from left: Stefan Metodiev, Vesselin Vassilev, Dimcho Markov, Georgi Kumanov, Marian Metlarov, Lyubomir Burnarski, Lyubomir Illiev, Stamen Belchev. Middle row: Christo Christov, Racho Kilapov, Rostislav Grozdanov, Yordan Petkov, Todor Dafchev – coach, Krassimir Illiev, Georgi Stoychev, Stanimir Stoilov, Kostadin Latinov – assistant coach. Third row: Dr. Valentin Marinov – doctor, Todor Yanev, Miroslav Zlatanski, Georgi Petrov, Dimitar Dimitrov – technical organizer, Nayden Spassov, Vlado Delchev, Zapryan Paskov – masseur.
Haskovo depended on mix of local players and experienced names from elsewhere, notably players connected with Levski (Sofia) – that was the formula used before and it did not work quite well, but on its resources Haskovo was unable to build strong enough team – in part, its geographic location was the handicap: too close to Plovdiv, but Plovdiv was surrounded by towns ever closer: thus, local talent was lured to move to Plovdiv, but players from Plovdiv were likelier to chose another team, where they could play for it without even moving out of town, just commuting. So, here were Burnarski and Kilapov, largely known as Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) players, and the group associated with Levski (Sofia) one way or another: Delchev, Markov, Grozdanov, and Stoilov (in his case Levski was in the future). Stoilov was the only promising player of the group – the others were experienced, but with limited potential, which they already reached. Vlado Delchev, in particular, was criticized for lacking ambition: he was part of Levski for almost a decade and when he played he immediately reached the national team, but he rarely played, satisfied to sit on the reserves bench. Haskovo was hoping to stay in the top division, but with such squad it was unlikely.
Minyor (Pernik) – 2nd with 50 points. Just relegated from First Division, they managed to return to it immediately. Crouching from left: Stoyan Petrov, Andrey Asparoukhov, Roumen Andonov – captain, Valeri Stoyanov, Valentin Lazarov, Lyuben Zhelev, Volodya Stavrev. Middle row: Evlogi Banchev – coach, Valentin Zakhariev, Alyosha Andonov, Petar Petrov, Simeon Kostadinov, Grigor Grigorov, Mikhail Assenov, Raycho Raychev, Valeri Illiev – assistant coach. Top: Christo Trifonov – masseur, Ivaylo Yonchev, Vercho Mitov, Simeon Borissov, Slavcho Pavlov, Emil Boyanov, Ivaylo Venkov, Dr. Tzetzko Ignatov – doctor.
Minyor came back right away, but the club meandered between First and Second Division for years and there was little to suggest different this time: relatively strong team for second level, exeperienced enough and having a few well known, but aging players. Because of the close proximity to Sofia, there were always players from the capital no needed by the big clubs – they provided some class, but they were also looking to go back to their home town as quickly as possible and it was practically impossible to look for long term commitments from them. Meantime, the best local talent was most certainly going to join a big Sofia club – the veterans Borissov and Grigorov were point in case: they played for the national team, but as players of CSKA and Levski. Now, at their last playing years, they came back home and eventually retire sooner than later. Such as the predicament of Minyor, so there was no way to build a long-lasting good team with Zakhariev, Andrey Asparoukhov – the son of the arguably the best ever Bulgarian player Georgi Asparoukhov, Pavlov, Zhelev. And on top of the traditional problems, the new reality introduced a new huge one: money. Minyor found itself suddenly impoverished: the mining industrial complex in the city get rid of the club, the city administration did not provide a helping hand, especially since the club did not want to contract the stadium, belonging to the city. Give-aways were gone, the new reality demanded business sponsors and there were none. Going up to the top league was looking dark: unless sponsorship was attracted by a club playing in the highest tier – the only, although passive, hope for the club – mere survival was in the books. Not survival in the top league, but physical survival of the club. Some future…
Yantra (Gabrovo) won the championship with 52 points. 22 wins, 8 ties, 8 losses, 68-35 scoring record. Hard victory, largely due to the good work of experienced coach Dimitar Aleksiev. Like Haskovo, Yantra earned promotion for a third time, but their achievements were in the first half of the 1970s – after 1975 the club sunk into sedated life in the Second Division. Back then, during their best years, they not only used different name – Chardafon-Orlovetz – but were also involved into financial scandals (largely paying their players under the table – many clubs did that, for the official ‘amateurism’ of sport provided no legal way to pay effectively professional players. Yantra as a small provincial club was a prime example of Communist ‘vigilant justice’ – punish them to show that the system is ‘just’ and never touch the big and influential. Presently, Yantra got ambitious again, but their squad was nothing special, following the old formula of Second Division clubs for stability: get a cluster of experienced relatively well known names – enough to stay in the second tier and with some luck may be climbing up. Yantra had 7 players with top league experience, the best known of them Yordan Murlev (Pirin Blagoevgrad, CSKA, Levski) and also 7 players with vast Second Division experience. In this, the champions were similar to the other two promoted teams: they had rather weak team by top league standards and the the next season depended largely on what players they could get between seasons from elsewhere. Yet, Yantra was in somewhat better position than Haskovo and Minyor – they had no players attractive for bigger clubs and thus more likely to keep the best of the their winning team. As money… it was anybody’s guess what the future will give or take.
Well, that was it: Haskovo, Minyor, and Yantra were going to First Division for yet another try to stay there. Good luck.
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