The Bulgarian football championship season 2013-2014 has ended. For the first time the championship was organized in a different scheme. 14 participants in the A group played the record 38 matches during two stages of the championship.

The end of the championship showed the continuation of the successful Ludogorets era. The team from Razgrad became champion for the third consecutive time, thus achieving something unique – three successive titles during the first three years of playing in the first division of the championship. Ludogorets also won two times the Cup of Bulgaria, another prestigious annual football competition in this country.

The Ludogorets players also performed great in the European club tournaments. Ludogorets became the most successful Bulgarian team in Europa League, becoming the top team in its group. Ludogorets eliminated Italian Lazio in the round of 32 and showed good football against Valencia in the round of 16.

In the Bulgarian Football Championship the team of CSKA placed second. Manager of the team Stoicho Mladenov admitted that this second place was even more precious than the numerous titles of CSKA in the past. It is hard not to agree with him as right before the beginning of the championship it was unknown whether the team would be able to even get its license. A great lack of money plagues CSKA during the past few years and is the reason for the club’s hardships. The club even had difficulties gathering a team before the start of the first round of the tournament. The Army Men, however, showed huge fighting spirit and deservingly won the silver medals. CSKA’s eternal rival Levski also contributed as in the last round they won against Litex, which was close behind CSKA. This way Litex was left with the bronze.

The team from Lovech that has the biggest contribution for the national side lost at home against Levski, who are currently in a desperate condition, despite celebrating the 100th anniversary of the team. Litex even missed a penalty. When the second stage of the tournament began Litex had equal points with Ludogorets but managed to fall 12 points behind after 12 more matches.

Botev (Plovdiv) placed fourth and the good news for the team is it has secured a place in the European club tournaments. The issue with the behavior of the fans of the team, however, remains unresolved. After the Plovdiv derby against Lokomotiv, which had to end earlier, the Botev ultras also caused turmoil at the stadium in Burgas during the Cup of Bulgaria final against Ludogorets. The match had to stop for half an hour. Finnish footballer Tero Mäntylä, who plays in Ludogorets, already told media in Finland about the shocking events, while UEFA has recently shown it would not tolerate such a behavior.

The team of Levski Sofia has welcomed its 100th anniversary with tragic performance this season. The blue team can only be congratulated for the fair play shown in the last round of the tournament. Levski placed fifth in the championship and would not take part in the European club tournaments for the first time since 1990. The teams of Cherno More (Varna) and Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) placed 6th and seventh respectively.

In the lower group of seven teams Beroe (Stara Zagora) and the teams of Lokomotiv (Sofia) and Slavia kept their places in the A Group. The team of Chernomorets (Burgas) and Neftohimik (Burgas), as well as Pirin (Gotse Delchev) and Lyubimets will move down to the second division during the next season. As the number of the teams in the A group will be reduced next season, the new teams that are to play in the elite division are Marek (Dupnitsa) and Haskovo.

English version: Alexander Markov