1997–98 A Group

The 1997–98 A Group was the 50th season of the A Football Group, the top Bulgarian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1948.

A Group

Season	1997–98
Dates	2 August 1997 – 10 May 1998
Champions	Litex Lovech (1st title)
Relegated	Olimpik Spartak Pleven Etar
Champions League	Litex
UEFA Cup	CSKA
Matches played	240
Goals scored	696 (2.9 per match)
Top goalscorer	Boncho Genchev Anton Spasov (17 goals each)
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

Overview

It was contested by 16 teams, and Litex Lovech won the championship.

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Litex Lovech (C)	30	21	6	3	73	25	+48	69	Qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
2	Levski Sofia	30	19	7	4	73	27	+46	64	Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup qualifying round
3	CSKA Sofia	30	18	7	5	71	29	+42	61	Qualification for UEFA Cup first qualifying round
4	Neftochimic Burgas	30	17	4	9	59	31	+28	55
5	Slavia Sofia	30	15	9	6	51	30	+21	54
6	Levski Kyustendil	30	15	1	14	45	40	+5	46
7	Spartak Varna	30	12	6	12	42	36	+6	42	Qualification for Intertoto Cup first round
8	Minyor Pernik	30	12	5	13	32	35	−3	41
9	Lokomotiv Sofia	30	11	6	13	42	40	+2	39
10	Metalurg Pernik	30	11	4	15	28	36	−8	37
11	Botev Plovdiv	30	11	3	16	35	48	−13	36
12	Dobrudzha Dobrich	30	11	3	16	33	55	−22	36
13	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	30	11	3	16	31	58	−27	36
14	Olimpik Galata (R)	30	11	2	17	26	47	−21	35	Relegation to 1998–99 B Group
15	Spartak Pleven (R)	30	7	0	23	32	75	−43	21
16	Etar Veliko Tarnovo (R)	30	4	2	24	21	82	−61	14

Source: rsssf.com
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	BOT	CSK	DOB	ETA	LVK	LEV	LIT	LPL	LSO	MET	MIN	NEF	OLI	SLA	SPL	SPV
Botev Plovdiv		3–1	1–0	5–1	0–0	2–4	2–3	1–0	2–1	1–0	3–0	0–3	2–1	1–1	4–0	2–0
CSKA Sofia	3–0		4–1	5–1	3–1	0–1	1–1	3–1	1–1	2–0	5–0	3–0	5–0	1–1	5–0	2–1
Dobrudzha Dobrich	1–0	1–1		3–0	1–0	1–4	1–1	2–0	0–5[a]	1–0	1–0	0–0	4–2	1–0	4–0	2–0
Etar Veliko Tarnovo	1–0	0–2	1–2		1–4	0–3	1–3	2–1	0–3	1–0	0–1	1–3	1–1	3–4	0–2	1–3
Levski Kyustendil	4–0	1–2	1–0	3–1		1–3	3–0[b]	2–0	2–0	2–0	3–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	3–1	2–0
Levski Sofia	1–0	3–3	3–1	5–0	4–0		1–1	5–0	1–0	7–0	1–0	2–3	3–0	1–1	3–0	2–1
Litex Lovech	3–0	2–0	3–0	3–0	3–0	0–4[c]		6–0	3–1	4–0	2–0	1–0	3–0	1–1	4–0	4–0
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	1–0	1–4	2–0	4–1	2–1	1–1	1–3		0–1	3–2	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	3–2	1–0
Lokomotiv Sofia	0–0	1–2	4–2	1–0	4–2	0–0	0–3	2–3		2–0	1–0	1–1	3–0	1–2	2–0	1–1
Metalurg Pernik	2–0	1–0	3–0	1–1	3–1	0–0	1–1	2–0	2–1		2–3	1–0	2–0	0–1	3–0	1–0
Minyor Pernik	2–0	2–2	4–0	0–1	2–0	2–1	0–2	1–0	3–0	0–0		1–1	1–0	1–0	3–0	2–1
Neftochimic Burgas	2–0	1–3	4–1	7–0	3–1	3–0	3–2	4–0	4–1	1–0	2–0		5–0	0–1	4–1	0–0
Olimpik Galata	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–4	2–0	2–0	1–0	2–1	3–1		0–2	2–1	2–0
Slavia Sofia	5–3	2–3	3–1	4–0	3–1	2–2	1–2	2–2	2–1	1–0	1–1	2–0	4–0		3–0	0–1
Spartak Pleven	4–2	0–3	5–1	4–1	0–1	2–5	1–4	2–0	1–3	0–1	2–1	1–3	1–0	0–1		1–3
Spartak Varna	4–0	2–1	3–1	3–1	2–0	1–3	1–1	5–0	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–2	2–0	0–0	3–1

Source: A PFG (in Bulgarian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. Match awarded after was abandoned at 65th minute by the result 0–2.
2. Match awarded as Litex Lovech fielded ineligible player Radostin Kishishev (originally finished 0–0).
3. Match awarded as Litex Lovech fielded ineligible player Radostin Kishishev (originally finished 1–1).

Champions

Litex Lovech

Goalkeepers
Vitomir Vutov	28	0(0)
Stoyan Stavrev	02	0(0)

Defenders
Petar Kushev	16	0(2)
Stefan Kolev	21	0(1)
Nikolay Dimitrov	24	0(1)
Dimitar Karadaliev	01	0(0)
Zlatomir Zagorčić	27	0(0)
Ivaylo Petkov	27	0(3)
Radostin Kishishev	05	0(0)
Dimitar Balabanov	06	0(0)
Rosen Kirilov	28	0(0)
Koycho Ivanov	01	0(0)

Midfielders
Rosen Emilov	17	0(1)
Mariyan Todorov	28	0(6)
Stoycho Stoilov	30	0(8)
Daniel Ostrovski	05	0(0)
Dragoljub Simonović	22	0(6)
Ivaylo Petev*	12	0(2)
Veselin Sarbakov	16	0(3)
Emil Tsanev*	02	0(0)

Forwards
Stefan Yurukov*	14	(13)
Dimcho Belyakov*	14	0(5)
Alban Bushi	15	0(4)
Svetoslav Todorov	19	0(9)
Luis Carlos Mota	05	0(1)
Igor Bogdanović	15	0(6)
Metodi Stoynev	08	0(1)

Manager
	Dimitar Dimitrov

• Petev, Tsanev, Yurukov and Belyakov left the club during a season.

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Anton Spasov	Neftochimic Burgas	17
	Boncho Genchev	CSKA Sofia
3	Stefan Yurukov	Litex Lovech	13
	Danilo Dončić	Lokomotiv Sofia
5	Stanimir Stoilov	Slavia Sofia	12
	Valentin Stanchev	Spartak Varna
7	Ivaylo Andonov	CSKA Sofia	11
8	Aleksandar Aleksandrov	Levski Sofia	10
	Plamen Petrov	Levski Kyustendil
	Georgi Ivanov	Levski Sofia
	Iliya Voynov	Spartak Pleven

• Source:1997–98 Top Goalscorers