2001–02 A Group

The 2001–02 A Group was the 54th season of the A Football Group, the top Bulgarian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1948.

A Group

Season	2001–02
Dates	3 August 2001 – 30 May 2002
Champions	Levski Sofia (23rd title)
Relegated	Spartak Pleven Belasitsa Beroe
Champions League	Levski
UEFA Cup	CSKA Litex
Matches played	268
Goals scored	681 (2.54 per match)
Top goalscorer	Vladimir Manchev (21 goals)
← 2000–01 2002–03 →

Defending champions Levski Sofia won their third consecutive title, and 23rd title overall.

Overview

The format of the league was changed from last season, with the intention of making the league more competitive. This resulted in the league being divided into two groups after the regular season. The top 6 teams from the regular season would continue in the championship round, while the bottom 8 teams would play in the relegation round. It was contested by 14 teams, and Levski Sofia won the championship.^[1]

Teams

Fourteen teams competed in the league. The promoted teams from the 2000–01 B Group were Spartak Pleven (returning to the top flight after a three-year absence) and Marek Dupnitsa (returning after a nineteen-year absence). The league also included Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Belasitsa Petrich after mergers with Velbazhd Kyustendil and Hebar Pazardzhik respectively.

These teams replace Botev Plovdiv and Minyor Pernik, who were relegated at the end of the last season.

Stadiums and Locations

Sofia

Beroe

Naftex
Chernomorets

Cherno More
Spartak Vn

Spartak Pl

Litex

Lokomotiv

Belasitsa

Marek

Location of teams in 2001–02 A Group

CSKA

Levski

Lokomotiv

Slavia

Sofia 2001–02 A Group football clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Belasitsa	Petrich	Tsar Samuil	9,500
Beroe	Stara Zagora	Beroe	22,500
Cherno More	Varna	Ticha	8,250
Chernomorets	Burgas	Chernomorets	22,000
CSKA	Sofia	Balgarska Armia	22,015
Levski	Sofia	Georgi Asparuhov	29,200
Litex	Lovech	Gradski	7,050
Lokomotiv	Plovdiv	Lokomotiv	24,000
Lokomotiv	Sofia	Lokomotiv	22,000
Marek	Dupnitsa	Bonchuk	16,050
Naftex	Burgas	Lazur	18,037
Slavia	Sofia	Slavia	32,000
Spartak	Pleven	Slavi Aleksiev	21,940
Spartak	Varna	Spartak	7,500

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Belasitsa	Mihail Valchev			Vitosha AD
Beroe	Venelin Sivriev	Vanyo Shishkov	Erima
Cherno More	Aleksandar Stankov	Ventsislav Marinov	BURGELOF	St. Elias
Chernomorets	Ivan Tsvetanov	Kostadin Dzhambazov
CSKA Sofia	Luigi Simoni	Georgi Antonov	Lotto	—
Levski Sofia	Slavoljub Muslin	Stanimir Stoilov	Diadora	Mobiltel
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Dimitar Dimitrov		Asics	VAI Holding
Lokomotiv Sofia	Emil Dimitrov		Adidas	Delta-G
Litex	Ferario Spasov	Vitomir Vutov	Asics	Litex Commerce
Marek	Dimitar Aleksiev	Velizar Dimitrov	Nike
Naftex	Dimitar Stoychev	Stanimir Dimitrov	Puma	Petrol AD
Slavia Sofia	Žarko Olarević	Veselin Vachev	Adidas	Sofiyski Imoti
Spartak Pleven	Angel Stankov	Slavcho Pavlov	Asics	VIS-2
Spartak Varna	Stefan Grozdanov	Valentin Stanchev

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Beroe	Tsvetomir Parvanov	Mutual consent	1 June 2001	Pre-season	Ivan Vutov	21 June 2001[2]
Chernomorets	Nikolay Rusev	Mutual consent	1 June 2001	Pre-season	Mihail Valchev	22 June 2001[3]
Marek Dupnitsa	Petar Zehtinski	Mutual consent	8 September 2001	12th	Yanko Dinkov	10 September 2001[4]
Chernomorets	Mihail Valchev	Sacked	9 September 2001	14th	Ivan Tsvetanov	12 September 2001[5]
Levski Sofia	Ljupko Petrović	Mutual consent	10 September 2001[6]	1st	Georgi Todorov (caretaker)	10 September 2001
Slavia Sofia	Kiril Kachamanov	Sacked	25 September 2001	10th	Žarko Olarević	25 September 2001
Lokomotiv Sofia	Angel Kolev	Sacked	28 October 2001[7]	9th	Emil Dimitrov	28 October 2001
CSKA Sofia	Asparuh Nikodimov	Sacked	4 December 2001	3rd	Luigi Simoni	10 December 2001
Marek Dupnitsa	Yanko Dinkov	Mutual consent	2 January 2002	13th	Dimitar Aleksiev	2 January 2002[8]
Levski Sofia	Georgi Todorov	End of caretaker tenure	3 January 2002	1st	Rüdiger Abramczik	3 January 2002
Beroe	Ivan Vutov	Mutual consent	4 January 2002	14th	Tsvetomir Parvanov	4 January 2002
Levski Sofia	Rüdiger Abramczik	Sacked	11 March 2002[9]	1st	Slavoljub Muslin	17 March 2002[10]
Beroe	Tsvetomir Parvanov	Sacked	12 March 2002	14th	Iliya Iliev	17 March 2002
Spartak Pleven	Velislav Vutsov	Mutual consent	12 March 2002	7th	Angel Stankov	18 March 2002
Belasitsa	Voyn Voynov	Sacked	12 May 2002	12th	Mihail Valchev	13 May 2002[11]

First stage

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Levski Sofia	26	20	5	1	58	21	+37	65	Qualification for championship group
2	Litex Lovech	26	16	7	3	50	27	+23	55
3	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	26	16	5	5	42	23	+19	53
4	CSKA Sofia	26	15	7	4	48	17	+31	52
5	Naftex Burgas	26	12	6	8	35	25	+10	42
6	Slavia Sofia	26	10	7	9	30	32	−2	37
7	Spartak Pleven	26	10	3	13	40	44	−4	33	Qualification for relegation group
8	Lokomotiv Sofia	26	7	8	11	33	32	+1	29
9	Spartak Varna	26	5	11	10	29	39	−10	26
10	Chernomorets Burgas	26	7	5	14	24	54	−30	26
11	Marek	26	6	6	14	22	42	−20	24
12	Cherno More	26	6	6	14	28	36	−8	24
13	Belasitsa Petrich	26	6	5	15	21	35	−14	23
14	Beroe	26	3	5	18	13	46	−33	14

Source: A PFG (in Bulgarian)
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.

Results

Home \ Away	BEL	BSZ	CHM	CHB	CSK	LEV	LIT	LPL	LSO	MAR	NAF	SLA	SPL	SPV
Belasitsa Petrich		1–0	1–1	3–0	0–0	0–2	0–1	0–2	2–1	0–1	2–1	2–1	2–1	0–0
Beroe	1–0		3–1	0–0	0–3[a]	0–0	0–2	1–2	1–1	0–0	0–1	0–4	0–2	1–0
Cherno More	2–1	2–0		3–1	0–1	1–2	4–0	1–3	1–1	3–1	0–3	0–1	2–2	1–1
Chernomorets Burgas	3–0	3–0	1–0		0–0	1–2	0–2	2–2	0–0	1–0	3–2	0–0	1–0	2–1
CSKA Sofia	1–0	3–0	1–0	6–0		2–2	1–1	2–1	4–0	2–1	3–0	5–0	3–2	5–1
Levski Sofia	3–2	1–0	1–0	4–0	2–0		2–1	2–0	3–2	4–1	4–1	3–1	4–1	6–0
Litex Lovech	1–0	3–1	3–2	4–1	1–1	2–0		2–1	5–3	2–0	1–0	4–1	6–2	1–1
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	2–0	5–0	2–1	3–2	2–1	0–1	0–0		3–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–1
Lokomotiv Sofia	0–0	1–1	1–2	6–1	1–0	1–2	3–1	0–1		4–0	0–0	1–0	3–0	0–0
Marek	2–2	1–0	2–0	2–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–3		1–1	1–0	3–5	0–0
Naftex Burgas	1–0	2–0	1–0	4–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	2–0	3–1		1–0	0–1	4–1
Slavia Sofia	1–0	3–2	0–0	3–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	0–2	1–0	2–0	2–2		3–2	1–1
Spartak Pleven	3–2	2–1	3–1	4–0	0–0	2–4	0–0	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–2		2–0
Spartak Varna	4–1	3–1	0–0	3–0	1–2	1–2	2–4	1–1	0–0	4–1	0–0	1–2	2–1

Source: todor66.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. Match awarded after was not played after referee was beaten up ahead of the match.

Championship group

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Levski Sofia (C)	36	27	7	2	77	27	+50	56	Qualification for Champions League second qualifying round
2	Litex Lovech	36	23	8	5	66	34	+32	50	Qualification for UEFA Cup qualifying round
3	CSKA Sofia	36	19	7	10	60	29	+31	38
4	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	36	18	6	12	48	41	+7	34
5	Slavia Sofia	36	14	8	14	42	48	−6	32
6	Naftex Burgas	36	14	9	13	44	40	+4	30

Source: A PFG (in Bulgarian)
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

Results

Home \ Away	CSK	LEV	LIT	LPL	NAF	SLA
CSKA Sofia		1–0	1–2	4–0	3–2	0–2
Levski Sofia	2–0		1–0	2–0	3–0	3–1
Litex Lovech	1–0	2–2		3–1	1–0	2–0
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	1–0	1–3	0–2		2–1	1–2
Naftex Burgas	1–0	1–1	0–2	0–0		2–2
Slavia Sofia	1–3	0–2	2–1	1–0	1–2

Source: todor66.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation group

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
7	Marek	40	14	8	18	46	57	−11	38	Qualification for Intertoto Cup first round
8	Lokomotiv Sofia	40	14	9	17	49	48	+1	37
9	Spartak Varna	40	12	13	15	50	51	−1	36
10	Chernomorets Burgas	40	13	9	18	41	69	−28	35
11	Cherno More	40	12	11	17	47	51	−4	35
12	Spartak Pleven (R)	40	15	4	21	58	66	−8	33	Relegation to 2002–03 B Group
13	Belasitsa Petrich (R)	40	12	7	21	34	50	−16	32
14	Beroe (R)	40	4	8	28	19	70	−51	13

Source: A PFG (in Bulgarian)
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.
(R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	BEL	BSZ	CHM	CHB	LSO	MAR	SPL	SPV
Belasitsa Petrich		3–1	1–0	2–0	0–1	0–2	3–2	2–1
Beroe	0–1		1–1	0–3	0–0	0–1	1–1	0–3
Cherno More	1–1	2–1		1–1	3–2	2–0	2–0	1–1
Chernomorets Burgas	0–0	2–0	2–0		2–0	2–4	1–0	1–1
Lokomotiv Sofia	1–0	1–0	1–2	0–1		2–1	3–0	1–0
Marek	2–0	3–0	1–1	1–1	3–1		3–1	1–0
Spartak Pleven	2–0	1–2	2–1	3–1	1–2	3–1		1–0
Spartak Varna	2–0	2–0	1–2	3–0	3–1	2–1	2–1

Source: todor66.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Champions

Levski Sofia

Goalkeepers
01	Georgi Petkov	27	0(0)
12	Georgi Sheytanov	01	0(0)
27	Dimitar Ivankov	09	0(0)

Defenders
02	Martin Stankov	15	0(0)
03	Stanimir Stoilov	30	0(0)
05	Georgi Markov*	16	0(0)
11	Elin Topuzakov	26	0(5)
13	Ivo Trenchev	19	0(1)
14	Vladimir Ivanov	11	0(0)
20	Stanislav Angelov	28	0(5)
22	Ilian Stoyanov	25	0(0)
23	Dalibor Dragić	24	0(5)
26	Tsanko Tsvetanov	06	0(0)
28	Bogomil Dyakov	01	0(0)

Midfielders
04	Biser Ivanov	24	0(1)
06	Stanislav Genchev	21	0(3)
07	Péter Kabát	15	0(5)
15	Saša Simonović	06	0(3)
17	Konstantin Golovskoy	20	0(0)
18	Brent Rahim	11	0(0)
21	Dimitar Telkiyski	30	0(4)
25	Yordan Terziev*	04	0(0)
30	Dimitar Krastev	03	0(0)
	Asen Nikolov*	03	0(0)
	William Batista*	01	0(0)
	Svetoslav Barkanichkov*	02	0(0)

Forwards
08	Georgi Bachev	18	0(8)
09	Georgi Ivanov	19	(13)
10	István Ferenczi	04	0(3)
16	Martin Kushev	15	0(6)
19	Georgi Chilikov	27	(10)
24	Miodrag Pantelić	29	0(4)
29	Dimitar Makriev	01	0(0)
	Rogério Gaúcho*	08	0(0)
	Todor Kolev*	02	0(0)

Manager
	Slavoljub Muslin

• Markov, Terziev, Nikolov, Batista, Barkanichkov, Gaucho and Kolev left the club during a season.

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Vladimir Manchev	CSKA Sofia	21
2	Todor Kolev	Spartak Pleven	18
3	Stoyko Sakaliev	Naftex Burgas	17
4	Stefan Yurukov	Litex Lovech	14
	Metodi Stoynev	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
	Boyko Velichkov	Lokomotiv Sofia
	Velizar Dimitrov	Marek Dupnitsa
8	Georgi Ivanov	Levski Sofia	13
	Zoran Janković	Litex Lovech
	Martin Kushev	Slavia Sofia Levski Sofia