The 1977-78 First Division season was quite interesting, yet not classy. Some clubs were declining, but few were improving. In the fall four clubs were clearly in trouble – Marek, Botev (Vratza), Akademik (Sofia), and Akademik (Svishtov). Botev was declining for some time, so their lowly place was not a surprise. Akademik (Sofia) also showed signs of decline the previous season and now it looked like the trouble was real – they finished 15th in the fall, two points behind Marek and Botev. Marek, the big surprise in the previous season, when they finished 3rd, was expected to be quite low this year – as good as the team was, the strong performance was also due to the surprise factor – nobody took Marek seriously, but hat was the previous year. Now it was the opposite – all clubs played their best against Marek. The drop was expected also because of the peculiar squad of Marek -they depended on 12-13 players, so injuries and even slightly bad form of any starter was a big liability. On top of everything Marek played in the UEFA Cup and bunch of players were invited to various national teams – it was just too much for so short a squad. Marek played pretty much as before, but the points were not coming… Akademik (Svishtov) barely survived in the previous season and before the new season started they seriously reinforced their pleasant, but limited squad. Akademik recruited serious names and looked like they were going to have confident year, climbing up. Instead, they dropped down. After half season it was sure thing that two of the above clubs would be relegated. The spring was different… Akademik (Sofia) suddenly went up, Marek and Botev fought for survival, Akademik (Svishtov) made some effort to escape, and suddenly ZhSK Spartak (Varna), comfortly in mid-table after the first half of the season (7th place with 15 points) plummeted down to the very bottom. They finished 15th after earning only 10 points in the spring.
ZhSK Spartak (Varna) – from confidence to disgrace in half a year. It was hard to figure out why – ZhSK Spartak were no strangers to the bottom of the table, but this year the they did not look so bad. True, their best defender Dimitar Enchev went to Levski-Spartak, but ZhSK Spartak was compencated with three players for him. Dimitar Doychinov was coaching them – a former coach of Levski-Spartak and one of the best in the business at that time. The squad was based on seasoned players like Kiryakov, Fazhev, Nedev, Takhmisyan (formerly of Cherno More and CSKA), Plamen Khristov (formerly of CSKA and Cherno More), and Krassimir Zafirov was one of the best goalkeepers of the country and often included in the national team. A promising centre-forward was getting known – Ivan Petrov – soon to be included in national team formations. Plamen Getov, one of the biggest Bulgarian stars of the 1980s, was in the squad. And the three former Levski-Spartak players seemed like solid addition – the young defender Valentin Chaushev and the slightly older midfielder Georgy Dobrev were unable to impress their former club, but were good help for a weaker team. Georgy Tzvetkov was released from Levski-Spartak for getting too old – he was 30 and already well behind his peak. But the former national team centre-forward was experienced and still able to score – perfect for a modest team . ZhSK Spartak actually looked better than a few years ago and in the fall performance matched expectations. In the spring they collapsed and ended relegated. May be too many players were over the hill and did not really care, but those were not great years for Varna’s football – Cherno More was relegated and just came back to first division, now ZhSK Spartak, playing hide and seek with relegation anyway, went down.
Akademik (Svishtov) still finished last, although they played better in the spring – or at least won more points than their poor 11 earned in the fall. But it was not enough… 24 points total left them bellow ZhSK Spartak – both teams were to keep company in the Northern B Group the next year. Dubious comfort, that. Akademik debuted in the First Division with rather anonymous squad and managed to survive in 1976-77 – the team was enthusiastic and their stopper Petar Stankov was even included in the national team. Yet, the club decided they need re-enforcement – it was done on surprisingly large scale for a modest club. The lure was most likely easy education promised – the club belonged to the University of Economics in Svishtov. The new recruits were more than impressive: the CSKA junior defender Tzvetan Bichovsky, the experienced Georgy Pavlov and Sasho Momchilov, the bright Junior national team goalkkeper Stanimir Parchanov from Spartak (Plaven) – not bad, but there was much more. Two strikers from Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) – Nikolay Kurbanov and Georgy Fidanov, both regulars in their former club and Kurbanov a national team player not long ago; the former national team stopper Vesselin Evgeniev from Minyor (Pernik), and one of the all-time top scorers of Bulgarian football and national player Petko Petkov from Beroe (Stara Zagora). Only Petkov and Pavlov were over 30 years old, but most of the newcomers had plenty of experience. Suddenly Akademik looked like a force… the scoring power of Petkov alone was something to reckon with.
This squad had enough power for at least comfortable mid-table position – instead they were relegated.
The illusion of names… strong on paper, nothing on the grass. It was a lesson of bad decisions: strong individual names do not equal strong team. Perhaps tensions grew from the moment the stars arrived – the players who carried Akademik to first division and managed to survive there were suddenly relegated to the bench. The newcomers had no attachment to the club and very likely were not evn interested in playing. The team was badly stitched together. Ill-fated transfers and not a team-building at all – as soon as the season ended the stars left. What a mistake… with their old squad Akademik actually had better chances, but it needed to finish last to realize that.