2013–14 A Group

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Pirin Gotse Delchev (Sunday, 28 July)[3]

Lyubimets
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The 2013–14 A Group was the 90th season of the top division of the

A Group as a top tier of the pyramid. The season started on 19 July 2013 with the opening game between Chernomorets and Cherno More; the season ended on 18 May 2014 with the last game between Ludogorets Razgrad and Cherno More.[5]

For the first time after

twelve years
the competition was divided into two phases - Regular season, with every team playing against every other team twice, and Playoffs, with teams divided into Championship group (top seven) and Relegation group (bottom seven) to determine the champions and the relegated teams, respectively.

Ludogorets Razgrad went into the season as two-time defending champions[6] and managed to retain the title for a third consecutive and overall time, after winning their match with Lokomotiv Plovdiv on 7 May two rounds before the end of the season.[7][8]

Competition format

Season 2013-14 has some changes in the tournament format compared to the previous season. For the first time since

2001–02
the championship is divided in two phases.

In the first phase, the Regular season, every team must play two times against each of the other teams on home-away basis for a subtotal of 26 matches.
In the second phase, the Play-offs, the teams are divided into Championship group (first seven) and Relegation group (bottom seven). In those two parallel played groups every team has to play two times, again on home-away basis, only against the remaining six teams in the group for a subtotal of 12 matches. Since there is an odd number of teams in each group (seven), each round of the Play-offs in a group consists only of three games between six teams, and the odd team does not play in the round. Hence, there are fourteen rounds in the second phase of the season, despite there being only twelve matches for each team of the two groups to play.

Thus, the season has a total of 40 rounds.

At the end of the season, the champion earns a place in the

season 2014–15
.

Teams

A total of fourteen teams are contesting the league, including the best 12 sides from the previous 2012–13 season, plus two promoted clubs from the 2012–13 B Group.

As finishing in the bottom four places of the table at the end of season

B Group
with the object of decreasing the number of teams from 16 to 14 only for the current season. It has to be noted that only Botev Vratsa and Montana joined the 2013-14 B Group. Etar and Minyor were not given licenses to compete due to financial problems.

The relegated teams were replaced by

Bulgarian football
.

Stadia and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Pirin
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Location of teams in 2013–14 A Group
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Sofia 2013–14 A Group football clubs
Team Location Stadium Capacity (seating)
Beroe Stara Zagora
Beroe
 12,128
Botev
 Plovdiv
Hristo Botev
 18,000 (13 000)
Cherno More Varna
Ticha
 8,250
Chernomorets Burgas
Lazur
 18,037
CSKA Sofia
Balgarska Armiya
 22,015 (11 400)
Levski Sofia
Georgi Asparuhov
 29,200 (19 000)
Litex Lovech
Lovech
 8,100
Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Lokomotiv
 10,000
Lokomotiv Sofia
Lokomotiv Sofia
 22,000 (6000)
Ludogorets Razgrad
Ludogorets Arena
 6,000
Lyubimets Lyubimets Gradski 4,000
Neftochimic 1986 Burgas
Nesebar
 7,000
Pirin
Gotse Delchev
 Gradski 5,000
Slavia Sofia
Ovcha Kupel
 15,992

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 Stara Zagora Bulgaria Petar Hubchev Bulgaria Georgi Andonov Joma BEROE
Botev Plovdiv Bulgaria Stanimir Stoilov Bulgaria Ivan Tsvetkov Uhlsport KTB AD
Cherno More Varna
Georgi Ivanov
 Bulgaria Georgi Iliev Joma Armeets
Chernomorets Burgas Bulgaria Dimitar Dimitrov North Macedonia Vančo Trajanov
Sportika
 —
CSKA Sofia Bulgaria Stoycho Mladenov Bulgaria Valentin Iliev Legea —
Levski Sofia Bulgaria Elin Topuzakov Bulgaria Stanislav Angelov
Puma
M-tel
Litex Lovech Serbia Miodrag Ješić Bulgaria Simeon Slavchev adidas
Prima
Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Aleksandar Stankov
 Bulgaria Zdravko Lazarov Uhlsport —
Lokomotiv Sofia Bulgaria Dimitar Vasev
Marquinhos
 Joma Casa Boyana
Ludogorets Razgrad Bulgaria Stoycho Stoev Bulgaria Svetoslav Dyakov adidas Navibulgar
Lyubimets 2007 Bulgaria Krasimir Mechev Bulgaria Anton Ognyanov adidas —
Neftochimic Burgas Bulgaria Zlatko Yankov Bulgaria Stanislav Zhekov Krasiko —
Pirin Gotse Delchev Bulgaria Kostadin Angelov Bulgaria Petar Lazarov Erreà —
Slavia Sofia Bulgaria Milen Radukanov
Georgi Petkov
 Joma —

First phase

The first 26 Rounds comprise the first phase of the season, also called the Regular season. In the first phase, every team plays each other team twice on a home-away basis till all the teams have played two matches against each other. The table standings at the end of the Regular season determine the group in which each team is going to play in the

Play-offs
.

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Ludogorets Razgrad 26 18 4 4 57 14 +43 58 Qualification for championship group
2 Litex Lovech 26 17 6 3 59 26 +33 57
3 CSKA Sofia 26 15 6 5 44 14 +30 51
4
Botev Plovdiv
 26 13 7 6 45 21 +24 46
5 Lokomotiv Plovdiv 26 14 3 9 43 31 +12 45
6 Levski Sofia 26 13 5 8 45 24 +21 44
7 Cherno More 26 12 7 7 31 21 +10 43
8 Beroe 26 11 6 9 32 25 +7 39 Qualification for relegation group
9 Slavia Sofia 26 8 7 11 35 38 −3 31[a]
10 Lokomotiv Sofia 26 9 4 13 30 44 −14 31[a]
11 Chernomorets Burgas 26 6 4 16 30 46 −16 22
12 Lyubimets 26 5 3 18 18 66 −48 18
13 Pirin Gotse Delchev 26 4 3 19 23 71 −48 15
14 Neftochimic 1986 26 3 3 20 15 66 −51 12
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
Notes:
  1. ^ a b Slavia Sofia ahead of Lokomotiv Sofia on head-to-head record; Slavia Sofia–Lokomotiv Sofia 3–1, Lokomotiv Sofia–Slavia Sofia 0–1.

Results

Each team played against every other team for a total of 26 matches.

Home \ Away BSZ
BOT
 CHM CHB CSK LEV LIT LPL
LSO
 LUD
LYU
 NEF
PGD
 SLA
Beroe 1–0 0–0 1–1 1–1 1–0 2–3 3–0 0–1 0–1 5–0 2–0 2–1 2–1
Botev Plovdiv
 0–0 2–0 6–1 2–1 2–1 2–1 2–0 4–1 2–2 1–2 4–0 7–1 3–2
Cherno More 1–1 1–0 2–0 2–1 2–1 1–2 1–0 2–2 3–1 2–0 2–1 2–1 0–0
Chernomorets Burgas 1–3 0–2 1–0 1–2 1–3 0–0 0–1 2–1 0–2 5–0 2–3 5–0 2–2
CSKA Sofia 1–0 0–0 0–0 3–0 3–0 1–0 0–0 5–0 0–2 7–0 4–0 2–0 3–0
Levski Sofia 0–0 1–0 1–1 2–0 0–1 4–1 1–2 0–0 0–2 3–0 6–0 4–1 2–2
Litex Lovech 3–0 0–0 2–1 3–1 0–0 1–1 2–1 4–0 0–0 2–1 4–1 6–2 1–1
Lokomotiv Plovdiv 3–1 0–0 1–0 1–1 1–0 2–3 2–5 3–1 0–1 5–0 2–0 2–0 3–1
Lokomotiv Sofia
 1–0 3–2 0–2 2–1 1–1 1–0 0–2 1–2 1–2 1–0 5–0 2–0 0–1
Ludogorets Razgrad 3–0 0–0 1–1 1–0 3–0 0–1 2–4 3–0 4–0 5–1 4–0 5–0 4–0
Lyubimets
 1–2 1–0 0–4 1–2 0–3 0–2 1–4 0–2 2–1 1–0 1–1 1–0 2–2
Neftochimic 1986 1–3 0–1 0–1 1–0 1–3 1–6 0–2 1–3 0–2 0–3 1–0 0–0 1–1
Pirin Gotse Delchev
 1–0 1–1 1–0 2–3 0–1 0–2 1–5 0–6 2–2 0–3 5–2 3–2 1–3
Slavia Sofia 0–2 1–2 2–0 2–0 0–1 0–1 1–2 4–1 3–1 0–3 1–1 2–0 3–0
Source: A PFG
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Round by round

Round1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526
CSKA (Sofia)
DDDLWDDWWWWWWLWLLWWLWDWWWW
Cherno More (Varna)LDDWDDWWDLWLWWLWLDWDWWWLLW
Chernomorets (Burgas)WLLLLWDWLDLLDLLLWLWLWLLLDL
Source: sportal.bg

W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss