Bulgaria. This season was one of the most extraordinary championships. All goes back to the severe punishment the ruling Communist Party slapped after the violent cup final in the 1985 spring. As all Communist orders, it was unreasonable and almost at the moment it was published schemes started to undermind it. On the surface, the punishment was related only to the biggest clubs, CSKA and Levski. They were expelled from the 1984-85 championship, their records stricken, and disbanded. On the surface, such clubs no longer existed. But they were not just football clubs, so… both clubs continued to be, belonging like before to the Army and the Police. The football sections were really disbanded, but out of the blue new clubs were formed in their place – the football section of CSKA was named Sredetz and Levski’s – Vitosha. Brand new clubs… playing with the same colours and using the same players and stadiums the ‘disbanded’ clubs had. And they were included in the First Division for the 1985-86 season – incredible decision, for expelled teams normally go down. Ties with Army and Police were severed and prohibited, but were they really? Well, both clubs quickly restored their previous ties, but not in 1985-86 season or at least not openly. As it used to be for years, if CSKA had to receive some punishment, it was enlarged to affect other clubs as well – this time the punishment of CSKA and Levski was eventually formulated in general terms: clubs were forbiden from using names of histroic figures – this really was a second blow on Levski, for CSKA had no such name, but it dragged along many other clubs, they were all renamed, and for that reason new and old names in brackets will be given here. By the summer of 1986 nobody really believed there was more to the big ‘reform’ than renaming – suspended players one after another were coming back, ecven those banished for life. So suspended coaches. Those, making the yearly statistical almanach decided to adress the situation with unceratinty, hinting of only temporary limbo: players’ records for both Sredetz (CSKA) and Vitosha (Levski) were doubled – a separate registering records for the ‘new’ clubs and second section, giving complete records for CSKA and Levski. Yet, there confusion was great and lasted the whole season, first affecting the transfer period in the summer of 1985. Now football sections were ruled to be somewhat independent entities, not attached to the original multisport clubs. This brought the question of financing and really shook CSKA – they fell victims of their own mythology, which trumpeted for decades that the best players were CSKA-istas at heart, loved to play for the club, had fantastic loyalty to it, and every talented youngster dreamed to play for CSKA. Stripped from power and perks, CSKA suddenly faced reality: some players immediately chose to go elsewhere and provincial talent did not want to join the club. No wonder in the history of CSKA and in the memories of those involved with the change this is the most painful event – Dimitar Penev, for insyance, laments ever since the terrible situation to be hired to coach a team withous players, forcing him to include juniors.
That is a version of Sredetz 1985-86, which is not ‘right’ – in the middle with green jersey is the goalkeeper Thomas Lafchis, back from Greece. Well, he never played for Sredetz even one official match and a picture only few months later shows a team not only without him, but without the second goallie, Dossev, the last on the right. The veteran Yordan Filipov was back-up goalkeeper instead. Apparently, Sredetz had little to offer – Vitosha suffered the same, but to lesser degree: it had more suspended players, so it was weakened too, but most of the others chose to stay with the ‘new’ club.
Outside Sofia feelings were mixed – on one hand, names were changed ‘thanks’ to the punishment of CSKA and Levski, which was not liked. On the other hand, it was great, because the iron grip of Army and Police was disliked – now, the yoke was over and the provincials for the first time felt they were on equal footing with the big two. It proved to be only illusion of freedom and equality, but at least in the 1985-86 the big two were sufficiently shaken and lost their grip. Provincial clubs, at least at first, did not suffer all that much from the separation of the football sections from the local multisport clubs: it was easier to channel money into those ‘new’ clubs, which was not the case in Sofia – everbody was watching at the moment and no powerful Party boss was going to risk his career with financial and other support of Sredetz or Vitosha. In terms of football, the provincial clubs took advantage of the situation and it was their championship – their only one, for everthing rapidly went back to the familair after that.
Yet, grieve was quite present – 2 teams from Second Division were also punished right after the big scandal of 1985: Shumen (Shumen) and Pirin (Gotze Delchev) were expelled for violation of the ‘rules of financing, spiritual and moral stimulation’. Under such formulation it is difficult to tell what exactly they did – probably a combination of paying their players under the table, bribing or trying to bribe other teams and match fixing. All that crimes were rampant for years, so why now and why only those two clubs? Well… more or less, they were dragged dwon along with CSKA and Levski, but there was a difference: the powerful clubs were expelled, records stricken, disbanded, and still included in the First Division. Small provincial Shumen and Pirin were relegated to Third Division, which reduced Second Division from 22 to 20 teams.
There was more, but slightly different: because the Communist government already renamed all those with Turkish names, some players have to be written with two versions now if wanting to keep track of them. Since 1985-86 was unusual, one player is of real importance, for he had a great season as a member of the new champion. Meantime, this new champion is considered practically illegal by at least one football faction: Botev (Plovdiv), then Trakia, never really accepted this champion, maintaining always that one match at least was fixed. According to Botev’s version, they were the rightful champions, but Vitosha deliberately lost their match in Stara Zagora to give the title to Beroe. Well, there was never love lost between Levski (Vitosha) and Botev (Trakia) on one hand and on the other Trakia destroyed Beroe 8-1, which is hardly a result champions should get. The Botevistas never accepted the awarded out of the blue title for 1984-85 season – they really finished 3rd – but took pride from their duel with Bayern in the European Champions Cup and really aimed at the title in 1985-86. At the end, they were 2nd and felt robbed. Were they robbed? Nobody can ever tell for sure.
Some new rules were introduced: scoreless ties brought no points in First and Second divisions. Meantime, Third Division had it differently: 3 points for win, 1 for a tie was introduced in the usual hope that reforms could better the level of the game. Third Division was pain in the ass for years and restructured often as a result. Now it was made of 4 groups of 16 teams. But since Shumen and Pirin were expelled from Second Division after the end of 1984-85 season, the groups they were now included in had 17 teams. But unlike previous years not all winners were promoted – only 2 teams were promoted to Second Division, so the group winners went to promotion play-offs. All tremors brought by experiments and punishments somewhat sifted in the Third Division – some strange teams played in South-Western Third Division: Minyor (Sofia), for example. Who were they, how they came into existence, and why played in Third Division? A short-lived mystery, for soon they vanished.
Third Division clearly belonged to former Second and First division members. Bdin (Vidin) won the North-Western group, trailed by former First-division member Yantra (Gabrovo). Madara (Shumen) – the freshly expelled from Second Division Shumen (Shumen) was renamed to Madara – won the North-Eastern group, far ahead of the nearest rival Sportist (General Toshevo). Rila (Stanke Dimitrov) clinched top place in South-Western group, prevailing over Velbazhd (Kyustendil) by a point. Rila… well, it was Marek before. And Marek was the conspiratorial name of the Communist ‘hero’ Stanke Dimitrov, after whom both town and club were named. But the team finished the 1984-85 season under the name Dupnitza – which probably was seen as some anti-Communist attempt to ignore the Communist hero Stanke Dimitrov by using the original name of the town and the club became Rila. Today both town and club have their original names restored, so it is Marek (Dupnitza). Tundzha (Yambol) won the South-Eastern group, after a long battle with Assenovetz (Assenovgrad). How far the rule against using names of historic persons went? The city of Assenovgrad was renamed from its original name long time ago, taking the name of medievil king Assen. The club was named after the city… somewhat, for it means ‘Assenovite’, reffereing to both city and king. Marek was renamed, although the name was nickname, not real name. Yet, many clubs playing in the 4th and 5th divisions named after historic figures preserved their names – but nobody was looking deep down. Why Shumen was renamed is perhaps more complicated: in 1984-85 the club used the name of the home city. It was changed to the medievil name of nearby casttle, from which the city emerged. That is, the club did not have a name of historic person and very likely the original club was ‘disbanded’ after it was expelled for financial violations and ‘reformed’ under new name. A thin disgaise to show authorities that ‘lesson was learned, and they will never do anything wrong again.
But back to the game. The four winners went to the promtional play-offs and Rila (Marek) won over Tundzha (Yambol) 3-1 and 1-2. Bdin prevailed over Madara 2-0 and 1-2.
Rila (Stanke Dimitrov) and Bdin (Vidin) were promoted to Second Division for 1986-87 season. For both clubs it was a return to familiar level after brief exile. Rila still had a few players remaining from the great squad Marek had at its glorious days in the second half of the 1970s, players who played againt Bayern in the European tournaments and also for the Bulgarian national team.
Bdin (Vidin) was perhaps even happier than Rila (Marek) to go back to Second Division – they were one of the longest-lasting members of it and going down to third level was absolutely abnormal. Well, they were back.
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