Bulgaria. This championship needs explanatory note, for final tables were concluded after the season ended and penalties distributed. Penalties not exactly and not only for misconduct, but also according to new weird rule. Which, on top of everything, was not exactly followed, just to make a real mess. The rule was introduced the previous year: every first division club had to have a second under-23 team, playing in the Third Division. The idea was based on the magic word ‘improvement’ – about 10 years back the parallel championship of second teams was abolished. It was familiar around Europe practice until the 1970s: second-team championships as a parallel structure served to keep reserve players in shape and give them playing time. Regulars, coming back from injuries, played there too, to get in form . And talented prospects from the youth system. However, such championships attracted little interest and were somewhat unofficial, so they gradually disappeared. This left open the question of developing youngsters – talented juniors, included in the men squads, hardly ever played. In Bulgaria this was combined with the ever present complaint, that there was no strong new generation – the main reasons for decreasing attendance and lack of international competitive edge. And as ever the first coming to mind was administrative reform, as if a new rule automatically will improve the quality of the game and the players. Second teams of the top league members were ordered and automatically included in the third division. This lead to another restructuring: second division was made smaller, decreased from all-time high of 44 teams to 36. The 6 zones of Third Division were reduced to 5 – there was no escape from that, because the city of Sofia suddenly had way too many clubs – but the odd number of zones made the 2 second division groups unequal – two teams were relegated in the North, but three in the South. And something never occurred to the mighty administrators: what if a second team of first division club is too strong and finish first in its Third Division zone? Or too weak and finish at the bottom and has to be relegated? The new rule did not envision such obvious possibilities. It did envision some other things too. The clubs immediately disliked the invention: practically, they had to keep two separate teams. It is safe to say that only CSKA, Levski, and to a point Slavia, could afford to keep about 50 players on payroll, but the others, especially those from smaller towns, could not. There was no real help of the second team – unlike the former unofficial second-team championship, players could not move back and forth the first team and the second during the championship – one squad was registered in one division and the other – in the other and movements were regulated like transfers from club to club, twice an year, between seasons. There was no way around it, for most regular members of Third Division feared that the big clubs would easily make the championship meaningless by fielding their first division players in the lower-division championship. The rule was stupid and entirely useless. From start some clubs discovered a way to go around it, so two clubs did not have their own second teams in Third Division, but amalgamated with other local clubs teams: Marek (Dupnitza) was represented by ZSK Marek, Beroe (Stara Zagora) – by Boruy-Beroe, and Akademik (Sofia) – by VIF-Akademik. But that was in the first season under this rule – now came the second and the problems loomed in earnest. In Stara Zagora there was no longer even a pretense: ‘Beroe’ was dropped from the name of the third division team, now it was just Boruy. Sliven introduced practically separate team too – Dynamo-Sliven. The second-team rule applied only to first division clubs, but what about those relegated and promoted? Akademik solved the problem for itself by separation – there was no VIF-Akademik anymore, VIF played on its own, as they did for years before the rule. The same did Beroe (Stara Zagora). Marek (Dupnitza), however, was forced to keep second teams, although they were now in Second Division. Newcomers to top league were also an anomaly – ZSK Spartak (Varna) had to have a second team, automatically included in Third Division. But not Pirin (Blagoevgrad) – apparently, they claimed the other club from the city, already playing in the Third Division, Pirinski Akademik, as their second team. But Rozova dolina (Kazanlik) did not have any second team, real or fake – they were either unnoticed, or pleaded for mercy, since the town was too small and it was impossible to produce 50 players out of the blue. Whatever it was, nothing was ever mentioned and hardly anybody noticed the infringement. The weird rule was deteriorating and coming to its natural death, but not without stinging here and there. Second Division clubs were not forced to have second-teams, yet 2 had – Minyor (Pernik) and Svetkavitza (Targovishte). It was unknown why – were they forced or did they do it on their own? Neither club was freshly relegated, like Beroe, Akademik, and Marek. The season was played and the last weird chapter came after the end: the second team of CSKA finished first in its zone. The rule did not envision promotion. Apparently, second teams were only to play in Third Division – but winners were promoted, so CSKA went up, and had to change the name of the second team, making it technically another club. It did not sit very well – now the Army financed two clubs. And if their second team earns one more promotion and reaches the top league? In the same time the second teams of Botev (Vratza) and Marek (Dupnitza) finished at the bottom in their zones and had to be relegated to Forth Division. The rule either had original provision for that or one was hastily made to address the problem at hand: in such occasions, the first team was to be penalized with reduction of 2 points. The reason was quite obvious – to prevent the clubs from merely having a second team for formally satisfying the rule. They had to develop players and such development meant, in theory, much higher place in the final table. Fine theory, but Botev played in First Divison – Marek was in the Second, thus not even required to have a second team. Never mind, both clubs were penalized and post-factum Botev finished 11th instead of 6th. Mared dropped only one place – 6th instead of 5th in the Southern Second Group – but the irony was big: Neftohimik (Bourgas), not required to have a second team as a regular Second Division member finished a place above Marek, which, as a former First Division member, dragged with itself the dead wait of a second team to the Second Division and was punished for ‘developing football’.
And that was not all, unfortunately. Two clubs were found guilty of other crimes: Second Division Bdin (Vidin) was penalized with 6-point reduction for trying to fix their match against Dorostol (Silistra). That was because Bdin was running for promotion – once they were penalized, instead of finishing 2nd, they ended 10th. Understandable and traditional crime, so the punishment seemed to be fare. But Spartak (Pleven) was found guilty of ‘severe breach of Socialist morality’ and excluded from First Division. They just finished their arguably best-ever season at 5th place. The formulation was vague, but also it was the usual formulation for despicable crimes, which cannot be named because of this very ‘Socialist morality’ – ‘Socilaist people’ cannot commit crimes, period. As for the crime… most likely it was ‘black payroll’. The team was good and to keep it ambitious and competitive, means of paying the players had to be discovered. It was eternal problem in the Communist countries, for officially players were amateurs. The Army and the Police solved the problem easily – they just made their players ‘officers’ – but most clubs had no such opportunities and had to pay under the table. The smaller the club, the more easily blamed and punished, so Spartak (Pleven) was punished, as others before – no big club was ever found guilty of ‘severe breach of Socialist morality’. Hypocrisy ruled… but it also created new problem.
A promotion-relegation rule was created for this season, well in advance: second-placed teams in the Third Division were to play promotion-relegation play-offs against those immediately above direct relegation zone in the Second Division and second-placed Second Division teams the same against the 13th and the 14th finishers in First Division. Relatively simple, at a glance. Unfortunately, the last in the top league were Southern clubs – thus, directly relegated to the Southern Second Division. None to the Northern. This affected relegation in the second league, complicated by the odd number of Third Division zones: looked like 4 teams were to go directly down, with a possibility of three more after promotion-relegation play-offs in the South – a total of 7 teams, out of 18. In the North only one was to be directly relegated and possibly 2 more after play-offs – a maximum of three. This not only was unfair, but appeared too dangerous – in the South, the league was very likely to be weakened and in the same time the weaker at the time North was to maintain insignificant teams. Nothing to be done, except use the rules ‘creatively’ – no question about direct relegation: the last 4 in South went down (with that every pretense of following the second-team rule went to the drain: Akademik (Sofia) was relegated and joined its ‘second-team’ VIF in the Third Division). One went down in the North – Kaliakra (Kavarna), 18th and last. Now the promotion-relegation play-offs… to keep the number of relegated more or less in parity, three teams from the North and 2 from the South moved to this stage. But their opponents were 3 from the South and 2 from the North, so oddly Metalurg (Pernik), 2nd in Sofia Zone of Third Division (South) was paired with Partizanin (Cherven Bryag), 16th in the Northern Group of Second Division. If Metalurg won, in which group were going to play next year? Seemingly, in the Northern one… against all geography. They won… and joined the Southern Group. Partizanin was relegated from Northern Group, though. Before doing the final calculation, let see the other results: Septemvriiska slava (Mikhailovgrad), 17th in the Northern second division won its play-off against Chumerna (Elena), 2nd in the North-West Zone of Third Division (Chumerna finished 1st, but got 6 points taken away – along with the second team of Etar (Veliko Tirnovo) – ‘administratively’. The mess of it all… most likely match-fixing was the crime, but here the formulation was entirely different from those used for the violations of Bdin and Spartak). Septemvriiska slava kept its place in Second Division. So did Tryavna (Tryavna), 15th in the Northern Group, after winning against Lokomotiv (Rousse), 2nd in the North-East Third Division Zone. Eledzhik (Ikhtiman), 13th in the Southern Group played a single match against Velbazhd (Kyustendil), 2nd in the South-West Zone – they won it 4-0 and Velbazhd either did not show or there was some other infringement, for the second leg was awarded to Eledzhik. Vihren (Sandanski), 14th in the Southern Group won over Dimitrovgrad (Dimitrovgrad), 2nd in the South-East Zone. Thus, the only Third Division club to win promotion-relegation play-off was Metalurg (Pernik), geographically odd and inconvenient.
There was little chance to balance the books by possible outcomes of promotion-relegation play-offs for the highest division: two more Southern clubs were lowly in the First Division, so there was high possibility for even greater disbalance. Luckily, it was avoided – Chernomoretz (Bourgas), Southern club, 13th in First Division prevailed over Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), 2nd in the Southern Second Division Group. Khaskovo (Khaskovo), Southern club, 14th in First Division, overcome Osam (Lovech), 2nd in the Northern Group.
Let do the math: 1 team promoted and 1 directly relegated, and relegated after play-off in the North, 2 directly promoted from Third Division – a total of 17. In the South: 1 promoted to First Division, 4 directly relegated to Third – 5 altogether. Two teams relegated from First Division, 3 promoted from the Third. But the odd Metalurg (Pernik) remains… promoted to where? It went to the Southern Second Division, which makes 19 teams for the next season. Nothing was balanced. Solution came out of the blue and with luck too. Spartak (Pleven) was expulsed from First Division – they were to play in the Northern Second Division the next year, thus the group recovered to 18 teams. But now First Division was reduced to odd 15… and a new play-off was staged to complete the league: between the losing teams of the original promotion-relegation play-offs. Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) against Osam (Lovech). Since this play-off was hastily created, it was different – all others were 2-legged affairs. This was one-leg, played on neutral ground in Sofia. It was entirely improvised – the season was already over, teams were on vacation. To call them back was a bit too much: they were not ready for two more matches. Playing in Sofia was not good at all for the gates – nobody was interested there – but there was no other way. The opponents did what they could under the circumstances, the match went into overtime and only then Lokomotiv clinched 2-1 victory and promotion. A promotion, met with great doubts, for what exactly a team losing all previously set opportunities could contribute to First Division? They did not won Second Division championship and lost the original play-off against weak opponent. And the alternative was not better either – Osam was worse than Lokomotiv, finishing 2nd only because Bdin was penalized. But at last numbers were made right: First Division recovered to 16 teams, Northern Second Division Group added a team, making 18, the Southern Group lost one more team, thus reduced to 18 teams. However, it was weird finish of a season – and long after it was actually finished.
Actual football made a mockery of the epic back-room drama, especially in the lower divisions. The top league clubs made everything possible to avoid the hassle of financing two teams – it is true that some players of the second teams eventually reached first-division football, if not the clubs they dreamed of playing for, but as a whole the top clubs did not look for support from their second teams, feeling them with players they did not plan to use at ell ever. Third Division remained rather the same, even somewhat less competitive than usual – one may expect second teams of top clubs to play significant role, but it was not so even for the one of CSKA. No more than two teams competed for promotion in every Third Division zone. Sportist (General Toshevo) had no opponent in the North-East ern Zone, finishing 6 points ahead of Lokomotiv (Rousse). The same happened in the South-Eastern Zone, where Arda (Kardzhali), just relegated from long spell in Second Division, finished comfortable first, also 6 points ahead of their nearest pursuer Dimitrovgrad (Dimitrovgrad). Chumerna (Elena) and Khemus (Troyan) battled for first place in the North-Western Zone – Chumerna prevailed by a point, but was penalized for match-fixing – even with 6 points taken away, Chumerna finished 2nd. Khemus took the 1st place. Maritza (Plovdiv) and Velbazhd (Kyustendil) fought for the top spot between themselves in the South-Western Zone – Maritza grabbed the 1st place with a point more. And CSKA (Sofia) and Metalurg (Pernik) were the only candidates for promotion in the Sofia Zone – CSKA got the 1st place thanks to better goal-difference. The only second team interested in going higher, but this was not exactly a second team – CSKA simply satisfied the rule: the second team was made of their own former juniors, who normally were send to play in the provincial Army clubs. Now they were kept home, but with no intention of getting them into the first team. Not now, not later – so, the team operated almost as independent club and promotion provided get opportunity for further separation. Apparently, the rules did not allow second teams to play higher than Third Division, which lead to renaming the club after the end of the season – the new name under which they played in the Second Division the next year was Armeetz. The appearance of something seemingly different was used immediately by CSKA to get rid of the dead wait: no more attention had to be paid to the irritating bunch. It was not helped with players by the first team, becoming even weaker now, for there was no reason for young hopefuls to join it – they were not to be seen by the real power, it was dead end. And this concoction of a club did not last long. As for CSKA, the stupid rule forcing them to have a second team was entirely meaningless: they had a few Army clubs in First Division to send talent to get experience and also to get players from at will. The Army also had entirely separate military championship, which provided nothing to the top club, but was costly to maintain. Anyhow, apart from the second CSKA, all other Third Division winners were former Second Division members, some with many years in it. It was the reduction of the Second Division the previous year the whole reason of finding themselves one level lower and they were eager to get back to normal. Among the 10 teams at the top positions in the 5 Third Division Zones, except CSKA, only Sportist (General Toshevo) did not play in the Second Division during the 1981-82 season.
Second Division was smaller now – the reduction by 8 teams was necessary and even over-due – but still 36 teams were too much for a real change. Perhaps the biggest problem of second-division football was wise players – having plenty of choice, many good players preferred to play peacefully in some smaller town. As a rule of thumb, most clubs were able to afford two-three ‘stars’, dropped from First Division for one or another reason, most often lack of ambition, and with their help assured secure mid-table existence for many years. But the good players had no interest to concentrate in few teams, so already for many years no promising and relatively strong squad emerged in the second level. And having 36 teams in it did not provide for concentration either. The championship, therefore, was weak – the year before each group had only one club interested in promotion. This season, although a lure of promotion was extended to the 2nd placed via promotion-relegation play-off, it was still the same.
The Northern Group was particularly worrisome, for it was less competitive than the Southern for years. One can hardly expect improved quality coming from tiny newcomers like Partizanin (Cherven Bryag) – they finished 16th. Expected, but a look at the points fueled great pessimism: Partizanin ended with 30 points. Akademik (Svishtov), no long ago playing in the top league and one of the few second division team having means to lure better players on larger scale, finished 6th with 34 points.
Of course, one cannot put the blame on the shoulders of the weakest: Partizanin never played at this level before, this season was the greatest in their modest history, and even they had a good chance to remain in the league. Sitting from left: Tz. Kamenov, L. Nikolaev, L. Mitov, K. Khristov, P. Malinov, L. Kunovsky.
Middle row:Y. Kutovsky – assistant coach, P. Tomov, D. Anchev, P. Brezoev, Tz. Bossev, B. Momchilov, B. Gaganelov – coach.
Third row: R. Nafuzov, I. Iliev, Tz. Dilov, K. Lulchev, N. Iliev, K. Parvanov, M. Surdzhiysky.
Partizanin did what every other club in their situation did: having very limited pool of local talent, they recruited names. Boris Gaganelov, the big star of CSKA from the 1960s, was hired to coach them – young, promising, and just the previous season assistant-coach of CSKA, ideal for small town with little money. A bunch of former First Division players were also recruited – experienced, but either aging or discarded for limited talent. The most famous – and also the oldest and ready to retire – were Lyuben Kunovsky (Botev Vratza), Nikolay Iliev (Levski-Spartak and Spartak Pleven) and Pavel Malinov (Dunav Rousse). That was the typical picture everywhere and with the help of old feet, Partizanin almost survived. But ‘almost’ does not count – they were relegated and, in the big picture, just as well. For this was not a team improving the game.
But if Partizanin cannot be truly blamed, other clubs could be and must be blamed. For instance, Akademik (Svisthov) – money they had not, but had University in the city (hence, the name of the club) and offered easy degree in economics to interested players. They got good players and should have been candidates for promotion. Perhaps the fluctuation of the squad, having large numbers going out and coming in every new season prevented the building of strong team. They finished 5th. Elsewhere decline and rot ruled, already for years.
Dunav (Rousse) was the most alarming example – they got arguably the best Bulgarian coach at this moment, Asparoukh Nikodimov, who made the strong squad of CSKA beating Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. There were a number of well players, including former national team members – Angel Rangelov, Kiril Lyubomirov, and Christo Topalov (CSKA), Kosta Bosakov (Lokomotiv Plovdiv), Yury Nikolov (Akademik Sofia), to name a few. Impressive on paper, but their best years were back in the 1970s… or they never had really best years. Rangelov contributed little, if anything, for he soon went to play in Greece. A big number ‘mercenaries’ were already looking in other directions . Suffice to say that Lyubomirov, Rangelov, Topalov, Bosakov, Nikolov, and younger Kadir Belaliev, Nikola Spassov, Stoyan Pumpalov were not playing for Dunav the next season. But, looking ahead, this practice to get names for a bit of time was continued and Dunav actually remains rotting to this very day, never able to build a meaningful team after 1975. No wonder they were not a factor in 1982-83 – but theirs and other similar clubs situation opened a chance for relatively weak teams to run ahead. To nobody’s good, at the end, for they had typical second-division make from start. Eventually Bdin (Vidin) finished 2nd with 39 points, a record not exactly competitive and achieved with the help of bribery on top of it – after punishment, they were 10th and Osam (Lovech) of the same insignificant ilk took the 2nd place with 38 points. Like everybody else, they depended on former First Division players, although less significant and memorable than Dunav’s ‘mercenaries’. The only interesting thing about Osam was that Petar Khubchev, the future star, internationally recognized as such and key member of the Bulgarian national team, which finished 4th at the 1994 World Cup was already a starter for Osam. He was 19-years old, yet unknown.
Sluggishly and almost without notice Shumen (Shumen) won the championship with 44 points. At the end, they were 5 points ahead of Osam (Lovech). Sitting, from left: Angel Dimitrov, Aleksander Nikolov, Ivan Evtimov, Ivan Vassilev, Tzonyo Vassilev, Kalin Topuzakov, Neredin Eminov, Dimitar Krumov.
Second row: Todor Velev – coach, Christo Tanev, Stoyan Cheshmedzhiev, Nikolay Vesselinov, Mahmud Ahmedov, Pencho Zahariev – administartor, Iliya Pitzkov, Georgy Minchev, Ivaylo Kirov, Milko Kandilarov, Petar Vassilev – assistant coach.
The new champions of Northern Group won Second Division only once and played a single season in the First Division – it happened 10 years earlier, when they were still named P. Volov. Their sole first division season was especially weak and if there was anything memorable from it, that was the fate of two players: the goalkeeper Kandilarov was suspended for a long time early in the season for some grave offense committed in a match and practically missed the season. The only player who impressed was the aggressive central defender Tzonyo Vassilev, who was taken by CSKA right after this disastrous season and played left-back for them and the national team for a long time, including the 1974 World Cup. Getting old, he was just dismissed from CSKA and returned home. As it happened, he and Kandilarov were the only players of the old team, which played once in the top league remaining. Old and new squad were remarkably similar – both practically had no well players or coaches even by second division standards. The old team had one young talent and the new team -also one, the striker Ivaylo Kirov. And just like Tzonyo Vassilev 10 years back, Kirov eventually moved to play for CSKA. This was not a team going to shake first division – just like once upon a time, observers felt that Shumen needs a whole lot of new stronger players, if wanting to be a bit competitive.
In the South, usually more vigorous championship than the North, nothing good happened either – this season was seemingly similar to the pedestrian Northern affairs. It was easier to count disappointment – number one was Akademik (Sofia). Only the year before they participated in the UEFA Cup. Relegated from First Division, they immediately went further down – finished 16th and relegated quickly from Second Division as well. Marek (Dupnitza, then Stanke Dimitrov) finished 6th, but their decline was noticed some time ago, so they were not exactly unpleasant surprise – they simply were unable preserving their strong, but very short squad for long. Once key members started dropping out, there were no replacements and that was that. Now, with just 7 ‘stars’ remaining, Marek was reduced to the smaller typical second division members.
Minyor (Pernik) was biggest disappointment: they were expected to fight for promotion, but finished 4th and far behind the leaders: 14 points behind the champions and 8 behind the 2nd-placed. Standing from left: Naydenov – coach, A. Slavov, Genadiev, S. Slavov, Staykov, Evgeniev, Tikhanov, Savov, Todorov, Nikolov, Velichkov, Ferdov, Rangelov – team doctor.
Crouching: Dobrev, Sokolov, Boyanov, Stoyanov, Andonov, Vassev, Ganev, Evtimov, Baltov.
The problem of Minyor was not new at all – it was the approach. They constantly dipped into Sofia’s pool – Pernik is so close to Sofia, the players don’t even have to relocate and this was main reason for Sofianites to move eagerly to Minyor. But those were either aging players, nearing the end (Trayko Sokolov, Georgy Tikhanov) or players with limited talent with no chances to play for the big clubs again (Georgy Dobrev, Georgy Ganev) or at all. Ad the last local great players remaining – Vesselin Evgeniev and Angel Slavov – and the mix was peculiar: on paper, the squad appeared strong. In reality it was very unstable – inevitably, the old guard was going to retire sooner than later; behind them were second- or even third-rate players with experience, who already reached their limited peak and were not going to become stars and leaders out of the blue, and behind them – a bunch of younger players of dubious to fill the gaps. It was patch-works, not building a team and the results were correspondingly disappointing.
The rest of the league was quite insignificant – teams like
Assenovetz (Assenovgrad), which lived sedated life year after year. This season they finished 10th – nothing new. And the future was to be the same, for Assenovgrad was similar to Pernik: they were so close to Plovdiv, it was never a problem tapping on unused by Plovdiv clubs talent. Nothing special, but good enough to keep Assenovetz in the middle of the second division.
Neftokhimik (Bourgas) finished 5th, one point behind Minyor, but their good season hardly fooled anybody: as the second and smaller club of Bourgas, they had those not needed by Chernomoretz to make a decent squad – but not great and not very promising either, for whoever impressed was more than likely to move to the bigger neighbor. As almost all second-division clubs, Neftokhimik used the classic formula – keep a few former first division players and that was enough. In a good year, they would finish higher – if the year was not good, still there was no trouble: the better players were able to keep them above relegation zone.
Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) left very mixed feelings: they were favourites, expected to try hard to return to first division. But they greatly disappointed – finished 2nd, but 6 points behind the winners. It was irritating, because the team had a team which should have been a winner: Ayan Sadakov was current national team regular, Christo Bonev was back from his spell in Greece – old, but he was the best and most internationally famous Bulgarian player in the 1970s, his national team teammate of that decade Stefan Staykov was here now, another former national team player – Nikolay Kurbanov – was also back after playing in Svishtov for a while. Aleksander Ivanov, considered one of the best newcomers about 8 years ago, talented strikers Georgy Fidanov and Khristo Sotirov, and two bright youngsters, already considered national team material – Eduard Eranosyan and Christo Kolev. Looked like the worst was over – the years of decline, when Lokomotiv had half of the team made of veterans and the other half of almost teenagers. But, unfortunately, no new team was made yet – it was rather unstable bunch, affected quite a lot of internal scheming – Bonev was in the center of them as ever. As it is now as well. The squad was disbalanced – looked more than OK in every line, but defense. It was weak. Anyhow, Lokomotiv finished 2nd, which was a flop, but had a play-off chance – they lost that too. Then a second play-off was staged because of the expulsion of Spartak (Pleven) – and finally, but not convincingly, Lokomotiv won and got promoted. So, everything ended well… in fact, it was excellent: the weak and troublesome season ended as the most successful season in the history of the club, bested only more than 10 years later. A rollercoster of a season, leaving lots of doubts for the next – it was certain that the team needs better defenders. Perhaps a new goalkeeper, for Staykov played more on reputation by now and was too fat for really solid performance. Pehaps one more good striker. A defensive mid-fielder. And somehow pacifying the change room – Kurbanov and Fidanov had old and justified grudges against Bonev. Eranosyan also was in conflict with the great old star, who had so much clout in the club that whoever tried to fight his whims was going to lose and be kicked out.
Without real opponents, Beroe (Stara Zagora) easily won the Southern Group championship – they had the best record in both groups of the Second Division and were the only team to win more than games. They scored the most goals and had the tightest defense. As a good measure, they also won the Balkan Cup, pictured here on the left. Sitting from left: Iliya Iliev, Tanyo Petrov, Georgy Stoyanov, Petko D. Petkov, Tanko Tanev, Vassil Dragolov, Nikolay Demirev, Stefan Stefanov.
Middle row: Kosta Kostov, Stefan Dinev, G. Belchev – coach, Petko Iv. Petkov, Valentin Peev, Yordan Mitev, Ivan Georgiev, R. Brunekov – assistant coach, Plamen Lipensky, T. Tenev, Valentin Grudev.
Top row: Zh. Pepelov – administrator, Kancho Kasherov, Valentin Valchev, Atanas Batzenkov, Iv. Boyadzhiev – team doctor, Petko Tenev, Nikolay Yankov, Tenyo Minchev, Chr. Doychev – masseur.
Hard to believe this team was relegated in 1981-82 – the same former, current, and future national team players are on the picture. The same boys became champions of the country soon, Vassil Dragolov played at the 1986 World Cup, the mighty striker – who returned from successful spell in Austria during the season – hold unbeaten and very likely unbeatable record: in the Second Division he scored more goals than the games he played. Along the stars (P. D. Petkov, Minchev, Kasherov, Dragolov) played seasoned and reliable players (Kostov, Stoyanov, Dinev, Peev, Iliev) and behind hem were the talented youngsters, pushing for a place in the first team (Grudev, Lipensky, Mitev, Stefanov). Their coach was one of the stars of great team Beroe had in the early 1970s – Georgy Belchev. Back then he supplied balls to the scoring machine Petkov from the the wing. But Beroe was Beroe – just like the earlier team found itself suddenly in the Second Division, so did this one. It was not to be, it was a team able to play significant role in the tope league as it was, but it was Beroe… and temporary down. Only to return immediately – the team, generally made of players from the region of Stara Zagora, was too good for second division. It was well balanced – the only really balanced second division team – deep enough and with sound recruiting policy. It was not to stay the same – surely, Beroe was going to reinforce the squad with few good additions before starting its next season among the best. Then again, they were did not belong to second level, so there was not much reason for optimism – the ywere not newcomers. And they were Beroe… they could just as easily plummet down again. Beroe was not exactly a safe bet, too unpredictable.
So, the end of the saga: Shumen (Shumen), Beroe (Stara Zagora), and Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) were promoted this year.