FC Vereya Stara Zagora

Vereya ( bg, Верея) is a Bulgarian association football club based in Stara Zagora, which currently competes in the Southeast Third League, the third tier of Bulgarian football.

Vereya was founded in 2001. The team made a remarkable rise through the levels of the Bulgarian football system, and by 2016, the club reached the top level of Bulgarian football, the First League, for the first time. In 2019, after three seasons in the First League, they were expelled from it for reported match fixing.

History

Foundation and beginning

The club was founded in 2001 by a founding board led by Hristiyan Parvanov, Galin Mihaylov, Slavcho Tanev, Tonko Totev and Dimo Hristov. Until the 2005/06 season it was playing in Regional groups before the promotion to the V AFG under the name FC Vereya-Arsenal after a merger with Arsenal Kazanlak, but after the season 2006/07 Vereya-Arsenal became Arsenal Kazanlak and the 2nd team Vereya Bulsatkom moved to Stara Zagora again and was registered as FC Vereya. They won the A RFG 3 times in the next 5 seasons, getting the promotion during the 2011–12 season.

Trace Group ownership (2012–present)

In 2012, Bulgarian construction company Trace Group started investing in the club and a new stadium project Trace Arena was presented.
On May 21, 2014 the club won the Cup of Bulgarian Amateur Football League after defeating Minyor Pernik 2–0 in the final. During the same season Vereya finished 3rd in the V Group and secured promotion to the higher-ranked professional football league, the B Group.

In 2016, the club submitted an application for the newly restructured Bulgarian First League. On June 1, 2016, one of the new signings of the club for the upcoming season, the Brazilian Elias Alves da Silva, announced that he joined the club, as it would compete in the top league of Bulgaria, long before an official statement was given by the BFU officials on the number of the teams competing in the new league, thus sparking controversy.

On June 7, 2016, Vereya, alongside five other B Group outfits, were approved by the Bulgarian Football Union and were promoted to compete in the upcoming 2016-17 Bulgarian First League. Vereya was one of the clubs with the necessary financial and infrastructural requirements for the new first tier.

In its first ever season in the top level (2016-17), Vereya managed to secure a 7th place finish, thus remaining part of the elite for next season.

In its second season in the top level (2017-18), Vereya surprised many, by finishing in the top 6 in the regular season.

The third season in the elite was not that successful, however. It was marked by financial problems. On 7 May 2019, Vereya were disqualified from the league for match fixing. All results from played matches involving Vereya were retained with the Bulgarian Football Union awarding Septemvri Sofia two wins by 3–0 from their scheduled relegation play-off matches with Vereya and the loser from the relegation play-off match between Dunav Ruse and Vitosha Bistritsa (the latter) directly faced the second-placed team from the Second League (Montana). Vereya was then disqualified from the Second League, due to financial issues, following which they were also disqualified from the third tier, which meant that the team will start the 2019-20 season from the fourth division of Bulgarian football, in this case the Stara Zagora regional league.

Statistics

Season to season

*Seasons in '' First League'': 3
*Seasons in ''B Group'' (now Second League): 2
*Seasons in ''V Group'' ( now Third League): 3
*Seasons in '' A Regional Group'': 10

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PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2021
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2006
Colors =
id:bl1 value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5)
id:bl2 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.3)
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PlotData=
bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 color:yellow shift:(0,14) text: Regional
from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 color:red shift:(0,14) text: "V Group"
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2012 color:yellow shift:(0,14) text: Regional
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2014 color:red shift:(0,14) text: "V Group"
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2016 color:white shift:(0,14) text: "B Group"
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2019 color:bl1 shift:(0,14) text: " First League"
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) color:yellow shift:(0,14) text: "Regional"
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:18
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 color:red shift:(0,14) text: "3rd"

Shirt and sponsors

Vereya main colors are blue and white.

Honours

First League:
*6th: 2017–18

Second League:
*8th 2015–16

Third League:
* 3rd: 2013–14

A RFG Stara Zagora:
* Winners (4): 2005-06, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2011–12
* Runner-up (1): 2009–10

Cup of Bulgarian Amateur Football League:
* Winners (1): 2013–14

Bulgarian Cup:
* Semifinals: 2016–17

Current squad

''As of 1 August 2020''

Notable players

Had international caps for their respective countries, or held any club record. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Vereya or at some other point in their careers.

;
* Zhivko Zhelev
* Ivan Stoyanov
* Kostadin Stoyanov
* Ivo Ivanov
* Ivan Bandalovski
* Valeri Domovchiyski
* Veselin Minev
* Ventsislav Hristov
* Daniel Naumov
* Petar Vitanov

;Europe
* Alexandru Pașcenco
* Andrejs Kovaļovs

;Asia
* Hussein Abdulghani

;Africa
* Yassine El Kharroubi
* Olivier Bonnes
* Christoffer Mafoumbi
* Ulysse Ndong
* Alexander N'Doumbou
* Samuel Inkoom
* Selim Ben Djemia

Managers

References

External links

Official websiteClub page at bgclubs.euClub page at Sportal.bg

{{First Professional Football League (Bulgaria)

Vereya
Vereya