The 2010–11 A Group season was the 87th edition of the Bulgarian national top football division, and the 63rd of A Group as the top-tier football league in the country. The season commenced on 31 July 2010 and ended with the last games on 28 May 2011. The winter break was between the weekends around 29 November 2010 and 26 February 2011. Litex Lovech defended their 2009/10 A Group title and were champions for two consecutive seasons. This was the last edition until the 2025-26 season that was not won by Ludogorets Razgrad.
Team information Lokomotiv Mezdra, Sportist Svoge and Botev Plovdiv were directly relegated after finishing in the bottom three places. Lokomotiv Mezdra ended a two-year tenure, Sportist Svoge were relegated after a year in A Group, and Botev were excluded from A Group due to financial difficulties at the winter brake, ending a five-year stint in the A Group.
The relegated teams were replaced by Vidima-Rakovski, champions of West B Group and Kaliakra Kavarna, champions of the East B Group. Vidima-Rakovski returned to A Group after two years, while Kaliakra entered the top division for their first time.
A further place in the league was decided by a play-off match between the runners-up teams from the two B Group's. The game was played on 23 May 2010 between Nesebar and Akademik Sofia. Akademik won the match by 2–1 and returned to the top division after 28 years. The last season the club had played in A Group was 1981–82.
Stadia and locations As in the previous year, the league will comprise the best thirteen teams of season 2009/10, the 2 champions of the West and East B Group's and the winners of the promotion play-off between the runners-up from the West and East B Group's.
The following teams have ensured their participation in A Group for season 2010/11 (listed in alphabetical order):
Team City Stadium Stadium capacityAkademikSofiaOvcha Kupel118,000BeroeStara ZagoraBeroe17,800Cherno MoreVarnaTicha8,250ChernomoretsBurgasLazur18,037CSKASofiaVasil Levski243,632KaliakraKavarnaKavarna5,000LevskiSofiaGeorgi Asparuhov29,986LitexLovechLovech7,050LokomotivPlovdivLokomotiv13,800LokomotivSofiaVasil Levski343,632MinyorPernikMinyor8,000MontanaMontanaOgosta8,000PirinBlagoevgradHristo Botev7,500SlaviaSofiaOvcha Kupel18,000Sliven 2000SlivenHadzhi Dimitar10,000Vidima-RakovskiSevlievoRakovski8,816
Notes Akademik Sofia will play their league home games at Ovcha Kupel Stadium in Sofia because their Akademik Stadium had not received approval from the BFU license committee. CSKA Sofia will play their league home games at Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia because their Balgarska Armiya had not received approval from the BFU license committee. Lokomotiv Sofia will play their league home games at Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia because their Lokomotiv Stadium had not received approval from the BFU license committee.
Personnel and sponsoring TeamManagerCaptainKit ManufacturerShirt SponsorAkademik Sofia Boris Angelov Nikola AsenovSallerBench Mark GroupBeroe Stara Zagora Ilian Iliev Slavi ZhekovGUPABulsatcomCherno More Varna Stefan Genov Georgi IlievMishoArmeetsChernomorets Burgas Georgi Vasilev Trayan DyankovPumaQUARTOCSKA Sofia Milen Radukanov Todor YanchevUhlsportGLOBULKaliakra Anton Zdravkov Ivan RaychevUhlsportMunicipality of KavarnaLevski Sofia Yasen Petrov Hristo YovovNikeM-TelLitex Lovech Lyuboslav Penev Nebojša JelenkovićAdidasb-connectLokomotiv Plovdiv Saša Nikolić Zdravko LazarovUhlsportLokomotiv Sofia Dian Petkov Kristian DobrevPumaMinyor Pernik Stoycho Stoev Kostadin MarkovJumperMunicipal Insurance CompanyMontana Atanas Dzhambazki Daniel GadzhevASICSGM CapitalPirin Blagoevgrad Kostadin Angelov Veselin StoykovJomaBeer PirinskoSlavia Sofia Emil Velev Bogomil DyakovPumaSliven Dimcho Nenov Evgeni KaramanovTomyVidima-Rakovski Dimitar Todorov Georgi StoychevASICSVIDEXIM
Managerial changes
Team Outgoing manager(s) Manner of departure Date of vacancy Position in table Replaced by Date of appointment CSKA Sofia Adalbert Zafirov (interim)End of caretaker contract 16 May 2010Pre-season Pavel Dochev 13 May 2010 Slavia Sofia Velislav VutsovSacked 17 May 2010 Emil Velev 19 May 2010 Levski Sofia Anton Zdravkov Georgi IvanovEnd of caretaker contract 20 May 2010 Yasen Petrov 20 May 2010 Pirin Blagoevgrad Stefan GrozdanovLeaves the club 8 June 2010 Yordan Bozdanski 21 June 2010 Litex Lovech Angel ChervenkovSacked 5 August 20101st Petko Petkov (interim) 5 August 2010 CSKA Sofia Pavel DochevSacked 16 August 201013th Gjore Jovanovski 16 August 2010 Pirin Blagoevgrad Yordan BozdanskiSacked 30 August 201014th Kostadin Angelov 1 September 2010 Litex Lovech Petko Petkov (interim)End of caretaker contract 1 September 20104th Luboslav Penev 2 September 2010 Minyor Pernik Anton VelkovResigned 6 September 201016th Stoycho Stoev 8 September 2010 Kaliakra Kavarna Filip FilipovSacked 6 October 201013th Anton Zdravkov 7 October 2010 CSKA Sofia Gjore JovanovskiSacked 21 October 20109th Milen Radukanov 21 October 2010 Cherno More Varna Velizar PopovResigned 23 October 201010th Stefan Genov 23 October 2010 Lokomotiv Sofia Dimitar VasevSacked 22 November 20105th Dian Petkov (interim) 22 November 2010 Sliven Dragoljub SimonovićResigned 4 December 201015th Dimcho Nenov 10 January 2011 Chernomorets Burgas Krasimir BalakovResigned 7 December 20103rd Anton Velkov 23 December 2010 Chernomorets Burgas Anton VelkovSacked 21 March 20117th Georgi Vasilev 21 March 2011 Lokomotiv Plovdiv Nedelcho MatushevSacked 26 April 20115th Saša Nikolić 26 April 2011
League table
Results
Positions by round
Relegation playoff
Chernomorets Pomorie wasn't allowed to compete in the next season, so there will be 2 play-offs. The first will be between the teams that lost against Chernomorets Pomorie, Vidima-Rakovski and Sportist Svoge. The other will be between Svetkavitsa and FC Etar Veliko Tarnovo (the 3rd teams in the West and East B Group) for the Pirin Blagoevgrad's place.
Champions Litex Lovech Goalkeepers1 Uroš Golubović 2 (0)30 Evgeni Aleksandrov 1 (0)31 Vinícius Barrivieira 26 (0) Defenders2 Alexandre Barthe 21 (3)3 Petar Zanev 27 (1)4 Džemal Berberović 23 (0)5 Mihail Venkov 12 (0)6 Ivaylo Petkov 5 (1)16 Strahil Popov 3 (0)18 Iliya Milanov 6 (0)22 Plamen Nikolov 24 (0)33 Nikolay Bodurov 25 (2) Midfielders7 Hristo Yanev 27 (5)8 Tom 18 (1)10 Sandrinho 10 (1)15 Doka Madureira 22 (12)17 Georgi Milanov 27 (4)19 Rumen Rumenov 6 (0)20 Neném 0 (0)21 Aleksandar Tsvetkov 14 (0)22 Simeon Slavchev 1 (0)23 Nebojša Jelenković 22 (0)24 Angel Zdravchev 1 (0)27 Momchil Tsvetanov 22 (3) Forwards9 Svetoslav Todorov 25 (8)11 Papa Diouf 14 (2)14 Dejan Djermanović 12 (3) Wilfried Niflore* 12 (6) Ivelin Popov* 3 (0) Florin Bratu* 7 (2) Manager Lyuboslav Penev
Niflore, Popov and Bratu left the club during a season.
Season statistics
Top goalscorers Including matches played on 28 May 2011 RankScorerClubGoals1 Garra DembéléLevski Sofia262 Zdravko LazarovLokomotiv Plovdiv143 Spas DelevCSKA Sofia134 Doka MadureiraLitex Lovech125 Tsvetan GenkovLokomotiv Sofia11 Hristo ZlatinskiLokomotiv Plovdiv117 Michel PlatiniCSKA Sofia10 Nikolay BozhovSlavia Sofia10 Basile de CarvalhoLokomotiv Plovdiv10 Vladislav ZlatinovBeroe Stara Zagora10
Top assistants Including matches played on 28 May 2011 RankPlayerClubAssists1 Darko TasevskiLevski Sofia92 TomLitex Lovech8 Zdravko LazarovLokomotiv Plovdiv84 JoãozinhoLevski Sofia7 Hristo YanevLitex Lovech7 Spas DelevCSKA Sofia77 Gregory NelsonCSKA Sofia6 Iskren PisarovLokomotiv Sofia6 Marcho DafchevLokomotiv Sofia610 Tsvetan GenkovLokomotiv Sofia5 Basile de CarvalhoLokomotiv Plovdiv5 SerginhoLokomotiv Plovdiv5 Dragi KotsevLokomotiv Plovdiv5 Emil GargorovCSKA Sofia5 Todor HristovBeroe5 Doka MadureiraLitex Lovech5 Atanas ChipilovMontana5
Scoring
First goal of the season: 18:06, 31 July 2010 – Georgi Filipov for Kaliakra against Slavia (6th minute) Fastest goal in a match: 19 seconds – Rumen Trifonov for CSKA against Chernomorets (8 August 2010) First own goal of the season: Yordan Petkov (Slavia) for Beroe, 3rd round (15 August 2010) First hat-trick of the season: Garra Dembélé (Levski) against Loko Sofia (9 August 2010) Quickest hat-trick: 25 minutes – Garra Dembélé (Levski) against Minyor (12 September 2010) Widest winning margin: 5 goals Sliven 2000 6–1 Vidima-Rakovski (18 September 2010) Lokomotiv Plovdiv 5–0 Kaliakra (25 September 2010) Cherno More 5–0 Vidima-Rakovski (9 April 2011) Most goals in one half: 6 goals Sliven 2000 6–1 Vidima-Rakovski (5–1 at half time) (18 September 2010) Most goals scored by losing team: 3 goals Lokomotiv Sofia 4–3 Slavia (27 November 2010) Highest scoring draw: 4 goals Vidima-Rakovski 2–2 CSKA (14 August 2010) Lokomotiv Plovdiv 2–2 Litex (22 August 2010) Montana 2–2 Akademik (18 September 2010) Minyor 2–2 Lokomotiv Plovdiv (2 October 2010) Lokomotiv Sofia 2–2 CSKA (4 October 2010) Slavia 2–2 Levski (7 November 2010)
Discipline
First yellow card of the season: Radoslav Mitrevski for Pirin against Cherno More, 17 minutes and 25 seconds (31 July 2010) First red card of the season: Anton Dimitrov for Kaliakra against Slavia, 87 minutes and 14 seconds (31 July 2010) Most yellow cards in a single match: 10 Akademik 0–1 Sliven – 6 for Akademik (Pieter Mbemba, Asparuh Vasilev, Ivan Redovski, Nikola Asenov, Marcos Bonfim and Yulian Petkov) and 4 for Sliven (Petar Stoyanov, Nikolay Dimitrov, Miroslav Mindev and Dimo Bakalov) (21 August 2010) Most red cards in a single match: 3 Cherno More 3–2 Slavia – 1 for Cherno More (Ademar Júnior) and 2 for Slavia (Galin Ivanov, Victor Deniran) (17 October 2010)
Attendances
# Club Average 1 Chernomorets 4,084 2 Beroe 3,222 3 Lokomotiv Plovdiv 3,093 4 Levski 2,811 5 CSKA Sofia 2,423 6 Minyor 2,411 7 Montana 2,310 8 Cherno More 2,023 9 Sliven 1,611 10 Lovech 1,513 11 Pirin 1,381 12 Kaliakra 988 13 Vidima-Rakovski 912 14 Slavia Sofia 725 15 Lokomotiv Sofia 311 16 Akademik Sofia 307Source:
See also List of Bulgarian football transfers summer 2010 List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2010–11
References
External links Official website