2011–12 A Group


The 2011–12 A Group was the 88th season of the Bulgarian national top football division, and the 64th of A Group as the top tier football league in the country. The season began on 6 August 2011 and ended on 23 May 2012. Ludogorets Razgrad claimed their maiden title in their debut season, after winning the last round clash against CSKA, which were leading by 2 points prior to the match. Vidima-Rakovski, Kaliakra and Svetkavitsa were relegated, after finishing at the bottom three places.

Team information

and Sliven were directly relegated after finishing in the bottom two places of the table at the end of season 2010/11. Akademik were relegated after one year in the top league of Bulgarian football, while Sliven ended a three-year tenure at the top flight. Furthermore, Pirin were excluded from A Group due to financial difficulties and demoted to V Group.
The relegated teams were replaced by Botev, champions of West B Group, Ludogorets Razgrad, champions of East B Group and promotion play-off winners Svetkavitsa. Botev returned to A Group after twenty-two years, while Ludogorets Razgrad and Svetkavitsa made their debut on the highest level of Bulgarian football.
There was some controversy regarding the relegation/promotion play-offs at the end of season 2010/11. In the original match-up, 14th-placed Vidima-Rakovski lost 3-0 against B Group play-off winners Chernomorets. However, Chernomorets did not receive an A Group licence, so Vidima-Rakovski were spared from relegation. In order to fill the void, a second play-off match was scheduled between Svetkavitsa, 4th-placed team of East B Group, and Etar, 3rd-placed team of West B Group. Svetkavitsa won this match by a score of 3-1.

Stadia and locations

As in the previous year, the league comprises the best thirteen teams of season 2010/11, the champions of the two B Groups and the winners of the promotion play-offs.
TeamLocationStadiumCapacity
BeroeStara ZagoraBeroe17,800
BotevVratsaHristo Botev32,000
Cherno MoreVarnaTicha8,250
ChernomoretsBurgasLazur18,037
CSKASofiaBalgarska Armiya22,015
KaliakraKavarnaKavarna5,000
LevskiSofiaGeorgi Asparuhov29,200
LitexLovechLovech7,050
LokomotivPlovdivLokomotiv13,800
LokomotivSofiaLokomotiv Sofia122,000
LudogoretsRazgradLudogorets Arena6,000
MinyorPernikMinyor8,000
MontanaMontanaOgosta8,000
SlaviaSofiaOvcha Kupel18,000
SvetkavitsaTargovishteDimitar Burkov8,000
Vidima-RakovskiSevlievoRakovski8,816

;Notes
  1. Lokomotiv Sofia play their home matches at Vasil Levski National Stadium as their own ground, Lokomotiv Stadium, had not received approval from the BFU license committee.

    Personnel and sponsoring

Managerial changes

TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyPosition in tableReplaced byDate of appointment
Levski Sofia Yasen PetrovEnd of contract27 May 2011Pre-season Georgi Ivanov27 May 2011
Slavia Sofia Emil VelevSacked28 May 2011Pre-season Martin Kushev28 May 2011
Kaliakra Kavarna Antoni ZdravkovEnd of contract28 May 2011Pre-season Adalbert Zafirov28 May 2011
Chernomorets Burgas Georgi VasilevSacked30 May 2011Pre-season Dimitar Dimitrov30 May 2011
Montana Atanas DzhambazkiEnd of contract2 June 2011Pre-season Stefan Grozdanov11 June 2011
Lokomotiv Plovdiv Saša NikolićSacked14 June 2011Pre-season Dragan Kanatlarovski17 June 2011
Vidima-Rakovski Dimitar TodorovSacked16 June 2011Pre-season Kostadin Angelov17 June 2011
Lokomotiv Sofia Dian PetkovSacked3 October 201110th Anton Velkov3 October 2011
Kaliakra Kavarna Adalbert ZafirovSacked19 October 201115th Radostin Trifonov19 October 2011
Svetkavitsa Targovishte Plamen DonevResigned19 October 201116th Nikola Spasov23 October 2011
Litex Lovech Lyuboslav PenevResigned24 October 20115th Atanas Dzhambazki24 October 2011
CSKA Sofia Milen RadukanovSacked25 October 20112nd Dimitar Penev25 October 2011
Levski Sofia Georgi IvanovResigned4 November 20115th Nikolay Kostov7 November 2011
Lokomotiv Plovdiv Dragan KanatlarovskiSacked7 November 20116th Emil Velev8 November 2011
Levski Sofia Nikolay KostovResigned26 March 20124th Georgi Ivanov March 2012

Note: Georgi Ivanov subsequently stepped down and was replaced by Yasen Petrov as caretaker manager at the helm of Levski, with Ilian Iliev set to take over prior to the 2012/2013 season.

League table

Results

Champions

;Ludogorets Razgrad

Top goalscorers

Below is a list of the top goalscorers at the end of the competition.
RankScorerClubGoals
1 Júnior MoraesCSKA Sofia16
1 Ivan StoyanovLudogorets Razgrad16
3 Emil GargorovLudogorets Razgrad13
3 Ianis ZicuCSKA Sofia13
5 JuninhoSlavia Sofia / Levski Sofia12
6 Svetoslav TodorovLitex Lovech11
6 Ivan TsvetkovLevski Sofia11
6 Gerasim ZakovKaliakra Kavarna11
9 Lourival AssisChernomorets Burgas10
9 Aatif ChahechouheChernomorets Burgas10
9 Georgi IlievCherno More Varna10
9 Marcelo NicácioLitex Lovech10

Scoring