OFC Vihren Sandanski


OFC Vihren is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Sandanski, currently playing in the South-West Third League. Sandanski's home ground is the Sandanski Stadium in Sandanski with a capacity of 6,000. Vihren Sandanski's team colours are green and white.
Vihren was founded in 1925, changing its name several times during its early existence. Up until the early 2000s, Vihren played mostly in either the second or third tiers of Bulgarian football. Season 2004-05 is arguably the most important in the club's history, as the team managed to promote to the A PFG, or first tier of Bulgarian football, for the first time. Vihren managed to play four consecutive seasons in the elite, before suffering relegation after the 2008-09 season. Since then, the Gladiators have played mostly in the third regional tier.

Equipment

Currently the team's home kit is green and the away kit is white. Various combinations of green and white have been used through the years, but green remains the basic colour of the team.

History

The club was founded on 24 May 1925. It has carried the names Ustrem, Gotse Delchev, Yane Sandanski and Cherveno zname throughout its history.
Until the 2004/05 season, the team participated in either the second or the third Bulgarian division, but gained promotion to the Bulgarian A PFG for the 2005/06 season. Before their first year of playing in A PFG, Vihren's owner decided to bring players from other country. His first signing was the ex-FC Porto player Jose Furtado. He was from the Portuguese side G.D. Tourizense for free. Brazilian player Serginio Dias, and Portuguese players Mauro Alexandre and Nuno Almeida were just a few players who signed for FC Vihren after Furtado. The team coach was named Petar Zhekov. Vihren finished season 2005-06 on 10th place in A PFG with 30 points. In season 2007-08, FC Vihren's owner Konstantin Dinev decided to bring Portuguese coach Rui Dias. The club signed eight Portuguese and two Brazilian players. But three months later, Rui Dias was discharged for poor results. At the end of the season, the team finished in 10th place. Season 2008/09 started excellent with a 1-0 win against Bulgarian Vice-champion Levski Sofia. In the 4th round, the club defeated Lokomotiv Sofia. In January 2008, Vihren signed notable Greek players Christos Maladenis and Dimitrios Zografakis. In the end of the season the team finished in 14th place and were relegated to B PFG.

League positions


ImageSize = width:1000 height:60
PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/2021
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1995
Colors =
id:bl1 value:rgb
id:bl2 value:rgb
id:rs value:rgb
id:rn value:rgb
PlotData=
bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 shift: text:2
from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/1996 shift: text:4
from:01/07/1996 till:01/07/1997 shift: text:6
from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 shift: text:7
from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift: text:6
from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift: text:2
from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift: text:4
from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift: text:8
from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift: text:1
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/2003 color:red shift: text: "V Group"
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift: text:9
from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift: text:1
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2005 color:white shift: text: "B Group"
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift: text:9
from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift: text:9
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift: text:10
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift: text:14
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2009 color:green shift: text: "A Group"
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift: text:4
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift: text:7
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2011 color:white shift: text: "B Group"
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift: text:
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 color:black shift: text: Dissolved
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift: text:1
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 color:yellow shift: text: "Regional"
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift: text:6
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift: text:8
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift: text:6
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2016 color:red shift: text: "V Group"
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift: text:15
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift: text:3
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift: text:3
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift: text:4
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift: text:
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2021 color:red shift: text: "Third League"

Honours

Bulgarian A PFG:
Bulgarian Cup:
As of 1 February 2020

Managerial history

This is a list of the last ten Vihren managers:
NameNatFromTo
Kostadin TodorovJanuary 2000January 2001
Vasil MetodievJanuary 2001June 2002
Yordan BozdanskiDecember 2002May 2004
Petar ZhekovJune 2004May 2005
Petar ZhekovJune 2005May 2006
Dionysis BeslikasJune 2006August 2006
Petar ZhekovAugust 2006May 2007
Rui DiasJune 2007October 2007
Eduard EranosyanOctober 2007November 2007
Filip FilipovDecember 2007incumbent

As of December 31, 2009.

Notable players

Former foreign players