Eternal derby of Bulgarian football


The Eternal derby of Bulgarian football or simply The Eternal derby is the name of the local derby football match between the two most popular and successful football clubs in Sofia and Bulgaria: Levski Sofia and CSKA Sofia. The dominant teams in Bulgarian football have won 26 and 31 national championship titles and 25 and 20 Bulgarian Cup titles, involved into 13 and 11 Doubles, respectively. The rivalry was chosen by COPA90 as the 2nd Maddest Derby In Eastern Europe.

History

The rivalry started in the late 1940s when the newly founded club of CSKA became a champion in their first year in competitive football in 1948. Both the 1948–49 and 1950 seasons ended with the two teams facing each other in Soviet Army Cup finals with Levski Sofia winning on both occasions after extra time of the second final replay, as the previous two final matches had finished as draws.
During the years, as the two teams became more and more successful, they gained large supporter bases. The confrontations between the clubs and their fans became commonplace and often resulted in tense encounters on the pitch and hooligan clashes between the fans off the pitch.
The hostility reached its climax on 19 June 1985 during the Bulgarian Cup final held at Vasil Levski National Stadium when, after many disputable referee decisions, both teams demonstrated poor sportsmanship which resulted in regular fights between them on the pitch. On 21 June, the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party issued a decree that disbanded both teams. CSKA Septemvriysko zname had to be re-founded as Sredets and Levski-Spartak as Vitosha. Six players were banned for life from playing competitive football; many other players and staff members were banned for three months to one year. A year later, the decision was abolished and the players continued their sport careers.
Although both CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia are still regarded as the two most popular and supported teams in the 2010s, neither of the two sides have been crowned champion after the 2008-09 season. This has been partly, because of the rise of other teams in the country, such as Litex Lovech, and Ludogorets Razgrad. Litex won two consecutive titles between 2009 and 2011, while Ludogorets is currently on a streak of nine consecutive titles since 2012. This is also partly for financial reasons, which wasn’t the case during the communist period in Bulgaria prior to 1989, when sports teams were backed by the country itself. Despite this, the CSKA-Levski games are still the most attended in the league.

Venues

During the years, all the matches between Levski and CSKA were held at a neutral venue, in most cases at the Vasil Levski National Stadium. During the 2000s the clubs started to play their eternal derby matches at their own stadiums Georgi Asparuhov Stadium and Balgarska Armiya Stadium but soon they decided to move the matches between them back to the National Stadium because of its higher capacity and the damages done on club stadiums by the visiting supporters.
Only once in the history of the Eternal derby it was held outside Sofia – in 1991, Levski won the Bulgarian Cup quarter-final 2–0 in a match that was played at Tundzha Stadium in Yambol.

Summary of results

Note: All matches that have finished with a win after extra time are represented as a win for the respective club. All matches that have finished with a penalty shoot-out are represented as draws with the final score after 120 minutes.

Matches list

A PFG (1948–49 – present)

Bulgarian Cup and other


SeasonDateMatchStadiumAttendanceCompetition
19485 May 1948Levski 1−0 CSKAYunak Stadium12,000Sofia First Division
19485 September 1948Levski 2–1 CSKAYunak Stadium30,000Bulgarian Republic Championship Final – 1st leg
19489 September 1948CSKA 3–1 LevskiYunak Stadium30,000Bulgarian Republic Championship Final – 2nd leg
19498 May 1949CSKA 1–1 LevskiYunak Stadium35,000Bulgarian Cup Final
194916 May 1949Levski 2–2 CSKAYunak Stadium35,000Bulgarian Cup Final – 1st replay
194917 May 1949Levski 2–1 CSKAYunak Stadium35,000Bulgarian Cup Final – 2nd replay
19498 December 1949Levski 2–0 CSKAYunak Stadium15,000Sofia Qualification for Bulgarian Cup
195026 November 1950Levski 1–1 CSKABalgarska Armiya Stadium30,000Bulgarian Cup Final
195027 November 1950CSKA 1–1 LevskiBalgarska Armiya Stadium30,000Bulgarian Cup Final – 1st replay
19503 December 1950Levski 1−0 CSKABalgarska Armiya Stadium30,000Bulgarian Cup Final – 2nd replay
195024 December 1950Levski 1–0 CSKAYunak Stadium20,000Joseph Stalin Birthday Cup - Final
19513 November 1951CSKA 3–0 LevskiBalgarska Armiya Stadium25,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal
195723 October 1957Levski 2−0 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium50,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal
1964–658 September 1965CSKA 3–2 LevskiSlavia Stadium30,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1968–6930 April 1969CSKA 2–1 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium40,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1969–7025 August 1970Levski 2–1 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium46,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1970–7114 April 1971Levski 2–2 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium50,000Bulgarian Cup Quarterfinal
1973–7410 August 1974CSKA 2−1 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium40,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1975–762 June 1976Levski 4−3 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium65,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1978–794 April 1979Levski 2–1 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium60,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal
1980–8110 June 1981Levski 0–1 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium25,000Bulgarian Cup Final Group
1980–8129 July 1981Levski 2–0 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium35,000Cup 1300 Years Bulgaria Semifinal
1981–8216 June 1982Levski 4–0 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium45,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1982–832 March 1983Levski 1–1 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium40,000Soviet Army Cup Quarterfinal
1983–8414 March 1984CSKA 0–1 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium28,000Soviet Army Cup Semifinal
1983–8431 March 1984CSKA 1–3 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium25,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal
1984–8519 June 1985CSKA 2–1 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium35,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1985–8627 April 1986CSKA 1–2 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium28,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1986–8713 May 1987CSKA 2–1 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium40,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1987–8813 February 1988CSKA 0–3 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium25,000Soviet Army Cup Round of 16
1987–8811 May 1988Levski 1–4 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium40,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1990–9113 February 1991CSKA 0–2 LevskiTundzha Stadium - Yambol20,000Bulgarian Cup Group stage
1995–9621 February 1996Levski 2–0 CSKAGeorgi Asparuhov Stadium40,000Bulgarian League Cup Quarterfinal
1995–963 April 1996Levski 1–0 CSKAGeorgi Asparuhov Stadium25,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal - 1st leg
1995–9617 April 1996CSKA 2–4 LevskiBalgarska Armiya Stadium25,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal - 2nd leg
1996–979 November 1996CSKA 3–0 Awarded LevskiBulgarian League Cup Quarterfinal group
1996–9711 December 1996Levski 0–3 Awarded CSKABulgarian League Cup Quarterfinal group
1996–9728 May 1997CSKA 3–1 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium18,500Bulgarian Cup Final
1997–9813 May 1998CSKA 0–5 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium50,000Bulgarian Cup Final
1999–200022 March 2000CSKA 0–1 LevskiBalgarska Armiya Stadium17,000Bulgarian Cup Quarterfinal - 1st leg
1999–20005 April 2000Levski 3–1 CSKAGeorgi Asparuhov Stadium27,000Bulgarian Cup Quarterfinal - 2nd leg
2001–0215 May 2002CSKA 1–3 LevskiSlavia Stadium15,000Bulgarian Cup Final
2002–0316 April 2003CSKA 0–1 LevskiBalgarska Armiya Stadium15,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal - 1st leg
2002–033 May 2003Levski 0–0 CSKAGeorgi Asparuhov Stadium17,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal - 2nd leg
2004–0525 May 2005Levski 2–1 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium10,848Bulgarian Cup Final
2005–0631 July 2005CSKA 1–1 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium9,354Bulgarian Supercup
2006–0730 July 2006Levski 0–0 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium9,751Bulgarian Supercup
2013–1416 November 2013CSKA 0–0 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium11,670Bulgarian Cup Round of 16 - 1st leg
2013–1419 December 2013Levski 0–0 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium8,540Bulgarian Cup Round of 16 - 2nd leg
2017–1811 April 2018CSKA 0–2 LevskiVasil Levski National Stadium20,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal - 1st leg
2017–1825 April 2018Levski 2–2 CSKAVasil Levski National Stadium24,000Bulgarian Cup Semifinal - 2nd leg

Trophies

Head-to-head ranking in First League (1948–2020)

• Total: CSKA with 42 higher finishes, Levski with 30 higher finishes.

Statistics

Biggest wins

Levski wins

7:1 - 23 September 1994

7:2 - 17 November 1968

5:0 - 13 May 1998

4:0 - 16 June 1982

CSKA wins

5:0 - 23 September 1953

5:0 - 1 October 1989

4:0 - 14 April 1957

Most derby appearances

35 - Manol Manolov

32 - Stefan Bozhkov

31 - Emil Spasov

Most derby goals

15 - Georgi Ivanov

14 - Nasko Sirakov

12 - Pavel Panov

11 - Dimitar Milanov

Record attendances

Highest attendance: 70,000 – 11 March 1967, Vasil Levski National Stadium and 31 May 1969, Vasil Levski National Stadium

Lowest attendance: 8,000 – 18 November 1995, Vasil Levski National Stadium and 26 May 2002, Balgarska Armiya Stadium