The 2003–04 A Group was the 56th season of the top Bulgarian national football league (commonly referred to as ''A Group'') and the 80th edition of a Bulgarian national championship tournament. This is the first season since the revision of the league rules after an unsuccessful attempt for a creation of a so-called ''Premier Professional Football League''.

Overview

In the doorstep of the new millennium the

Bulgarian Football Union The Bulgarian Football Union ( BFS) is the governing body of association football in Bulgaria, and a member of UEFA since 1954. It organizes a football league, Bulgarian Parva Liga, and fields its Bulgaria national football team in UEFA and F ...

decided to reform the football league system creating the ''Premier Professional Football League''. The new top tier of Bulgarian football required all of its participants to be licensed as professional football clubs. The reforms also saw the number of teams reduced and introduced relegation play-offs during the years of its existence. The Bulgarian Premier League, however, was unsuccessful so from season 2003–04 the top Bulgarian league was re-established as the ''Bulgarian A Professional Football Group'', returning to the traditions of A Republican Football Group and increasing the number of teams participating back to 16. Still, A Group retained the requirement of a professional status of all participants. In the 2003–04 season

Lokomotiv Plovdiv PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv (), commonly known as Loko Plovdiv, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Plovdiv. Lokomotiv's home ground is the Stadion Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), Lokomotiv Stadium which is situated in Lauta Park and ha ...

became champions for the first time in their history.

Teams

A total of 16 clubs contested the league, including 12 from the previous season in the tier, and 4 promoted from the second flight. As before the start of the season, the top flight of Bulgarian football was once again restructured and the number of participants in the league was increased back to the traditional 16 teams from 14 the previous season, there were no promotion play-offs for the right to participate in A Group that season. Instead after the end of season 2002–03 the last two teams in the top level – Dobrudzha Dobrich placed 13th, and Rilski Sportist Samokov placed 14th – were directly relegated to B Group. The winners and the runners-up from the two divisions of B Group in season 2002–03 – Vidima-Rakovski and Rodopa Smolyan from the East division, and

Belasitsa Belasica ( Macedonian and Bulgarian: , also translit. ''Belasitsa'' or ''Belasitza'', Ottoman Turkish: بلش Turkish: ''Beleş''), Belles (, ''Bélles'') or Kerkini (, ''Kerkíni'';), is a mountain range in the region of Macedonia in Southe ...

and Makedonska slava from the West division – were directly promoted to the top level of Bulgarian football. Vidima-Rakovski, Rodopa and Makedonska Slava all made their debut in the top tier, while Belasitsa Petrich returned after a one-year absence.

Stadia and Locations

League table

Results

Champions

;Lokomotiv Plovdiv *Serafimovski, Özgür, Georgiev and Spalević left the club during a season.

Top scorers

References

External links

Bulgaria – List of final tables (RSSSF)2003–04 Statistics of A Group
at a-pfg.com {{DEFAULTSORT:2003-04 A PFG First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) seasons

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...