2018–19 Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria)

The 2018–19 Second League was the 63rd season of the Second League, the second tier of the Bulgarian football league system, and the 3rd season under this name and current league structure. In June 2018, the Executive Committee of the Bulgarian Football Union decided to increase the participating teams to 18 for the 2019–20 season; as a result, only two teams will be relegated to Third League.^[1] The fixture list was released on 8 June 2018.^[2] The participating teams were confirmed on the same day. FC Tsarsko Selo Sofia became champions of the second league and were promoted directly to the first division. FC Dobrudzha Dobrich and PFC Nesebar were relegated.^[3]

Second Professional Football League

Season	2018–19
Champions	Tsarsko Selo
Promoted	Tsarsko Selo Arda
Relegated	Dobrudzha Nesebar
Matches played	240
Goals scored	567 (2.36 per match)
Top goalscorer	Georgi Minchev (29 goals)
Longest winning run	14 games by Tsarsko Selo
Longest unbeaten run	20 games by Montana and Tsarsko Selo
Longest winless run	18 games by Dobrudzha
Longest losing run	5 games by Ludogorets II
← 2017–18 2019–20 → All statistics correct as of 29 May 2019.

Teams

The following teams have changed division since the 2017–18 season.

To Second League Promoted from Third League Dobrudzha Dobrich Arda Kariana CSKA 1948 Relegated from First League Pirin Blagoevgrad

From Second League Relegated to Third League Neftochimic Sozopol Maritsa Plovdiv Oborishte Promoted to First League Botev Vratsa

Stadia and locations

Sofia

Arda

Botev

Chernomorec Balchik

Dobrudzha

Kariana

Litex

Lokomotiv GO

Ludogorets II

Montana

Nesebar

Pirin

Pomorie

Strumska Slava

Location of teams in 2018–19 Second League

CSKA 1948

Lokomotiv Sofia

Tsarsko Selo

Sofia 2018–19 Second League football clubs

Team	City	Stadium	Capacity
Arda	Kardzhali	Druzhba	15,000
Botev	Galabovo	Energetik	3,000
Chernomorets	Balchik	Gradski, Balchik	3,100
CSKA 1948	Sofia	Vasil Levski National Stadium	43,230
Dobrudzha	Dobrich	Druzhba	12,500
Kariana	Erden	Sport Complex Kariana	1,000
Litex	Lovech	Gradski, Lovech	8,100
Lokomotiv	Gorna Oryahovitsa	Lokomotiv, Gorna Oryahovitsa	10,500
Lokomotiv	Sofia	Lokomotiv, Sofia	22,000
Ludogorets II	Razgrad	Eagles' Nest	2,000
Montana	Montana	Ogosta	8,000
Nesebar	Nesebar	Nesebar	7,000
Pirin	Blagoevgrad	Hristo Botev	7,500
Pomorie	Pomorie	Pomorie	2,000
Strumska Slava	Radomir	Gradski, Radomir	3,500
Tsarsko Selo	Sofia	Tsarsko Selo Sports Complex	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
Arda	Stamen Belchev	Borislav Stoychev	Nike	—	—
Botev Galabovo	Gospodin Mirchev	Nikolay Yankov	KRASIKO	Galabovo Municipality	Knauf
Chernomorets Balchik	Georgi Ivanov	Genadi Lugo	Legea	Balchik Municipality	—
CSKA 1948	Petko Petkov	Evgeni Zyumbulev[4]	Errea	Efbet	—
Dobrudzha Dobrich	Emil Velev	Daniel Gramatikov	KRASIKO	Albena Resort	Pioneer Seeds, Izida
Kariana	Veselin Velikov	Evgeni Ignatov	Joma	Upgrade	—
Litex	Zhivko Zhelev	Plamen Nikolov	adidas	—	—
Lokomotiv Sofia	Mladen Dodić	Vladislav Romanov	Joma	Efbet	Malizia, Intesa, VIA 2000
Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa	Krasimir Mechev	Krasen Trifonov	KRASIKO	Efbet	Prity, Enel, Go Grill
Ludogorets Razgrad II	Radoslav Zdravkov	Oleg Dimitrov	Umbro	Efbet	Vivacom, Spetema
Montana	Ferario Spasov	Ivan Mihov	Jako	Efbet	—
Nesebar	Nikolay Zhechev	Nikolay Kostov	Joma	Nesebar Municipality	Efbet
Pirin Blagoevgrad	Petar Zlatinov	Yulian Popev	Erreà	Katarino Spa	—
Pomorie	Radoslav Boyanov	Georgi Petkov	Joma	Efbet	—
Strumska Slava	Vladimir Dimitrov[5]	Todor Zyumbulev	Jumper	Efbet	—
Tsarsko Selo	Nikola Spasov	Simeon Ganchev	Nike	Winbet	—

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
Lokomotiv GO	Aleksandar Dimitrov	End of contract	23 May 2018	Pre-season	Todor Kiselichkov	10 June 2018[6]
Tsarsko Selo	Velislav Vutsov	Mutual consent	1 June 2018		Nikola Spasov	1 June 2018[7]
Pomorie	Veselin Branimirov	Signed by Riga	12 June 2018[8]		Radoslav Boyanov	22 June 2018[9]
Lokomotiv Sofia	Mladen Dodić	End of contract	14 June 2018		Angel Kolev	14 June 2018[10]
Pirin Blagoevgrad	Milen Radukanov		19 June 2018[11]		Petar Zlatinov	20 June 2018[12]
CSKA 1948	Valentin Iliev	Mutual consent	21 August 2018[13]	4th	Petko Petkov	24 August 2018[14]
Kariana	Atanas Dzhambazki	Sacked	21 August 2018	14th	Veselin Velikov	26 August 2018[15]
Arda	Elin Topuzakov		26 August 2018	7th	Stoycho Stoev	26 August 2018[16]
Lokomotiv GO	Todor Kiselichkov	Mutual consent	18 September 2018[17]	16th	Marin Baichev (caretaker)	11 October 2018[18]
Botev Galabovo	Lyudmil Kirov	Signed by Vereya	27 September 2018	4th	Gospodin Mirchev	27 September 2018[19]
Dobrudzha	Diyan Bozhilov	Mutual consent	6 November 2018	16th	Emil Velev	13 November 2018[20]
Lokomotiv GO	Marin Baichev (caretaker)	Caretaking spell over	13 December 2018	9th	Krasimir Mechev	13 December 2018[21]
Lokomotiv Sofia	Angel Kolev	Mutual consent	17 December 2018	11th	Mladen Dodić	17 December 2018[22]
Arda	Stoycho Stoev	Signed by Ludogorets	6 March 2019	3rd	Stamen Belchev	6 March 2019[23][24]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Tsarsko Selo (C, P)	30	24	4	2	68	27	+41	76	Promotion to the First League
2	Montana	30	18	9	3	49	22	+27	63	Qualification for the promotion play-offs
3	Arda (P)	30	19	5	6	44	18	+26	62
4	CSKA 1948	30	16	11	3	39	18	+21	59
5	Litex	30	12	9	9	43	26	+17	45
6	Strumska Slava Radomir	30	10	7	13	36	44	−8	37[a]
7	Chernomorets Balchik	30	10	7	13	27	35	−8	37[a]
8	Lokomotiv Sofia	30	9	9	12	25	28	−3	36[b]
9	Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa	30	10	6	14	30	43	−13	36[b]
10	Pomorie	30	10	6	14	35	49	−14	36[b]
11	Ludogorets Razgrad II	30	9	5	16	31	43	−12	32	Ineligible for promotion
12	Kariana	30	8	7	15	29	38	−9	31[c]
13	Pirin Blagoevgrad	30	9	4	17	29	49	−20	31[c]
14	Botev Galabovo	30	7	10	13	32	38	−6	31[c]
15	Nesebar (R)	30	6	9	15	33	51	−18	27	Relegation to the Third League
16	Dobrudzha Dobrich (R)	30	4	10	16	17	38	−21	22

Source: bulgarian-football.com
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.^[25]
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Strumska Slava Radomir is ahead of Chernomorets Balchik on head-to-head points: Strumska Slava–Chernomorets Balchik 1–0, Chernomorets Balchik–Strumska Slava 2–1.
2. Lokomotiv Sofia is ahead of Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa and Pomorie on head-to-head points: Lokomotiv Sofia 8 pts, Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa 6 pts, Pomorie 2 pts.
3. Kariana is ahead of Pirin Blagoevgrad and Botev Galabovo on head-to-head points: Kariana 9 pts, Pirin Blagoevgrad 4 pts, Botev Galabovo 4 pts.

Results

Home \ Away	ARD	GAL	CBA	CSK	DOB	KAR	LIT	LGO	LSO	LUD	MON	NES	PIR	POM	STR	TSS
Arda	—	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	3–0	2–0	0–1	2–0	5–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	0–1
Botev Galabovo	2–3	—	3–1	1–1	0–0	3–1	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–1	2–0	3–3	4–1	0–0	3–2
Chernomorets Balchik	1–3	1–0	—	0–0	3–0	0–0	2–2	1–2	1–0	1–0	0–0	2–1	2–1	0–3	2–1	1–3
CSKA 1948	0–0	0–0	2–1	—	0–0	2–1	1–0	4–0	3–1	0–0	1–1	2–0	2–1	1–2	3–0	1–1
Dobrudzha Dobrich	0–2	1–0	0–1	0–0	—	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–1	1–3	0–0	1–0	1–2	2–0	1–2	0–2
Kariana	0–1	3–0	0–0	0–1	2–0	—	1–1	0–2	0–2	3–0	0–0	2–0	2–1	2–0	1–2	1–2
Litex	2–0	2–0	3–0	1–0	2–2	1–1	—	0–1	0–0	2–0	1–2	3–0	3–1	3–0	2–0	2–3
Lokomotiv GO	2–0	1–2	1–2	0–1	1–1	3–2	1–2	—	0–2	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–2	3–2	1–0	0–1
Lokomotiv Sofia	0–3	1–0	0–0	0–1	2–0	2–0	1–1	4–1	—	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–1
Ludogorets Razgrad II	0–1	2–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	4–0	0–0	3–2	0–3	—	1–3	4–1	0–0	2–2	3–1	0–2
Montana	0–0	2–2	1–0	2–2	1–2	2–1	2–1	4–1	3–0	2–0	—	3–1	2–0	1–0	3–1	2–0
Nesebar	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–2	3–1	1–1	0–0	2–1	3–0	4–2	1–2	—	2–3	1–1	0–0	0–2
Pirin Blagoevgrad	0–0	2–1	2–1	1–2	1–0	1–2	0–5	0–0	0–2	1–0	0–3	1–3	—	0–2	3–0	1–3
Pomorie	1–1	2–2	1–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–2	0–0	2–1	1–3	4–3	1–0	—	0–2	2–5
Strumska Slava	1–3	1–0	1–0	3–4	3–1	3–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	2–3	2–2	2–2	2–0	1–0	—	2–2
Tsarsko Selo	2–1	3–1	4–2	0–0	3–1	1–1	3–1	2–1	2–1	4–0	1–0	3–1	3–0	4–1	3–1	—

Source: bulgarian-football.com
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

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
Tsarsko Selo	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Montana	8	6	5	7	4	5	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	2
Arda	3	4	8	6	8	4	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	3	3	2	2	3	3	3	3
CSKA 1948	9	3	2	4	2	2	6	7	4	5	4	5	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Litex	12	15	11	12	14	9	7	6	7	8	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Strumska Slava	5	5	3	2	3	3	8	8	10	10	13	12	12	11	13	10	12	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	8	8	8	7	6
Chernomorets	11	12	15	10	6	8	10	11	9	11	7	8	7	8	8	7	7	7	7	6	7	7	8	9	9	10	10	10	10	7
Lokomotiv Sofia	10	13	9	8	13	12	13	14	11	12	11	9	9	7	7	9	11	8	8	8	9	9	9	8	8	9	9	9	8	8
Lokomotiv GO	7	14	14	15	12	14	16	12	8	7	9	11	11	13	11	13	9	9	11	9	8	8	7	7	7	6	6	6	6	9
Pomorie	15	10	4	3	5	7	4	5	5	4	5	3	5	5	5	5	6	5	6	7	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	9	10
Ludogorets II	16	11	13	14	15	16	14	16	15	14	14	14	10	12	12	8	10	13	13	13	14	14	14	14	14	12	11	11	11	11
Kariana	14	16	16	16	16	15	15	15	16	16	16	15	14	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	13	12	13	13	12	13	14	14	13	12
Pirin	4	8	12	13	10	11	9	9	13	13	12	13	15	15	14	14	14	14	14	14	15	15	15	15	15	15	13	13	14	13
Botev Galabovo	6	2	6	5	7	6	5	4	6	6	8	7	11	9	9	11	13	11	12	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	12	12	12	14
Nesebar	1	7	10	11	9	13	12	13	12	9	10	10	8	10	10	12	8	12	10	12	12	13	12	12	13	14	15	15	15	15
Dobrudzha	13	9	7	9	11	10	11	10	14	15	15	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16	16

Updated to match(es) played on 23 May 2019. Source: bulgarian-football.com

Top scorers

As of match(es) played on 23 May 2019^[26]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Georgi Minchev	Tsarsko Selo	29
2	Andon Gushterov	CSKA 1948	20
3	Atanas Iliev	Montana	18
4	Ventsislav Hristov	Arda	12
	Denislav Aleksandrov[a]	CSKA 1948
	Vladislav Zlatinov	Pirin Blagoevgrad

1. Includes 6 goals for Ludogorets Razgrad II