The 2017–18 First Professional Football League was the 94th season of the top division of the

Bulgarian football league system The Bulgarian football league system or the Bulgarian football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Bulgaria. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, and ...

, the 70th since a league format was adopted for the national competition of A Group as a top tier of the pyramid and also the 2nd season of the

First Professional Football League The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

, which decides the Bulgarian champion. The season is the second with a new league structure and strict financial criteria where 14 clubs play each other home and away, until the league is split up in championship and relegation playoffs. The new league structure, inspired by the ones used by the

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

and

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

, was approved by 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 ...

on 6 June 2016. The fixture list was released on 22 June 2017. On 29 April 2018, four rounds before the end of the championship,

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

managed to secure the title for a seventh consecutive and overall time.

Teams

A total of 14 teams would be contesting the league. Etar were promoted as champions of the 2016–17 Second League, sealing their title on the final day of the season with a 2–2 away draw against

Nesebar Nesebar (often transcribed as Nessebar and sometimes as Nesebur, , pronounced ) is an ancient city and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, located in Burgas Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous ...

, coupled with Septemvri Sofia's 0–2 away defeat to

Oborishte Oborishte () is a village located in the Panagyurishte municipality, Pazardzhik Province, western Bulgaria. It is relatively large for the region and has 1,307 inhabitants. Its name until 1950 was ''Mechka'' (Мечка), which in Bulgarian means ...

. The promoted club replaced

Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa Lokomotiv () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Gorna Oryahovitsa, which currently competes in the Second League, the second level of Bulgarian football. Established in 1932 as a sports association of the railway workers in the t ...

, who suffered an immediate return to the second tier after elimination in the

relegation play-offs Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. Septemvri Sofia, runners-up of the 2016–17 Second League, won the

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eith ...

against

and return to the top flight after an 18-year absence, for the first time since the 1998–99 season.

return to the second tier after two seasons in the top flight. Vitosha Bistritsa, who finished 3rd in the 2016–17 Second League, defeated Neftochimic in the

and won promotion to the top division for the first time in their history. Neftochimic spent only one season in the First League.

Stadia and locations

Note: From the 2016–17 season onwards, all participating clubs are required to have electric floodlights and adequate pitch conditions under the BFU and TV broadcaster's new licensing criteria. The following stadiums below have either obtained a license under UEFA's category ranking or fulfill the licensing criteria. a. Cherno More played their first home match at Kavarna Stadium in

Kavarna Kavarna ( , ) is a Black Sea coastal town and seaside resort in the Dobruja region of northeastern Bulgaria. It lies northeast of Varna, from Dobrich, and south of the border with Romania. It is the principal town of Kavarna Municipality, pa ...

due to ongoing renovation works at their

Ticha Stadium Stadion Ticha (, ) is a multi-purpose stadium in Varna, Bulgaria, Varna, Bulgaria, located in the Chayka district of the city. Currently, the stadium is used for football matches and is the home ground of Cherno More Varna. It has a seating capac ...

.
b. Etar played their first two home matches at

Lovech Stadium Gradski stadion (, ) is a football stadium in Lovech, Bulgaria. It is currently used for football matches. The stadium has more than 8100 seats. On July 12, 2010, the venue received a 3-star rating by UEFA and currently meets the UEFA guidelines ...

Lovech Lovech (, ) is a city in north-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the Lovech Province and of the subordinate Lovech Municipality. The city is located about northeast from the capital city of Sofia. Near Lovech are the towns of ...

due to ongoing renovation works at their Ivaylo Stadium.
c. Septemvri Sofia will play at the

Vasil Levski National Stadium Vasil Levski National Stadium (), named after Bulgarian Folk hero, national hero and revolutionary Vasil Levski (1837–1873), is the country's second largest stadium. The stadium has 43,230 seats and is located in the centre of Sofia, on the te ...

because their Dragalevtsi Stadium is not licensed for First League.
d.

Slavia Sofia PFC Slavia Sofia 1913 () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently competes in the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system, the First League. Slavia's home ground is the Stadion Aleksandar Sh ...

obtained permission from the

to use their own stadium and will play their matches at the

only when

floodlight A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. It can provide functional area lighting for travel-ways, parking, entrances, work areas, and sporting venues to enable visibility adequate for safe task performance, ornament ...

s are necessary.

Personnel and sponsorship

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

eligibility rules. Players and managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Note: Individual clubs may wear jerseys with advertising. However, only one sponsorship is permitted per jersey for official tournaments organised by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

in addition to that of the kit manufacturer (exceptions are made for non-profit organisations). Clubs in the domestic league can have more than one sponsorship per jersey which can feature on the front of the shirt, incorporated with the main sponsor or in place of it; or on the back, either below the squad number or on the collar area. Shorts also have space available for advertisement.

Managerial changes

1.No license for First League.

Regular season

League table

Results

Positions by round

Results by round

Championship round

Points and goals will carry over in full from regular season.

Positions by round

Below the positions per round are shown. As teams did not all start with an equal number of points, the initial pre-playoffs positions are also given.

Relegation round

Points and goals will carry over in full from regular season.

Group A

Group B

European play-offs

Bracket

European play-off quarter-finals

----

European play-off semi-finals

European play-off final

Relegation play-offs

Bracket

Winners of matches 3, 5 and 6 will play in the top division next season

First round

----

Second round

---- ''Pirin Blagoevgrad are relegated to the Second League.''

Third round

Season statistics

Top scorers

;Notes

Hat-tricks

Clean sheets

;Notes

Transfers

* List of Bulgarian football transfers summer 2017 * List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2017–18

References

External links

First League (uefa.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:First League 2017-18 2017-18 Bul 1