2003–04 A Group

A Group
Season 2003-04
Champions Lokomotiv Plovdiv
(1st title)
Relegated Botev Plovdiv
Makedonska slava
Chernomorets Burgas
Champions League Lokomotiv Plovdiv
UEFA Cup CSKA
Levski Sofia
Litex
Intertoto Cup Marek Dupnitsa
Matches played 240
Goals scored 686 (2.86 per match)
Top goalscorer Martin Kamburov
(25 goals)
Biggest home win Lokomotiv Plovdiv 8–1 Cherno More Varna
Biggest away win Rodopa Smolyan 1–5 Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Belasitsa Petrich 0–4 CSKA
Makedonska slava 0–4 Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Highest scoring Lokomotiv Plovdiv 8–1 Cherno More Varna (9 goals)

The 2003–04 A Group is the 56th season of the top Bulgarian national football league (commonly referred to as A Group) and the 80th edition of a Bulgarian national championship tournament.

This is the first season since the revision of the league rules after an unsuccessful attempt for a creation of a so-called Premier Professional Football League.

Overview

In the doorstep of the new millennium the Bulgarian Football Union decided to reform the football league system creating the Premier Professional Football League. The new top tier of Bulgarian football required all of its participants to be licensed as professional football clubs. The reforms also saw the number of teams reduced and introduced relegation play-offs during the years of its existence. The Bulgarian Premier League, however, was unsuccessful so from season 2003–04 the top Bulgarian league was re-established as the Bulgarian A Professional Football Group, returning to the traditions of A Republican Football Group and increasing the number of teams participating back to 16. Still, A Group retained the requirement of a professional status of all participants.

In the 2003–04 season Lokomotiv Plovdiv became champions for the first time in their history.[1]

Teams

A total of 16 clubs contested the league, including 12 from the previous season in the tier, and 4 promoted from the second flight.

As before the start of the season, the top flight of Bulgarian football was once again restructured and the number of participants in the league was increased back to the traditional 16 teams from 14 the previous season, there were no promotion play-offs for the right to participate in A Group that season. Instead after the end of season 2002–03 the last two teams in the top level - Dobrudzha Dobrich placed 13th, and Rilski Sportist Samokov placed 14th - were directly relegated to B Group, while the winners and the runners-up from the two divisions of B Group in season 2002–03 - Vidima-Rakovski and Rodopa Smolyan from the East division, and Belasitsa and Makedonska slava from the West division - were directly promoted to the top level of Bulgarian football.

Stadia and Locations

Their home grounds are located as follows.

Team City Stadium Stadium capacity
Belasitsa Petrich Tsar Samuil Stadium 9,500
Botev Plovdiv Hristo Botev Stadium 22,000
Cherno More Varna Ticha 12,000
Chernomorets Burgas Burgas Lazur 18,037
CSKA Sofia Balgarska Armia 22,015
Levski Sofia Georgi Asparuhov 29,986
Litex Lovech Lovech 7,050
Lokomotiv Plovdiv Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) 13,800
Lokomotiv Sofia Lokomotiv (Sofia) 22,000
Makedonska slava Blagoevgrad Hristo Botev 11,000
Marek Dupnitsa Bonchuk Stadium 16,050
Naftex Burgas Lazur 18,037
Rodopa Smolyan Smolyan Septemvri 6,100
Slavia Sofia Ovcha Kupel 18,000
Spartak Varna Spartak Stadium 7,500
Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo Rakovski 8,816

League Table

Pos
Team
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
Qualification or relegation
Head-to-head
1 Lokomotiv Plovdiv (C) 30 24 3 3 74 24+50 75 2004–05 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round
2 Levski Sofia 30 22 6 2 59 16+43 72 2004–05 UEFA Cup Second qualifying round
3 CSKA Sofia 30 20 5 5 65 28+37 65
4 Litex Lovech 30 18 10 2 43 20+23 64
5 Slavia Sofia 30 18 3 9 57 30+27 57
6 Cherno More Varna 30 10 8 12 45 538 38 CHM 3–0 MAR
MAR 4–2 CHM
7 Marek Dupnitsa 30 12 2 16 33 5017 38 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup Second round
8 Naftex Burgas 30 9 8 13 49 38+11 35
9 Lokomotiv Sofia 30 8 9 13 37 4811 33 LSO 1–0 RSM
RSM 2–1 LSO
10 Rodopa Smolyan 30 10 3 17 28 4719 33
11 Belasitsa Petrich 30 8 7 15 34 5218 31
12 Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo 30 6 12 12 32 4816 30 VRA 1–1 SPV
SPV 1–2 VRA
13 Spartak Varna 30 8 6 16 35 4611 30
14 Botev Plovdiv (R) 30 7 6 17 33 6027 27 Relegation to B PFG
15 Makedonska slava (R) 30 8 2 20 32 5826 26
16 Chernomorets Burgas (R) 30 4 6 20 30 6838 18

Updated to games played on 23 March 2014.
Source: A PFG (Bulgarian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th head-to-head away goals scored; 6th season goal difference; 7th season goals scored; 8th "sportsmanship" (R & Y cards); 9th draw
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results

Home ╲ Away BEL BOT CHMCHBCSKLEVLITLPLLSOMKSMARNAFRSMSLASPVVRA
Belasitsa Petrich 30 31 10 04 01 11 12 20 22 21 03 30 22 30 22
Botev Plovdiv 10 34 11 31 12 11 00 01 21 02 03 10 21 00 11
Cherno More Varna 00 31 22 30 00 12 12 22 20 30 22 10 03 11 41
Chernomorets Burgas 20 25 03 13 12 03 01 33 31 01 02 21 25 00 30
CSKA Sofia 51 41 20 30 12 11 11 30 41 40 21 10 21 20 31
Levski Sofia 42 31 00 30 11 11 30 30 60 30 30 30 10 20 20
Litex Lovech 10 00 20 30 00 10 21 31 00 20 11 10 10 21 22
Lokomotiv Plovdiv 20 32 81 60 31 31 31 31 10 41 20 20 32 10 20
Lokomotiv Sofia 52 01 32 11 01 11 01 00 10 11 31 10 22 30 11
Makedonska slava 13 43 34 32 02 12 12 04 10 40 21 10 30 10 00
Marek Dupnitsa 00 10 42 10 03 01 12 03 21 30 30 20 12 12 10
Naftex Burgas 31 60 11 11 33 01 11 12 12 30 50 50 01 41 00
Rodopa Smolyan 20 21 20 30 13 21 12 15 21 10 10 10 13 11 11
Slavia Sofia 30 50 20 31 24 12 21 20 20 10 20 20 12 40 20
Spartak Varna 40 42 12 42 00 02 01 13 40 20 24 20 31 01 12
Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo 00 20 30 31 01 03 02 14 33 32 13 11 32 00 11

Updated to games played on 24 March 2014.
Source: A PFG
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Champions

Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Goalkeepers
1Bulgaria Vasil Kamburov 16 (0)
12Bulgaria Rumen Popov 0 (0)
32Bulgaria Krasimir Petkov 14 (0)
Defenders
2Bulgaria Vladimir Ivanov 28 (1)
3Bulgaria Aleksandar Tunchev 25 (1)
5Bulgaria Georgi Petrov 2 (0)
6Bulgaria Kiril Kotev 30 (3)
20Bulgaria Ivan Paskov 20 (3)
22Bulgaria Trayan Dyankov 1 (0)
24Republic of Macedonia Robert Petrov 29 (1)
Midfielders
4Bulgaria Nedyalko Hubenov 6 (0)
7Republic of Macedonia Žarko Serafimovski* 4 (0)
10Bulgaria Svetoslav Barkanichkov 10 (2)
14Bulgaria Velko Hristev 5 (0)
16Bulgaria Ivo Mihaylov 19 (2)
17Republic of Macedonia Vančo Trajanov 16 (0)
19Bulgaria Krasimir Dimitrov 22 (1)
21Bulgaria Georgi Iliev 27 (1)
25Serbia Ivan Krizmanić 10 (0)
Bulgaria Nesim Özgür* 6 (1)
Bulgaria Atanas Georgiev* 2 (0)
Forwards
9Republic of Macedonia Boban Jančevski 21 (11)
11Bulgaria Martin Kamburov 29 (25)
13Bulgaria Metodi Stoynev 20 (3)
15Serbia Neško Milovanović 10 (4)
18Bulgaria Yavor Vandev 3 (0)
23Nigeria Ekundayo Jayeoba 27 (9)
Serbia Darko Spalević* 10 (4)
Manager
Bulgaria Eduard Eranosyan

Top goalscorers

25 goals
17 goals

References

External links

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