2000–01 A Group

The 2000–01 A Group was the 53rd season of the A Football Group, the top Bulgarian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1948.

A Group

Season	2000–01
Dates	4 August 2000 – 27 May 2001
Champions	Levski Sofia (22nd title)
Relegated	Botev Plovdiv, Minyor
Champions League	Levski
UEFA Cup	CSKA Litex Lovech
Matches played	182
Goals scored	552 (3.03 per match)
Top goalscorer	Georgi Ivanov (21 goals)
← 1999–00 2001–02 →

The league was contested by the top 12 teams from the 1999–2000 season as well as Cherno More Varna and Hebar Pazardzhik, who joined as the promoted clubs from the 1999–2000 B Group.

Defending champions Levski Sofia won their 22nd Bulgarian league title overall. Botev Plovdiv and Minyor Pernik were relegated at the end of the season by finishing in the last two places.

Teams

Fourteen teams competed in the league – the top twelve teams from the previous season and the two teams promoted from the B Group. The promoted teams were Cherno More Varna (returning to the top flight after a six-year absence) and Hebar Pazardzhik (returning after an eight-year absence). They replaced Dobrudzha Dobrich, Belasitsa Petrich, Pirin Blagoevgrad and Shumen.

Stadiums and Locations

Sofia

Beroe

Neftochimic
Chernomorets

Cherno More
Spartak

Velbazhd

Lovech

Botev

Hebar

Minyor

Location of teams in 2000–01 A Group

CSKA

Levski

Lokomotiv

Slavia

Sofia 2000–01 A Group football clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Beroe	Stara Zagora	Beroe	22,500
Botev	Plovdiv	Hristo Botev	22,000
Cherno More	Varna	Ticha	8,250
Chernomorets	Burgas	Chernomorets	22,000
CSKA	Sofia	Balgarska Armia	22,015
Hebar	Pazardzhik	Georgi Benkovski	13,128
Levski	Sofia	Georgi Asparuhov	29,200
Lovech	Lovech	Gradski	7,050
Lokomotiv	Sofia	Lokomotiv	22,000
Minyor	Pernik	Minyor	20,000
Neftochimic	Burgas	Lazur	18,037
Slavia	Sofia	Slavia	32,000
Spartak	Varna	Spartak	7,500
Velbazhd	Kyustendil	Osogovo	13,000

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Beroe	Tsvetomir Parvanov		Erima[1]	AKSA[2]
Botev Plovdiv	Georgi Lazarov			Vitosha AD
Cherno More	Bozhil Kolev	Ventsislav Marinov	Asics	VAI Holding
Chernomorets	Nikolay Rusev	Angel Stoykov
CSKA Sofia	Enrico Catuzzi		Lotto
Hebar	Voyn Voynov
Levski Sofia	Ljupko Petrović	Stanimir Stoilov	Diadora	Mobiltel
Lokomotiv Sofia	Angel Kolev		Adidas	Delta-G
Lovech	Ferario Spasov	Vitomir Vutov	Asics	Litex Commerce
Minyor	Ventsislav Arsov		Nike
Neftochimic	Dimitar Stoychev	Veliyan Parushev	Puma	Petrol AD
Slavia Sofia	Kiril Kachamanov	Veselin Vachev	Adidas	Sofiyski Imoti
Spartak Varna	Stefan Grozdanov
Velbazhd	Dimitar Dimitrov	Slavcho Pavlov	Nike	VIS-2

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Botev Plovdiv	Dinko Dermendzhiev	Mutual consent	1 June 2000	Pre-season	Marin Bakalov	26 June 2000
Lovech	Čedomir Đoinčević	Sacked	10 June 2000	Pre-season	Mihai Stoichiță	1 July 2000
Levski Sofia	Dimitar Dimitrov	Sacked	15 June 2000[3]	Pre-season	Vladimir Fedotov	7 July 2000[4]
CSKA Sofia	Aleksandar Stankov	End of caretaker tenure	23 June 2000	Pre-season	Enrico Catuzzi	24 June 2000[5]
Beroe	Ventsislav Kepov	Mutual consent	June 2000	Pre-season	Nikola Ivanov	June 2000
Slavia	Miroslav Mironov	Mutual consent	June 2000	Pre-season	Žarko Olarević	June 2000
Cherno More	Radoslav Zdravkov	Mutual consent	June 2000	Pre-season	Bozhil Kolev	June 2000
Velbazhd	Dimitar Sokolov	Mutual consent	26 June 2000	Pre-season	Dimitar Dimitrov	26 June 2000[6]
Neftochimic	Dimitar Stoychev	Mutual consent	30 June 2000	Pre-season	Salvatore Polverino	1 July 2000[7]
Neftochimic	Salvatore Polverino	Sacked	6 August 2000	13th	Dimitar Stoychev	6 August 2000
Beroe	Nikola Ivanov	Sacked	14 August 2000	12th	Petko Petkov	14 August 2000
Lokomotiv Sofia	Pavel Panov	Sacked	29 August 2000	8th	Radoslav Zdravkov	29 August 2000[8]
Levski Sofia	Vladimir Fedotov	Sacked	30 August 2000[9]	2nd	Nasko Sirakov (caretaker)	30 August 2000
Levski Sofia	Nasko Sirakov	End of caretaker tenure	2 October 2000	1st	Ljupko Petrović	2 October 2000
Lovech	Mihai Stoichiță	Sacked	21 October 2000	6th	Ferario Spasov	21 October 2000[10]
Slavia Sofia	Žarko Olarević	Mutual consent	27 November 2000	10th	Kiril Kachamanov	27 November 2000[11]
CSKA Sofia	Enrico Catuzzi	Mutual consent	19 December 2000	2nd	Aleksandar Stankov	20 December 2000
CSKA Sofia	Aleksandar Stankov	Mutual consent	3 March 2001	2nd	Enrico Catuzzi	4 March 2001
Beroe	Petko Petkov	Sacked	20 March 2001	?	Tsvetomir Parvanov	20 March 2001
Lokomotiv Sofia	Radoslav Zdravkov	Sacked	29 April 2001	?	Angel Kolev	29 April 2001

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Levski Sofia (C)	26	22	3	1	63	13	+50	69	Qualification for Champions League first qualifying round
2	CSKA Sofia	26	19	5	2	65	16	+49	62	Qualification for UEFA Cup qualifying round
3	Velbazhd Kyustendil	26	18	3	5	48	29	+19	57	Relegation to V Group
4	Lovech	26	17	4	5	70	23	+47	55	Qualification for UEFA Cup qualifying round[a]
5	Neftochimic Burgas	26	12	6	8	47	34	+13	42
6	Slavia Sofia	26	10	5	11	35	35	0	35
7	Spartak Varna	26	10	4	12	38	40	−2	34	Qualification for Intertoto Cup first round
8	Lokomotiv Sofia	26	9	6	11	37	37	0	33
9	Hebar Pazardzhik	26	7	5	14	38	55	−17	26	Relegation to V Group
10	Cherno More	26	7	5	14	20	49	−29	26
11	Chernomorets Burgas	26	6	4	16	22	48	−26	22
12	Beroe (O)	26	6	4	16	21	47	−26	22	Qualification for relegation play-off
13	Botev Plovdiv (R)	26	6	2	18	28	55	−27	20	Relegation to 2001–02 B Group
14	Minyor Pernik (R)	26	3	4	19	19	71	−52	13

Source: A PFG (in Bulgarian) and rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th head-to-head away goals scored; 6th season goal difference; 7th season goals scored; 8th "sportsmanship" (R & Y cards); 9th draw
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Lovech won the 2000–01 Bulgarian Cup and qualified for the 2001–02 UEFA Cup qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.

Results

Home \ Away	BSZ	BOT	CHB	CHM	CSK	HEB	LEV	LSO	LOV	MIN	NEF	SLA	SPV	VEL
Beroe		3–1	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–2	2–0	1–2	0–0	2–0	1–2	1–2	1–2
Botev Plovdiv	1–0		2–1	1–0	0–1	3–1	1–4	0–1	1–1	3–0	1–2	2–1	2–3	1–4
Chernomorets Burgas	2–0	0–0		0–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–2	3–0	1–1	1–3	1–0	1–2
Cherno More	1–2	3–2	3–0		1–4	2–1	0–3	2–2	3–2	1–0	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–3
CSKA Sofia	5–0	3–0	4–0	1–0		9–2	1–1	3–0	0–0	3–0	4–0	1–0	2–0	2–0
Hebar Pazardzhik	3–0	3–0	5–1	2–0	2–4		0–1	2–2	1–4	3–0	2–2	3–0	2–1	1–3
Levski Sofia	3–0	3–0	4–0	6–0	2–1	4–1		1–0	2–1	4–0	3–0	2–1	2–1	2–0
Lokomotiv Sofia	3–2	3–2	0–1	3–0	1–4	3–1	0–2		2–2	6–1	1–1	3–0	3–0	0–0
Lovech	4–0	6–0	3–0	5–0	4–1	2–0	3–4	2–0		4–1	2–0	6–1	4–0	5–0
Minyor Pernik	2–0	4–3	2–0	1–1	1–4	1–1	0–4[a]	0–1	1–4		1–4	0–3	1–2	0–0
Neftochimic Burgas	4–1	2–1	3–1	4–0	0–3[b]	5–0	0–1	1–0	3–0	3–0		2–2	2–5	5–0
Slavia Sofia	1–1	1–0	1–2	3–0	0–2	2–0	0–0	3–1	0–0	7–1	0–0		3–2	0–2
Spartak Varna	4–1	1–0	4–3	0–0	1–1	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–2	4–0	1–2	2–0		0–3
Velbazhd Kyustendil	2–0	4–1	4–1	3–0	1–1	2–0	2–1	3–1	1–0	3–2	2–1	0–1	2–1

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

1. Match awarded after was abandoned at 0-1 in 65th minute due to home fans throwing stones following a second sending off
2. Match awarded (originally finished 1–3).

Relegation play-off

Beroe Stara Zagora	1–0	Pirin Blagoevgrad
Zhelev 73'

30 May 2001

Stadion Georgi Asparuhov, Sofia

Attendance: 2,000

Champions

Levski Sofia

Goalkeepers
01	Dimitar Ivankov	25	0(5)
12	Georgi Sheytanov	01	0(0)
30	Vihren Uzunov	01	0(0)

Defenders
02	Martin Stankov	18	0(0)
03	Stanimir Stoilov	15	0(2)
05	Georgi Markov	22	0(0)
06	Zahari Sirakov	17	0(2)
11	Elin Topuzakov	22	0(3)
14	Miroslav Savić	08	0(0)
15	Aleksey Dionisiev	07	0(0)
22	Ilian Stoyanov	20	0(1)
23	Dalibor Dragić	16	0(2)
	Predrag Pažin*	06	0(0)
	Oleksandr Koval*	03	0(0)

Midfielders
04	Biser Ivanov	22	0(0)
10	Asen Nikolov	07	0(0)
16	Chavdar Atanasov	15	0(2)
17	Konstantin Golovskoy	04	0(0)
19	Svetoslav Barkanichkov	04	0(0)
20	Neško Milovanović	05	0(0)
21	Dimitar Telkiyski	15	0(5)
25	Yordan Terziev	09	0(0)
26	Viktorio Pavlov	01	0(0)
28	Vladislav Radimov	03	0(1)
	Aleksandar Aleksandrov*	07	0(1)
	Eduard Tsykhmeystruk*	12	0(1)
	Konstantin Kaynov*	02	0(0)

Forwards
07	Rogério Gaúcho	08	0(0)
08	Georgi Bachev	11	0(2)
09	Georgi Ivanov	24	(21)
18	Krum Bibishkov	02	0(1)
24	Miodrag Pantelić	12	0(1)
29	Dimitar Makriev	01	0(0)
99	Petar Mihtarski	11	0(4)
	Georgi Georgiev*	04	0(3)

Manager
	Ljupko Petrović

• Pažin, Koval, Aleksandrov, Tsykhmeystruk, Kaynov and Georgiev left the club during a season.

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Georgi Ivanov	Levski Sofia	22
2	Hristo Yovov	Lovech	17
3	Stefan Yurukov	Lovech	14
4	Vladimir Manchev	CSKA Sofia	13
	Valentin Stanchev	Spartak Varna
	Zoran Janković	Lovech
7	Hristo Yanev	CSKA Sofia	12
8	Martin Kushev	Slavia Sofia	11
	Boyko Velichkov	Velbazhd Kyustendil
10	Ivan Tonchev	Beroe Stara Zagora	9

• Source:2000–01 Top Goalscorers