2015–16 A Group

The 2015–16 A Group was the 92nd season of the top division of the Bulgarian football league system, and 68th since a league format was adopted for the national competition of A Group as a top tier of the pyramid. The season has started on 17 July 2015 and is expected to end in May 2016. The league is contested by ten teams. Ludogorets Razgrad were the defending champions, and successfully defended the title after Levski Sofia's home loss against Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the 29th round.^[1] The title is Ludogorets' fifth consecutive and overall.

A Group

Season	2015–16
Dates	17 July 2015 – 28 May 2016
Champions	Ludogorets Razgrad (5th title)
Relegated	Litex Lovech (expelled)
Champions League	Ludogorets Razgrad
Europa League	Levski Sofia Beroe Slavia Sofia
Matches played	144
Goals scored	317 (2.2 per match)
Top goalscorer	Martin Kamburov (18)
Biggest home win	Montana 6–0 Botev Plovdiv
Biggest away win	Slavia Sofia 0–5 Ludogorets
Highest scoring	Beroe 5–2 Lokomotiv Plovdiv
← 2014–15 2016–17 → All statistics correct as of 28 May 2016.

Competition format

The league is contested by ten teams and will be played in a quadruple round robin format, with each team playing every other team four times over 36 rounds.^[2]

Teams

A total of 12 teams were set to contest the league, including the best 10 sides from the previous season, plus two promoted clubs from the lower division B Group.

On 22 June 2015, the BFU announced the final list of participants for the 2015–16 season. CSKA Sofia and Lokomotiv Sofia were both denied a professional license for the following season due to outstanding debts and would have to compete in the V AFG or fold. The group was kept at 10 teams. Marek Dupnitsa and Haskovo, who finished in the bottom two places of the table at the end of previous season, also failed to receive professional license, and were relegated to V Group.^[3]

The relegated teams were replaced by Montana, the 2014–15 B Group champions and Pirin Blagoevgrad, the 2014–15 B Group runner-up. While Montana returns to the top division after two years, Pirin reaches again the highest class after 4 years.

Stadia and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Sofia

Beroe

Cherno More

Ludogorets

Litex

Botev
Lokomotiv

Pirin

Montana

Location of teams in 2015–16 A Group

Levski

Slavia

Sofia 2015–16 A Group football clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity (seating)
Beroe	Stara Zagora	Beroe	12,128
Botev	Plovdiv	Botev 1912 Football Complex	4,000
Cherno More	Varna	Ticha	8,250
Levski	Sofia	Georgi Asparuhov	25,000
Litex	Lovech	Gradski	8,100
Lokomotiv	Plovdiv	Lokomotiv	10,000
Ludogorets	Razgrad	Ludogorets Arena	7,500
Montana	Montana	Ogosta	6,000
Pirin	Blagoevgrad	Hristo Botev	7,000
Slavia	Sofia	Slavia	25,556

Personnel and sponsoring

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and Managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Beroe	Plamen Lipenski (caretaker)	Ivo Ivanov	Uhlsport	BEROE, Refan
Botev Plovdiv	Nikolay Kostov	Yordan Hristov	Uhlsport	efbet
Cherno More	Nikola Spasov	Mihail Venkov	Uhlsport	Armeets
Levski Sofia	Ljupko Petrović	Veselin Minev	Joma	Vivacom, efbet, Strabag
Litex Lovech	Lyuboslav Penev	Anton Nedyalkov	adidas	Prima
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Ilian Iliev	Martin Kamburov	Uhlsport	efbet
Ludogorets Razgrad	Georgi Dermendzhiev	Svetoslav Dyakov	Macron	eCasino.bg, Vivacom
Montana	Emil Velev	Hristo Ivanov	Jako	Montana Municipality
Pirin Blagoevgrad	Naci Şensoy	Yuliyan Popev	Joma	Lafka
Slavia Sofia	Aleksandr Tarkhanov	Georgi Petkov	Joma	Asset Insurance, efbet

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Pirin Blagoevgrad	Ivo Trenchev	End of caretaker tenure	31 May 2015	Pre-season	Nedelcho Matushev	6 June 2015[4]
Ludogorets Razgrad	Georgi Dermendzhiev	Resigned	31 May 2015		Bruno Ribeiro	17 June 2015[5]
Litex Lovech	Krasimir Balakov		11 July 2015		Ljupko Petrović (interim)	12 July 2015
Botev Plovdiv	Petar Penchev	Sacked	25 July 2015	9th	Ermin Šiljak	27 July 2015
Litex Lovech	Ljupko Petrović (interim)	Resigned	5 August 2015	1st	Laurențiu Reghecampf	5 August 2015
Ludogorets Razgrad	Bruno Ribeiro	Sacked	2 September 2015[6]	1st	Eduard Eranosyan	2 September 2015
Pirin Blagoevgrad	Nedelcho Matushev	Resigned	26 September 2015	10th	Naci Şensoy	14 October 2015
Ludogorets Razgrad	Eduard Eranosyan		6 November 2015	3rd	Georgi Dermendzhiev	6 November 2015
Montana	Ferario Spasov		8 November 2015	9th	Emil Velev	11 November 2015
Botev Plovdiv	Ermin Šiljak		9 November 2015	8th	Nikolay Kostov	11 November 2015
Slavia Sofia	Ivan Kolev		30 November 2015	6th	Vladimir Ivanov (caretaker)	30 November 2015
Litex Lovech	Laurențiu Reghecampf	Signed by Steaua București	3 December 2015	3rd	Ljupko Petrović (interim)	3 December 2015
Slavia Sofia	Vladimir Ivanov	End of caretaker tenure	18 December 2015	5th	Aleksandr Tarkhanov	18 December 2015
Litex Lovech	Ljupko Petrović (interim)	End of contract	23 December 2015	10th	Lyuboslav Penev	22 January 2016
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Hristo Kolev	Mutual agreement	26 February 2016	7th	Ilian Iliev	26 February 2016[7]
Beroe	Petar Hubchev	Sacked	7 April 2016[8]	4th	Plamen Lipenski (caretaker)	8 April 2016
Levski Sofia	Stoycho Stoev	Mutual agreement	13 May 2016	2nd	Ljupko Petrović	17 May 2016

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Ludogorets Razgrad (C)	32	21	7	4	55	21	+34	70	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
2	Levski Sofia	32	16	8	8	36	18	+18	56	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round
3	Beroe	32	14	11	7	37	27	+10	53	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	Slavia Sofia	32	14	7	11	36	29	+7	49[a]
5	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	32	15	4	13	40	45	−5	49[a]
6	Cherno More	32	10	8	14	36	45	−9	38
7	Botev Plovdiv	32	8	9	15	27	44	−17	33
8	Pirin Blagoevgrad	32	5	11	16	27	45	−18	26
9	Montana (O)	32	4	9	19	23	43	−20	21	Qualification for the relegation playoff
10	Litex Lovech (D, R, R, R)	0	0 (8)	0 (9)	0 (3)	0 (29)	0 (19)	—	0	Expelled and relegated to the Second League[b]

Source: Bulgarian Football Association, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Head-to-head away goals scored (only if two teams); 6) Goal difference; 7) Goals scored; 8) Fairplay ranking; 9) Draw.^[13]
(C) Champions; (D) Disqualified; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Slavia Sofia ahead of Lokomotiv Plovdiv on head-to-head record; Slavia Sofia–Lokomotiv Plovdiv 3–0, Lokomotiv Plovdiv–Slavia Sofia 2–0, Slavia Sofia–Lokomotiv Plovdiv 3–0, Lokomotiv Plovdiv–Slavia Sofia 3–1.
2. On 16 December 2015, Litex Lovech were expelled from the league after their players left the field in protest over referee decisions in a match against Levski Sofia on 12 December 2015.^[9][10] On 20 January 2016 it was announced that Litex Lovech would be relegated to B Group^[11] All results from played matches involving Litex Lovech were annulled on 22 January 2016.^[12]

Results

Matches 1–18 Home \ Away BSZ BOT CHM LEV LIT LPL LUD MON PIR SLA Beroe 0–0 1–1 1–0 2–0 0–0 0–0 1–0 1–2 Botev Plovdiv 1–3 2–1 1–1 1–1 0–1 1–0 1–0 0–1 Cherno More 0–3 1–2 0–1 2–1 2–3 1–0 1–0 1–0 Levski Sofia 2–0 1–0 1–0 1–0 1–1 2–0 0–0 2–0 Litex Lovech Lokomotiv Plovdiv 1–2 2–1 1–3 1–0 2–0 1–0 2–1 2–0 Ludogorets Razgrad 5–0 2–1 1–1 2–0 1–0 2–0 0–0 1–1 Montana 1–0 6–0 0–4 0–2 2–0 1–1 1–1 1–2 Pirin Blagoevgrad 0–1 0–1 1–1 1–0 3–0 0–3 0–0 0–3 Slavia Sofia 0–0 2–0 0–1 0–1 3–0 0–1 1–0 0–0 Source: bulgarian-football.com Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 19–36 Home \ Away BSZ BOT CHM LEV LIT LPL LUD MON PIR SLA Beroe 1–1 0–0 2–1 5–2 0–2 2–1 3–1 1–1 Botev Plovdiv 0–1 3–1 0–0 1–0 2–1 2–2 2–2 0–1 Cherno More 1–0 3–0 0–2 1–1 0–2 1–1 1–1 3–2 Levski Sofia 1–0 3–0 5–1 2–3 0–0 0–0 3–1 0–1 Litex Lovech Lokomotiv Plovdiv 1–1 2–1 2–1 1–1 2–1 2–0 4–2 3–1 Ludogorets Razgrad 0–2 1–0 2–1 2–1 2–0 2–1 4–1 3–1 Montana 1–3 1–1 3–2 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–1 0–3 Pirin Blagoevgrad 1–1 2–2 4–0 0–1 1–2 1–3 0–0 0–3 Slavia Sofia 0–0 1–0 0–0 0–0 3–0 0–5 3–1 1–2 Source: bulgarian-football.com Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation playoff

4 June 2016

19:00 EEST

Montana	2–1	Pomorie
S. Georgiev 54' Iliev 86'	Report	Bozhinov 73' (pen.)

Trace Arena, Stara Zagora

Attendance: 1,500

Referee: Nikola Popov (Sofia)

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Beroe	7	4	2	2	4	4	2	3	5	6	4	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	3	4	2	3	4	3	3	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Botev Plovdiv	3	9	8	7	8	7	6	8	8	9	8	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	7	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
Cherno More	4	7	6	8	7	6	7	6	6	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	5	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	6	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Levski Sofia	5	6	7	6	5	5	5	4	3	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Litex Lovech	2	3	1	1	1	2	4	1	1	1	3	2	3	2	2	2	2	3	4	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	10	10	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	8	9	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Ludogorets Razgrad	9	5	4	4	3	1	1	2	2	2	2	3	2	3	4	3	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Montana	8	2	5	5	6	8	8	7	7	7	7	8	9	9	9	9	9	10	10	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9
Pirin Blagoevgrad	6	8	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Slavia Sofia	1	1	3	3	2	3	3	5	4	4	5	6	5	5	5	5	6	6	5	3	4	4	3	4	4	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

Updated to match(es) played on 28 May 2016. Source: en.bulgarian-football.com

Season statistics

Round	Goal of the week	Club
1	Danilo Aspirilla vs Ludogorets	Litex
2	Sténio vs Ludogorets	Cherno More
3	Georgi Bozhilov vs Pirin Blagievgrad	Beroe
4	Aleksandar Kolev vs Pirin Blagievgrad	Botev Plovdiv
5	Atanas Zehirov vs Cherno More	Beroe
6	Aleksandar Vasilev vs Pirin Blagievgrad	Ludogorets
7	Bozhidar Vasev vs Cherno More	Botev Plovdiv
8	Arsénio Nunes vs Botev Plovdiv	Litex
9	Ivan Minchev vs Slavia	Montana
10	Georgi Kostadinov vs Botev Plovdiv	Levski Sofia
11	Roman Procházka vs Litex	Levski Sofia
12	Claudiu Keșerü vs Levski Sofia	Ludogorets
13	Atanas Zehirov vs Slavia	Beroe
14	Nemanja Milisavljević vs Cherno More	Beroe
15	Atanas Zehirov vs Botev Plovdiv	Beroe
16	Igor Djoman vs Litex	Beroe
17	Roman Procházka vs Slavia	Levski Sofia
18	Spas Delev vs Levski Sofia	Beroe
19	Strahil Popov vs Ludogorets	Litex
20	Georgi Dinkov vs Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Beroe
21	Nemanja Milisavljević vs Pirin Blagoevgrad	Beroe
22	Miguel Bedoya vs Cherno More	Levski Sofia
23	Serder Serderov vs Botev Plovdiv	Slavia
24	Georgi Andonov vs Botev Plovdiv	Beroe
25	Ventsislav Hristov vs Pirin Blagoevgrad	Levski Sofia
26	Marcelinho vs Beroe	Ludogorets
27	Martin Kamburov vs Pirin Blagoevgrad	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
28	Roman Procházka vs Botev Plovdiv	Levski Sofia
29	Nemanja Milisavljević vs Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Beroe
30	Stefan Velev vs Botev Plovdiv	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
31	Ventsislav Hristov vs Cherno More	Levski Sofia
32	Emil Gargorov vs Ludogorets	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
33	Ventsislav Hristov vs Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Levski Sofia
34	Georgi Iliev vs Botev Plovdiv	Cherno More
35	Martin Kamburov vs Cherno More	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
36	Veselin Marchev vs Pirin Blagoevgrad	Lokomotiv Plovdiv

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Martin Kamburov	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	18
2	Claudiu Keșerü	Ludogorets Razgrad	15
3	Mathias Coureur	Cherno More	11
4	Martin Toshev	Pirin Blagoevgrad	10
5	Wanderson	Ludogorets Razgrad	9
6	Ventsislav Hristov	Levski Sofia	8
7	Marcelinho	Ludogorets Razgrad	7
	Ivaylo Dimitrov	Slavia Sofia
	Lachezar Baltanov	Botev Plovdiv
	Jonathan Cafu	Ludogorets Razgrad
	Borislav Baldzhiyski1	Slavia Sofia
12	Anton Karachanakov	Slavia Sofia	6
	Roman Procházka	Levski Sofia
	Ivan Minchev	Montana
	Ismail Isa	Beroe Stara Zagora
	Miguel Bedoya	Levski Sofia

Note

¹ Including 2 goals for Montana.

_{Updated on 28 May 2016}

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Ivan Minchev	Montana	Botev Plovdiv	6–0	25 July 2015
Martin Kamburov	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Pirin Blagoevgrad	4–2	1 April 2016
Ventsislav Hristov	Levski Sofia	Cherno More	5–1	28 April 2016

_{Updated on 28 April 2016}

Clean sheets

• Levski Sofia – 13
• Ludogorets – 12
• Slavia Sofia – 12
• Beroe – 11

Transfers

• List of Bulgarian football transfers summer 2015
• List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2015–16