2016–17 Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria)

The 2016–17 Second League was the 61st season of the Bulgarian Second League, the second tier of the Bulgarian football league system and the 1st season under this name and current league structure.

Second Professional Football League

Season	2016–17
Dates	6 August 2016 – 27 May 2017
Champions	Etar
Promoted	Etar Septemvri Sofia Vitosha Bistritsa
Relegated	CSKA Sofia II Spartak Pleven Bansko Levski Karlovo
Matches played	240
Goals scored	632 (2.63 per match)
Top goalscorer	Dimitar Georgiev (18)
Best goalkeeper	Martin Temenliev (13 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Etar 6–0 Nesebar (30 November 2016) Lokomotiv Sofia 6–0 Levski Karlovo (4 December 2016)
Biggest away win	Botev Galabovo 0–5 Septemvri Sofia (1 April 2017)[1]
Highest scoring	Tsarsko Selo 5–3 Botev Vratsa (27 May 2017)
Longest winning run	6 games by Pomorie[2]
Longest unbeaten run	11 games by Sozopol[2]
Longest winless run	10 games by Bansko[2]
Longest losing run	9 games by Levski Karlovo[2]
← 2015–16 2017–18 → All statistics correct as of 27 May 2017.

A total of 16 teams contested the league in a similar format to the B Group: 7 of which returning from the 2015–16 season, 7 of which promoted from third division and the reserves teams of Ludogorets Razgrad and CSKA Sofia.

Stadia and locations

Bansko

Botev Galabovo

Botev Vratsa

CSKA II
Lokomotiv
Septemvri
T. Selo

Etar

Levski

Ludogorets II

Nesebar

Oborishte

Pomorie

Sozopol

Spartak

Vitosha

Location of teams in 2016–17 Second League

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
Bansko	Bansko	Saint Peter	3,000
Botev	Galabovo	Energitik	3,000
Botev	Vratsa	Hristo Botev	32,000
CSKA II	Sofia	Balgarska Armia	22,995
Etar	Veliko Tarnovo	Ivaylo	25,000
Levski	Karlovo	Vasil Levski	6,000
Lokomotiv	Sofia	Lokomotiv	22,000
Ludogorets II	Razgrad	Eagles' Nest	2,000
Nesebar	Nesebar	Nesebar Stadium	7,000
Oborishte	Panagyurishte	Orcho Voyvoda	3,000
Pomorie	Pomorie	Pomorie Stadium	3,000
Sozopol	Sozopol	Arena Sozopol	3,500
Spartak	Pleven	Pleven Stadium	22,000
Septemvri	Sofia	Dragalevtsi	1,700
Tsarsko Selo	Sofia	Tsarsko Selo	2,000
Vitosha	Bistritsa	Bistritsa Stadium	2,000

Personnel and sponsorship

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	Kit sponsor
Bansko	Petko Medvetski	Ivan Topuzov	adidas
Botev Galabovo	Ivan Vutov	Georgi Kirilov	KRASIKO	Galabovo Municipality	Knauf
Botev Vratsa	Sasho Angelov	Todor Gochev	Jumper	WinBet
CSKA Sofia II	Svetoslav Todorov	Petar Vitanov	adidas	Mtel	WinBet
Etar Veliko Tarnovo	Stanislav Genchev	Kiril Akalski	Joma
Levski Karlovo	Krasimir Manolov	Yanko Valkanov	Saller	Karlovo Municipality
Lokomotiv Sofia	Yavor Valchinov	Daniel Peev	Joma
Ludogorets Razgrad II	Radoslav Zdravkov	Preslav Petrov	Macron	bet365	Vivacom, Spetema
Nesebar	Nikolay Rusev	Nikolay Kostov	Joma
Oborishte Panagyurishte	Emil Velev	Anatoli Todorov	KRASIKO	Asarel Medet
Pomorie	Malin Orachev	Georgi Petkov	Joma	Pomorie Municipality	Efbet
Sozopol	Rumen Dimov	Ivan Yanchev	KRASIKO
Spartak Pleven	Momchil Chelestinov (caretaker)	Tihomir Todorov	adidas
Septemvri Sofia	Hristo Arangelov	Valentin Galev	Joma
Tsarsko Selo Sofia	Nikola Spasov	Simeon Ganchev	Joma
Vitosha Bistritsa	Kostadin Angelov	Chetin Sadula	Jumper	Efbet[3]

Note: Individual clubs may wear jerseys with advertising. However, only one sponsorship is permitted per jersey for official tournaments organised by UEFA in addition to that of the kit manufacturer (exceptions are made for non-profit organisations). Clubs in the domestic league can have more than one sponsorship per jersey which can feature on the front of the shirt, incorporated with the main sponsor or in place of it; or on the back, either below the squad number or on the collar area. Shorts also have space available for advertisement.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Botev Vratsa	Dimitar Mutafov	End of caretaker tenure	31 May 2016	Pre-season	Boyko Velichkov	8 June 2016[4]
Bansko	Ivan Atanasov	Mutual consent	23 June 2016[5]		Petko Medvetski	23 June 2016[6]
Lokomotiv Sofia	Anton Velkov	Resigned	5 July 2016		Angel Kolev	5 July 2016[7]
Etar	Ferario Spasov		1 August 2016[8]		Sasho Angelov	5 August 2016[9]
	Sasho Angelov		10 August 2016[10]	10th	Iliyan Kiryakov (caretaker)	13 August 2016[11]
	Iliyan Kiryakov	End of caretaker tenure	20 August 2016	2nd	Georgi Vasilev	20 August 2016[12]
Spartak Pleven	Diyan Donchev	Resigned	30 August 2016[13]	10th	Ferario Spasov	31 August 2016[14]
Septemvri Sofia	Nikolay Mitov	Signed by Botev Plovdiv	30 August 2016[15]	1st	Hristo Arangelov	30 September 2016[16]
	Hristo Arangelov	Mutual consent	3 September 2016	1st	Nikolay Mitov	3 September 2016[17]
Botev Galabovo	Dimcho Markov		14 October 2016[18]	11th	Nikola Nikolov (caretaker)	14 October 2016
Spartak Pleven	Ferario Spasov	Resigned	15 October 2016[19]	12th	Boyko Tsvetkov	17 October 2016[20]
Oborishte	Tancho Kalpakov		17 October 2016[21]	14th	Emil Velev	17 October 2016[22]
Tsarsko Selo	Todor Yanchev		29 October 2016[23]	8th	Nikola Spasov	29 October 2016[24]
Botev Vratsa	Boyko Velichkov		22 November 2016[25]	7th	Sasho Angelov	23 November 2016[26]
CSKA Sofia II	Stamen Belchev	Promoted to CSKA Sofia	27 November 2016[27]	5th	Ivaylo Stanev (caretaker)	28 November 2016[28]
Lokomotiv Sofia	Angel Kolev	Promoted to Director of football	20 December 2016	11th	Yavor Valchinov	20 December 2016[29]
Botev Galabovo	Nikola Nikolov	End of caretaker tenure	31 December 2016	14th	Ivan Vutov	1 January 2017
Etar	Georgi Vasilev	Resigned	3 January 2017[30]	1st	Stanislav Genchev	8 January 2017[31]
Spartak Pleven	Boyko Tsvetkov	Mutual consent	4 January 2017	10th	Aleksandar Georgiev	4 January 2017[32]
CSKA Sofia II	Ivaylo Stanev	End of caretaker tenure	9 January 2017	8th	Svetoslav Todorov	9 January 2017[33]
Ludogorets Razgrad II	Galin Ivanov	Demoted to assistant	15 January 2017	13th	Radoslav Zdravkov	15 January 2017[34]
Septemvri Sofia	Nikolay Mitov	Signed by Levski Sofia	2 March 2017[35]	1st	Hristo Arangelov	2 March 2017[36]
Spartak Pleven	Aleksandar Georgiev	Resigned	6 May 2017[37]	14th	Momchil Chelestinov (caretaker)	9 May 2017[38]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Etar (C, P)	30	17	10	3	52	27	+25	61	Promotion to the First League
2	Septemvri Sofia (O, P)	30	17	8	5	52	26	+26	59	Qualification for the promotion play-offs
3	Vitosha Bistritsa (O, P)	30	15	8	7	37	23	+14	53
4	Sozopol	30	14	8	8	38	25	+13	50
5	Tsarsko Selo	30	14	6	10	54	39	+15	48	Ineligible for promotion
6	Lokomotiv Sofia	30	13	8	9	47	34	+13	47[a]
7	Pomorie	30	14	5	11	36	32	+4	47[a]
8	Ludogorets Razgrad II	30	13	5	12	39	33	+6	44	Ineligible for promotion
9	Nesebar	30	11	7	12	39	47	−8	40
10	Botev Vratsa	30	9	11	10	42	41	+1	38
11	Oborishte	30	10	7	13	30	39	−9	37
12	Botev Galabovo	30	9	7	14	28	39	−11	34
13	CSKA Sofia II (R)	30	9	6	15	44	49	−5	33[b]	Relegation to the Third League
14	Spartak Pleven (R)	30	9	6	15	44	52	−8	33[b]
15	Bansko (R)	30	6	7	17	26	55	−29	25
16	Levski Karlovo (R)	30	5	1	24	24	71	−47	16

Source: bulgarian-football.com
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th goal difference; 6th number of goals scored; 7th Fair-play points; 8th Draw
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. POM 2–0 LSO; LSO 3–0 POM
2. SPL 3–4 CSK; CSK 1–1 SPL

Results

Home \ Away	BAN	GAL	BVR	CSK	ETA	LEK	LSO	LUD	NES	OBO	POM	SOZ	SPL	SEP	TSS	VIT
Bansko		0–0	1–3	2–1	0–0	0–2	1–4	0–0	2–0	0–0	1–2	0–2	4–3	0–1	1–1	1–3
Botev Galabovo	1–0		1–3	3–2	0–2	2–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–0	2–3	1–0	0–1	0–5	0–1	0–0
Botev Vratsa	4–0	1–1		3–2	3–3	2–1	0–0	0–0	2–2	2–1	2–1	0–2	1–1	0–0	1–2	2–4
CSKA Sofia II	3–2	2–1	2–1		2–3	1–1	2–1	0–2	2–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	1–2	0–1
Etar	2–0	2–1	1–1	2–2		2–1	3–1	3–0	6–0	0–0	2–1	3–1	3–0	2–1	0–0	1–0
Levski Karlovo	2–0	0–1	1–3	0–3	2–0		2–3	2–1	2–3	0–1	1–0	0–2	2–3	0–1	1–3	1–4
Lokomotiv Sofia	2–0	2–1	2–0	2–2	0–0	6–0		1–0	3–1	2–2	3–0	3–1	1–0	2–3	2–1	1–1
Ludogorets Razgrad II	4–1	2–0	0–2	3–2	1–0	2–1	0–0		3–0	1–1	4–0	2–0	4–2	1–3	2–1	0–1
Nesebar	4–1	1–1	2–0	0–0	2–2	4–0	2–1	1–4		3–0	0–1	0–0	3–1	1–2	2–1	1–0
Oborishte	1–3	3–2	1–0	3–1	1–2	4–0	2–1	2–1	0–0		1–1	2–0	2–1	2–0	0–3	0–0
Pomorie	0–1	1–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	0–1	3–1	5–1		0–1	2–2	1–2	1–1	1–0
Sozopol	0–0	3–2	1–0	0–2	1–1	4–0	0–0	2–0	3–3	2–0	0–0		3–1	1–0	2–2	3–0
Spartak Pleven	1–3	3–1	1–1	3–4	1–2	2–0	2–0	3–0	2–0	1–0	0–1	0–2		0–4	1–3	0–0
Septemvri Sofia	1–1	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	4–1	1–1	2–1	4–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	3–3		3–0	1–0
Tsarsko Selo	4–0	1–1	5–3	4–2	1–2	5–0	3–0	1–0	0–2	3–0	2–3	1–0	1–5	1–1		0–1
Vitosha Bistritsa	4–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	1–1	4–1	0–2	0–0	0–1	2–0	2–1	0–0	1–0	2–1	2–1

Source: bulgarian-football.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

As of matches played on 27 May 2017^[39]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Dimitar Georgiev	Lokomotiv Sofia	18
2	Simeon Ganchev	Tsarsko Selo	13
3	Kostadin Adzhov	Septemvri Sofia	12
	Milcho Angelov	CSKA Sofia II
5	Georgi Fikiyn	Bansko	11
	Chris Gadi	Spartak Pleven
7	Georgi Kirilov	Botev Galabovo	10
	Todor Chavorski	Botev Vratsa
	Ahmed Ahmedov	Pomorie
	Pavel Petkov[nb 1]	Tsarsko Selo
11	Stefan Hristov[nb 2]	Vitosha Bistritsa	9
	Daniel Pehlivanov	Septemvri Sofia
13	Daniel Peev	Lokomotiv Sofia	8
	Ivan Petkov	Etar
	Svetoslav Dikov	Tsarsko Selo
	Vladimir Aytov	Oborishte
	Eray Karadayi	Nesebar

Notes

1. Including 4 goals for Botev Vratsa.
2. Including 4 goals for Spartak Pleven.