The 2017–18 Third Amateur Football League season is the 68th season of the

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 ...

n Third Amateur Football League. The group is equivalent to the third level of the Bulgarian football pyramid with four divisions existing in it. The divisions themselves are geographically separated into ''North-West'', ''North-East'', ''South-East'', and ''South-West'', covering the football clubs of their respective zones. This is the second season after the reorganization of the Bulgarian football system, which saw the emergence of new competition formats, such as

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

Professional Football Leagues.

Team changes

To Third League

Promoted from Regional Divisions * Benkovski Byala * Spartak 1918 *

Botev Lukovit FC Botev Lukovit () is a Bulgarian football club from Lukovit, currently playing in the Bulgarian "A" RFG Lovech. The stadium of the club is The City Stadium in Lukovit with capacity of 3,000 people. History Botev Lukovit Football Club was fo ...

* Yantra 1919 Gabrovo * Yantra Polski Trambesh * Sokol Markovo * Tundzha Yagoda * CSKA 1948 *

Elin Pelin Elin Pelin ( ) (8 July 1877 – 3 December 1949), born Dimitar Ivanov Stoyanov () was a Bulgarian writer. Stoyan Christowe called him "Bulgaria's leading writer". Biography He was born in the village of Bailovo, in Sofia District. He complet ...

Relegated from Second League * CSKA Sofia II * Spartak Pleven *

Bansko Bansko ( ) is a town in southwestern Bulgaria, located in Blagoevgrad Oblast near the city of Razlog. Once mainly a stockbreeding and travelling merchant community, the town is now an international centre for winter and summer tourism. More rec ...

* Levski Karlovo

From Third League

Relegated to Regional Divisions *

Spartak Varna FC Spartak Varna () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Varna, which currently competes in the First League, the top level of Bulgarian football league system. Spartak plays its home matches at the local Stadion Spartak. Founded ...

* Inter Dobrich * Kom Berkovitsa * Juventus Malchika *

Lyubimets Lyubimets ( ) is a small town in Haskovo Province, southern-central Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Lyubimets Municipality. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 7,670.Elhovo Elhovo ( ) is a Bulgarian town in Yambol Province, located on the left bank of the Tundzha river, between Strandzha and Sakar Mountain, Sakar mountains. Second largest city in the region after Jambol, the city is located at 36 km from border ...

Velbazhd Kyustendil Velbazhd Kyustendil () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Kyustendil. The club currently competes in the A RFG Kyustendil, the fourth tier of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1919. Velbazhd have spent mos ...

* Chepinets Velingrad Promoted to Second League * Chernomorets Balchik * Maritsa Plovdiv * Litex * Strumska Slava Radomir a. CSKA Sofia II officially declined to participate in the South-West Third League and was dissolved.

Club movements between Third League and Second League

The champions of three Third League divisions gained promotion to the 2017–18 Second League: Chernomorets Balchik from North-East, Litex from North-West and Strumska Slava Radomir from South-West. Maritsa Plovdiv joined the promoted teams as runners-up of the South-East group because champions Zagorets refused to participate for financial reasons. In return, four teams were relegated to the Third League: CSKA Sofia II, Spartak Pleven,

and Levski Karlovo. CSKA Sofia II was dissolved; as a result, Svoboda Peshtera (16th in 2016–17 South-West Third League) was spared from relegation to regional divisions.

Club movements between Third League and the Regional Groups

* North-East:

and Inter Dobrich were relegated last season to regional divisions. The new teams, coming from the regional divisions, are Benkovski Byala (champions of RFG Ruse) and Spartak 1918 (runners-up of A2 RFG

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

). On 21 June 2017,

merged with Spartak 1918. * North-West: Kom Berkovitsa and Juventus Malchika were relegated from last season to regional divisions. The new teams, coming from the regional divisions, are

(9th in RFG

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 ...

), Yantra 1919 Gabrovo (runners-up of RFG

Gabrovo Gabrovo ( ) is a city in central northern Bulgaria, the Local government, administrative centre of Gabrovo Province.It is situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains, in the valley of the Yantra River, and is known as an international ca ...

) and Yantra Polski Trambesh (champions of A RFG

Veliko Tarnovo Veliko Tarnovo (, ; "Great Tarnovo") is a city in north central Bulgaria and the administrative centre of Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is the historical and spiritual capital of Bulgaria. Often referred to as the "''City of the Tsars''", Velik ...

). * South-East:

were relegated from last season to regional divisions. The new teams, coming from the regional divisions, are Sokol Markovo (runners-up of A RFG

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

) and Tundzha Yagoda (runners-up of RFG

Stara Zagora Stara Zagora (, ) is a city in Bulgaria, and the administrative capital of Stara Zagora Province. It is located in the Upper Thracian Plain, near the cities of Kazanlak, Plovdiv, and Sliven. Its population is 121,582 making it the sixth largest c ...

). * South-West:

and Chepinets Velingrad were relegated from last season to regional divisions. The new teams, coming from the regional divisions, are CSKA 1948 (champions of RFG Sofia (capital)) and

(champions of RFG Sofia (province)). Initially,

Kyustendil Kyustendil ( ) is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of the Kyustendil Province, a former bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. The town is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, near the borders of ...

(champions of RFG

) was supposed to participate as winners of the promotion play-off. However, on 14 July 2017,

withdrew from participation so 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 ...

scheduled an additional play-off between the losers of the promotion play-offs. On 31 July,

Bratsigovo Bratsigovo ( ) is a town in Southern Bulgaria. It is located in the foothills of the Rhodope Mountains, on the banks of the Umishka River in Pazardzhik oblast, and is close to the towns of Peshtera and Krichim. Bratsigovo Hills on Trinity Penin ...

refused participation so

was approved as new member of the South-West league.

Northeast group

Stadia and locations

League table

Southeast group

Stadia and locations

League table

Northwest group

Stadia and locations

League table

Southwest group

Stadia and locations

League table

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2017-18 Third League Third Amateur Football League (Bulgaria) seasons 3