2015–16 A Group

A Group

Season	2015–16
Champions	Ludogorets Razgrad (5th title)
Relegated	Litex Lovech (Expelled)
Champions League	Ludogorets Razgrad
Europa League	Levski Sofia Beroe Stara Zagora 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 Razgrad
Highest scoring	Beroe Stara Zagora 5–2 Lokomotiv Plovdiv
← 2014–15 2016–17 → All statistics correct as of 28 May 2016.

The 2015–16 A Group is 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.

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.

Levski
Slavia

Beroe

Cherno More

Ludogorets

Litex

Botev
Lokomotiv

Pirin

Montana

Location of teams in 2015–16 A Group

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity (seating)
Beroe	Stara Zagora	Beroe Stadium	12,128
Botev	Plovdiv	Stadion Komatevo	4,000
Cherno More	Varna	Ticha Stadium	8,250
Levski	Sofia	Georgi Asparuhov Stadium	25,000
Litex	Lovech	Lovech Stadium	8,100
Lokomotiv	Plovdiv	Lokomotiv Stadium	10,000
Ludogorets	Razgrad	Ludogorets Arena	7,500
Montana	Montana	Ogosta Stadium	6,000
Pirin	Blagoevgrad	Hristo Botev Stadium	7,000
Slavia	Sofia	Ovcha Kupel Stadium	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 Stara Zagora	Plamen Lipenski (caretaker)	Ivo Ivanov	Uhlsport	BEROE, Refan
Botev Plovdiv	Nikolay Kostov	Yordan Hristov	Uhlsport	Efbet
Cherno More Varna	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	Obshtina Montana
Pirin	Naci Şensoy	Yulian 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 Stara Zagora	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 to Champions League second qualifying round
2	Levski Sofia	32	16	8	8	36	18	+18	56	Qualification to Europa League second qualifying round
3	Beroe Stara Zagora	32	14	11	7	37	27	+10	53	Qualification to Europa League first qualifying round
4	Slavia Sofia	32	14	7	11	36	29	+7	49[lower-alpha 1]
5	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	32	15	4	13	40	45	−5	49[lower-alpha 1]
6	Cherno More Varna	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 to Relegation playoff
10	Litex Lovech (D, R)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Expelled and relegated to Second League[lower-alpha 2]

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) Champion; (D) Disqualified; (O) Play-off winner; (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 Stara Zagora 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 Varna 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 Updated to games played on 3 December 2015. Source: bulgarian-football.com 1 ^^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column. Colours: 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 Stara Zagora 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 Varna 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 Updated to games played on 28 May 2016. Source: bulgarian-football.com 1 ^^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column. Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Relegation playoff

Montana v Pomorie

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 Stara Zagora	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 Varna	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

Last updated: 28 May 2016
Source:

Season statistics

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 Baldzhiyski^1 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 Minchev, IvanIvan Minchev Montana Botev Plovdiv 6–0 25 July 2015 Kamburov, MartinMartin Kamburov Lokomotiv Plovdiv Pirin Blagoevgrad 4–2 1 April 2016 Hristov, VentsislavVentsislav 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 References "Левски сгафи на "Герена" и връчи титлата на Лудогорец" (in Bulgarian). gong. 10 May 2016. ""А" група стартира на 18 юли" (in Bulgarian). bfunion.bg. 22 June 2015. "Очакваме жребий без ЦСКА и Локомотив Сф" (in Bulgarian). gong.bg. 30 June 2015. "Неделчо Матушев поема Пирин" (in Bulgarian). pirinfc.com. 6 June 2015. "Bruno Ribeiro is the new head coach of PFC Ludogorets". ludogorets.com. 17 June 2015. "Лудогорец пусна Рибейро по пързалката с дисциплинарно уволнение" (in Bulgarian). gong. 2 September 2015. "Илиан Илиев е новият старши треньор на Локомотив" (in Bulgarian). PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv. 26 February 2016. ""Берое" се раздели с Хубчев, нов Съвет на директорите" (in Bulgarian). PFC Beroe Stara Zagora. 7 April 2016. "Decision DK 12/16/2015" (in Bulgarian). Bulgarian Football Union. 16 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015. "Litex Lovech expelled from Bulgarian league over protest". BBC Sport. 16 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015. "Михайлов обяви бъдещето на Литекс и заяви, че има идея ЦСКА да играе в "А" група (видео)" [Mikhailov said the future of Litex and said he has an idea CSKA to play in group "A" (video)] (in Bulgarian). Sportal.bg. 20 January 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016. "Анулираха резултатите на Литекс" [Cancellation results Litex] (in Bulgarian). Sportal.bg. 22 January 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2016.[ ] "A PFG 2015/2016 - Season rules". Scoresway. Retrieved 12 July 2015.