First Division. 2 points for a win. The old dominance of CSKA and Levski was reestablished, although the names now were CFCA Sredetz and Vitosha. Because some clubs were also renamed, their familiar names will be given in brackets. So, back to the well known – two teams fighting for the title. At the bottom 4 teams battled to escape the last two places and relegation.
At the end of the table 4 teams finished with 21 points and goal-difference decided their fate.
Newcomer Dimitrovgrad (Dimitrovgrad) got the short stick: on worst goal-difference they were last placed and relegated to Second Division after single season among the best. This was quite expected to happen: Dimitrovgrad was caught by surprise by the possibility for promotion the year before. For the promotion/relegation play-off they hastily recruited players from aside in such urgency that some practically were hired when vacationing on the beach. The picture above is from that successful play-off in the previous summer, but the new players were already in it and curiously no other additions were made during the transfer window. All together 4 players were added: central defender Ivan Iliev, formerly of Slavia, who was at the end of his career because of age and injuries; Angel Kalbourov, left full back, formerly of CSKA, but already beyond his peak; left winger Christo Denchev, formerly of Levski, who was perhaps the stronger newcomer, but also already having reached his peak; and goalkeeper Decho Pavlov – experienced, but so-so player, whose highest achievement was playing for the last good team of Akademik (Sofia). Frankly, not the best recruits, yet, players superior to the squad at hand, for the rest were players mostly familiar with Third Division. The deficiencies were too many and obvious, there were no remedies and relegation was the expected outcome. Which promptly happened – and the stars departed right away (only Pavlov remained the next season).
Sitting from left: Stefan Metodiev, Vesselin Georgiev, Georgi Kutyanov, Ivan Traykov, Zhivko Aleksandrov, Antoni Ganev.
Middle row: Marko Rachev – masseur, Decho Pavlov, Ivan Kyuchukov – coach, Dobri Dobrev – chairman, Mavro Mavrov – assistant coach, Aleksandar Minovski, Ivan Iliev.
Top row: Georgi Katzarski, Anton Kolev, Nikolay Nikolov, Zlatko Zlatanov, Stayko Staykov, Trendafil Danev, Dinko Gospodiniv.
Akademik (Svishtov) was the other unfortunate, taking 15th place. It was exact replay of their first appearance in the top league back in the second half of the 1970s: not bad first season, then relegation in the second and the reasons for that were also the same – Akademik depended almost entirely on players from aside. The lure for them was getting higher education, for Akademik was closely associated with University in Svishtov. Some players with good reputations usually arrived for the second season in the top league, but they were not really attached to the club and were not very motivated. Once again Akademik looked stronger on paper in its second season, but in reality it was weaker team and went down.
Spartak (Pleven) barely survived – slightly better goal-difference saved them and they finished 14th. The problem was rebuilding – the strong team of few years back became too old and starting a new team was shaky. The process started a bit too late and was quite hasty: most of the new players were a bit suspect and good number of the squad was looking for other opportunities. And finally Plamen Getov, arguably the best Bulgarian player at that time, suffered injuries and was unable to contribute enough. Considering the circumstances, escaping relegation was actually a success.
At 13th position and with 21 points too was no other, but the champion of the previous season. This was a huge drop down, for the champions had the same squad which won the title the precious season and now barely and more or less on good luck escaped relegation. Then again… it was Beroe (Stara Zagora), which traditionally had such fluctuating performance – a great season followed by relegation or near relegation. Sitting from left: Milan Kashmerov (renamed because of his Turkish origin, and later renamed again to entirely proper Turkish name Myumyun Kashmer), Plamen Lipenski, Iliya Iliev, Stoyan Bonchev, Tanko Tanev, Vassil Dragolov, Stefan Dinev.
Middle row: Evgeni Yanchovski – coach, Kolyo Ganev, Dian Marinov, Ivko Ganchev, Venelin Sivriev, Petko Marokov, Valentin Grudev, Todor Gegov, Panayot Panayotov – assistant coach.
Top row: Kancho Kasherov, Nikolay Demirev, Christo Belchev, Christo Doychev – masseur, Stoyko Stoykov, Petko Tenev, Tenyo Minchev.
Well, Beroe was lucky not to lose key players between seasons (3 players – Dragolov, Kashmer, and Ganchev), but they needed to add one or two classier players and failed to do so. The squad was the same as before, some weak points remained and the core of worthy veterans only got older.
Chernomoretz (Bourgas) ended 12th with 24 points – they returned to usually low position in the league, gradually losing the talented generation of the early 1980s. Pirin (Blagoevgrad) was 11th , ahead of Chernomoretz on better goal-difference. There was a good possibility of forming strong team at last – if the club was able to keep his talented youngsters, Petar Mikhtarski first of all. It was unlikely, though – Pirin was routinely robbed by the big Sofia clubs. Spartak (Varna) was trying hard to keep somewhat decent squad, but it was difficult – they finished 10th with 25 points and lost their star midfielder Zhivko Gospodinov right after the end of the season (he went to Spartak Pleven). Sliven (Sliven) finished 9th with 27 points – they settled for mid-table solidity long time ago, depending on some help from CSKA.
Vratza (Botev Vratza) apparently overcome the crisis of rebuilding and was again solid mid-table team – 8th with 28 points. Sitting from left: Tzvetanov, Nikolov, Garev, Emilov, Ochev, Radoslavov, Sabotinov, Dimitrov.
Middle row: Iliya Panev – coach, Iliev, Konov, Apostolov, Strashimirov, Todorov, Voynov, Danov, Yanko Gelov – assistant coach.
Top row: Kostov – medic, Tzvetkov, D. Marinov, Petrov, Yu. Nikolov, Tzekov, Valov, Em. Marinov, Mironov – doctor.
As most provincial clubs, Vratza had no way to keep big talent: the goalkeeper Iliya Valov and left winger Iliya Voynov were already noticed and eventually joined CSKA. The eternal problem of smaller clubs… it was better not to have big talent, for it will be grabbed by the big clubs. But without talent… relegation was looming.
Etar (Veliko Tirnovo) – 7th with 30 points. Etar gradually improved, but was not yet a finished and polished team. Iliyan Kiriakov was already in the squad, but there was the mystery of Krassimir Balakov – did he play in 1986-87 at all, for he was not not in the squad for 1987-88. If he did not, why? Was he injured, or called to army service, or suspended for some offense? Anyhow, Etar still needed quality players at some positions – decent goalkeeper, for instance.
Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) – 6th with 30 points and ahead of Etar on better goal-difference. Sitting from left: Roumen Staykov, Fedya Mikov, Eduard Eranosyan, Anyo Sadkov (Ayan Sadakov), Georgi Andreev – chairman of the club, Christo Sotirov, Ivan Bedelev, Krassimir Kostov, Georgi Kalushev.
Middle row: Salatin Halidov – masseur, Christo Kolev, Georgi Tashev, Emil Iliev, Lyubomir Burnarski, Christo Bonev – coach, Stefan Draganov, Lyubomir Koradov, Bogomil Tilev, Petyo Vassilev, Vassil Ankov – assistant coach.
Top row: Dimitar Kalkanov, Ivan Georgiev, Racho Kilapov, Atanas Marinov, Georgi Dimitrov, Georgi Tenev, Lachezar Mitzin.
Looked like the lean years were over and Lokomotiv was on the road of reestablishing strong position in Bulgarian football. However, the good performance was perhaps mostly due to the coach – Christo Bonev already proved that he will be great coach, just like he was great player not long ago. But the team was unbalanced – its strength was based on attack: the midfielders Sadakov and Kolev, and strikers Eranosyan, Dimitrov and possibly Draganov. At the back there were gaps – Tenev was good goalkeeper, but still too young. Atanas Marinov was good central defender, but somewhat beyound his peak. There was much to be desired around those two, so Lokomotiv mostly depended on its strikers – to outscore the opposition, for their leaky defense permitted too many goals.
Slavia (Sofia) – 5th with 35 points. They also seemingly recovered from the crisis of few years back, but similarly to Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) it was not full recovery and there were gaps in the team. Sitting from left: Mikhail Iliev – doctor, Valery Grekov, Plamen Simeonov, Mladen Radkov, Ivan Khaydarliev – captain, Petar Aleksandrov, Georgi Iliev, Pavlin Dimitrov, Ivan Piskov, Iliyan Aldev (Ilyaz Aliev), Vassil Nenkov – masseur.
Middle row: Trendafil Terziyski – coach, Miroslav Mironov, Slavcho Niklenov, Plamen Tachev, Ivaylo Venkov, Yordan Kostov, Ivan Marinov, Kostadin Krastanov, Antonio Ananiev, Simeon Stoyanov, Tchavdar Tzvetkov – assistant coach.
The regular starting eleven were formed well enough, but the reserves were of significantly lesser quality – thus, the team was vulnerable. Good team, but nothing like the wonderful squad of the 1970s.
Lokomotiv (Sofia) – 4th with 35 points, ahead of Slavia on better goal-difference. Lokomotiv managed to avoid a crisis because changing generations. A good crop of talented players took the reigns already: Nikolov between the goalposts, Zhelev, Dotchev, Velkov in defense, Metkov and Bonchev in midfield, Stoev and Todorov in attack. And they were homegrown – except Nikolay Todorov, who came form Levski. The transition was achieved almost without tremors and now the future looked very bright.
Trakia (Botev Plovdiv) finished 3rd with 39 points. Somewhat they missed the boat already – the team was still too strong for the most of the league, but getting fatigued and no much to the reestablished CSKA and Levski: as good as it was, Trakia was not a title contender. It was greatly talented squad full of national team players and still quite young, but burnt out. The ‘Canary’ lore maintains the same story of victimization ever since: ‘we were the best, but the bastards from Sofia did not permit us to win.’ There is some truth to that, but a team which does not win year after year eventually loses steam and that was the case of Trakia – the players were around for many years already and reached their peaks as players and as a team may be two or three years back. In the previous season, when CSKA and Levski were at its lowest, Trakia still lost the title to Beroe. It easy to find excuses by now and live with them… once again, Trakia was robbed – Levski gave the title to Beroe. It was easy to live by myth… and with players gradually getting older, to replace domestic performance with dreams of good foreign transfers. Trakia depended for years on extremely talented juniors coming to the first team, but now the quality of the next crop was lower: for the first time perhaps in more than a decade there was no wonderful junior pushing away established starter no much older than the newcomer. Trakia was stuck with the same team at last, a stagnation usually leading to downfall.
Vitosha (Levski Sofia) was back in track, but not yet in full force. Back to running for the title, but somewhat shaky – they lost twice to arch-rivals CSKA, which was pretty much the decisive difference in the race for the title: Vitosha ended with 44 points, 3 points behind CSKA.
Sitting from left: Miroslav Baychev, Antoni Zdravkov, Roussi Gotchev – captain, Krassimir Koev, Stoil Georgiev, Sasho Nachev.
Middle row: Pavel Panov – coach, Nasko Sirakov, Nikolay Iliev, Vladko Shalamanov, Christo Ayandelev – vice-chairman of the club, Andrey Asparoukhov, Petar Petrov, Kiril Vangelov, Dimitar Markov.
Third row: Georgi Iliev – doctor, Vlado Delchev, Emil Velev, Georgi Yordanov, Bozhidar Iskrenov, Borislav Mikhailov, Sofroni Sofroniev – masseur
What was wrong, for the team was seemingly mighty? 8 national team players, the top scorer of the season with fantastic 36 goals in 30 games – Nasko Sirakov, perhaps the most exciting player of the time – Bozhidar Iskrenov, the best central defender of the country – Nikolay Iliev. Not only most of the players were homegrown, but the youth system continued to produce and supply the first team with talented players. The squad was young and in the same time very experienced, the relations between players were great – they were old friends since childhood really. There was little something missing – and that most likely was the coaching stuff: Pavel Panov, a legend of the club, was not bad, but he was not Vassil Metodiev… and like Trakia, the next crop of Levski’s juniors were somewhat of lesser quality and unable to really challenge the regulars. Finally, CSKA came with its own greatly talented young generation, which if anything was fresher and hungrier.
CFCA Sredetz or CFKA Sredetz, as the club name was freshly changed to (CSKA Sofia) was also back in track: 21 wins, 5 ties, 4 losses, 73-30 goal-difference, and 47 points gave then their 24th title. Top row from left: Stoil Trankov – assistant coach, Ivaylo Kotev, Lyubomir Zhelev, Stoil Srefanov, Lyubomir Lyubenov, Iliya Dyakov, Boyan Christov, Petar Zhekov – assistant coach.
Middle row: Kiril Kachamanov, Angel Chervenkov, Aleksandar Chavdarov, Ivaylo Kirov, Dimitar Penev – coach, Yordan Filipov, Roumen Stoyanov, Valery Damyanov, Sasho Borissov.
Sitting: Yordan Dimitrov, Lachezar Tanev, Krassimir Dossev, Aleksander Aleksandrov, Christo Stoichkov, Lyuboslav Penev, Kostadin Yanchev, Georgi Velinov, Krassimir Bezinski, Emil Kostadinov.
There is some confusion about this team… First of all, there is confusion with some players on the top row – different sources give the 4th from left as K. Ilyazov, Stoil Stefanov, Krassimir Chavdarov and Aleksander Chavdarov. Similarly, the player left from Zhekov is given as Boyan Christov and Aleksandar Rakov. In the middle row the one left from Sasho Borissov is given as Valery Damyanov and Valentin Damyanov. This uncertainty relates to the laments of Dimitar Penev ever since 1990 – he constantly complains from the great suffering of CSKA crashed by the Communist Party after the Cup final in 1985. No money, no team, he barely combined a squad of juniors – so massive is the ‘red’ minds the notion of uncontrolled power that even the slight temporary reduction of it was and is seen as conspiracy to destroy them. What can you do – the club was used to get whoever player they wanted with impunity… now, only briefly, they had to operate like ordinary club. Some players run away and it was difficult to grab new ones. On the other hand, thanks to this temporary reduced power Penev was able to introduce great bunch of players whose fate under normal circumstances could have been very different, for they were juniors of the club and CSKA juniors very rarely made the first team. It was practically the first time in its history CSKA depended on its own youth system – and thus Lyuboslav Penev, Emil Kostadinov, and the rest of the unfamiliar names in the picture started their careers. Hence, the uncertainty with the names above, for only Chavdarov lasted long enough. Already in 1986 CSKA was coming to its ‘normal’: again affiliation with the Army was official – the name was changed to CFCA Sredetz, again new players were coming from other clubs and even Penev, the great discoverer of young talent, was unwilling to be patient with those who did not shine right away: this champions squad immediately get rid of some of the ‘unknowns’, eventually letting go more, meantime recruiting again heavily from other clubs. As for losing a squad, Penev is misleading: deliberately or not he never mentions the fact that the old squad was rapidly sold abroad. A scandalous bit of that was put under the carpet in real time: the great central defender and captain of both CSKA and the national team Georgi Dimitrov was sold right after the 1986 World Cup to St. Etienne in violation of the rules: he was not 28 years old yet. True, it was a matter of few months, but it was still a violation – and everybody kept silent about it. Of course, it would have been too much to stir new scandal when the Communist Party just a year ago ‘cleansed’ Bulgarian football once and for ever from all kinds of negative and scandalous practices. But it was Party functionaries bending their own rules a bit to accommodate the flow of hard currency… as for clubs and players, they stayed quiet in the hope that the stupid age rule for foreign transfers will erode – once it was infringed, then there was a liver for further infringements until the rule collapses. Penev omits the foreign transfers, but CSKA players were the hottest property for such deals and most key players of the old team were approaching the required age. Their transfers were inevitable, the only question was who will replace them and for a moment it was to be homegrown juniors. But they were talented enough to win a title and practically the great stars Kostadinov, Penev, and to a point Stoichkov were actually born in that brief time when CSKA lost its power to get strong players from elsewhere. Yet, uncertainty played a role and may be scared Penev, so some precautions were taken – the reappearance of Yordan Filipov at his great age was perhaps such precaution: his prime years were back in the time when he played along with Penev, Zhekov, and Trankov (who was largely reserve player). To get him back made sense only if taking into account near future: Velinov was most certainly to be sold abroad and Dossev was not reliable enough. If CSKA was unable to grab players from other clubs, very likely they were going to have trouble with goalkeeping – Filipov was seemingly a temporary solution to such problem (and he stayed with CSKA until 1989, when he finally retired). Lastly, too much was made of CSKA introducing its own juniors and getting the better for it: Velinov, Bezinski, Yanchev, Tanev, Borissov, Kirov, Dyakov, and Stoichkov were not home grown product – that is, the core of the team, the key players. It was just that the champion squad was somewhat short – strong group of perhaps 14 players, which was bewildering a true ‘red’ and very likely Penev himself.