The 2002–03 A Group was the 55th season of the top Bulgarian national football league (commonly referred to as ''A Group'') and the 79th edition of a Bulgarian national championship tournament.

Overview

It was contested by 14 teams, and

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

won the championship. The Reds finished with 66 points in total, six points above archrivals

Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 b ...

. CSKA Sofia qualified for the 2003-04 Champions League qualifying rounds, while Levski and third placed

Litex Lovech Litex ( bg, Литекс) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Lovech, which currently competes in the Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Sports Club. The club's home ground is the Gradski Stadion ...

qualified for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

for next season.

Marek Dupnitsa FC Marek ( bg, ФК Марек) is a Bulgarian football club based in Dupnitsa, currently playing in the Third League, the third level of the Bulgarian football league system. It was founded in 1947 following the unification of four local clubs. ...

qualified for the

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

. At the end of the season, Dobrudzha Dobrich and

Rilski Sportist FC Rilski Sportist (ФК Рилски спортист Самоков) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Samokov founded in 1947 and currently playing in the South-West Third League. Their home stadium is Iskar Stadium. Throughou ...

were relegated after just one season in the elite. Only two teams were relegated, because the league was expanded the following season from 14 to 16 teams.

Teams

Promotion and Relegation

Beroe,

Belasitsa Petrich OFC Belasitsa ( bg, ОФК Беласица Петрич) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Petrich, currently playing in the Second League. The team was founded in 1923. They play at the Stadion Tsar Samuil in Petrich, which has ...

, and

Spartak Pleven OFK Spartak ( bg, ОФК Спартак) is a Bulgarian municipal association football club from the city of Pleven founded on 10 September 1919. It currently competes in the Second League, the second tier of Bulgarian football. The team's grea ...

were relegated at the end of the last season. The relegated teams were replaced by three teams from

B PFG The Bulgarian Second Professional Football League ( bg, Втора професионална футболна лига, Vtora Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as Second League ( bg, Втора Лига) or Vtora liga, is the second level ...

. These teams were

Botev Plovdiv Profesionalen Futbolen Klub Botev, commonly referred to as Botev Plovdiv ( bg, „Ботев“ Пловдив, ) or simply Botev (within its associated city), is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, that competes ...

, Dobrudzha Dobrich, and Rilski Sportist Samokov. Botev return after a one-year absence, Dobrudzha return after a two-year absence, while Rilski Sportist made their debut in the top tier of Bulgarian football.

Stadia and Locations

League standings

Results

Champions

;CSKA Sofia *Ivanov and Deyanov left the club during a season.

Top scorers

References

External links

Bulgaria - List of final tables (RSSSF)2002–03 Statistics of A Group
at a-pfg.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2002-03 A PFG First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) seasons

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...