Slavia Sofia

PFC Slavia Sofia ( bg, ПФК Славия София) 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 Shalamanov in Ovcha kupel with a capacity of 25,556. The team's colours are white and black. Established on 10 April 1913, Slavia is currently the oldest sports club in Sofia.

Slavia is one of only two Bulgarian football clubs that have never been relegated (the other being Levski Sofia), although the club has been divided into two separate clubs and one of them that carries Slavia records and statistics (Udarnik Sofia) had been expelled to the Second Division, which continued for a season (1951), for no other reason, but politically arranged football reform. The other separate entity (Stroitel Sofia) which is now defunct and regarded as a different club had remained in First Division. Later on the two clubs reunited again.

Domestically, the club has won the Bulgarian Championship seven times and the Bulgarian Cup eight times. They have also been runners-up in the championship ten times and have reached the cup final on three additional occasions. Among the team's international successes are a European Cup Winners' Cup semi-final in 1967 and a quarter-final in 1981, as well as two consecutive Balkans Cup trophies in 1986 and 1988.

Slavia have a rivalry with fellow Sofia-based club Levski Sofia. Matches between the two teams are known as the Oldest capital derby, due to the fact that Slavia and Levski are the oldest, continuously-existing football teams from Sofia. They used to compete regularly for trophies before 1945.

History

On 10 April 1913, a group of young people living near a Russian Monument in Sofia and representatives of the local capital clubs Botev and Razvitie, in a coffee-house – Alabin str. in Sofia, decided to establish an incorporated sports club, the first organized sport club in Sofia. The new incorporated club was named Slavia. Dimitar Blagoev – Palio, a 21-year-old student, was elected as the first president of the club. As members of the first club administrative council were elected Emanuil Geshev, Ferdinand Mihaylov, Tsvyatko Velichkov, Georgi Grigorov and Todor Kalkandzhiev.

A few days later, was elected the first football team of the club – Stefan Lalov, Ilia Georgiev, Emanuil Geshev, Todor Kalkandzhiev, Stefan Chumpalov, Dimitar Blagoev – Palio (all of them from Botev) and Pavel Grozdanov, Ferdinand Mihaylov, Boris Sharankov, Asen Bramchev, Dimitar Cvetkov (all of them from Razvitie). The first sport dresses of the club were white shirts and black shorts. Since 1924, the team has played with white shirts and white shorts and up to present days it is popular as the "White pride". On 11 August 1913, Slavia played its first match, against local club Savata, and won 1–0.

After World War I, Slavia began to become more successful. On 5 June 1928, the club won its first champion title, winning 4–0 in the final match against Vladislav Varna. Slavia won the title five more times until 1946, in 1930, 1936, 1938–39, 1941 and 1943.

Slavia won its first Bulgarian Cup in 1952. By winning the 1963 Bulgarian Cup Final, Slavia qualified for the European Cup Winners' Cup, the club's first appearance in European competition. They were drawn against Hungarian club MTK Budapest in the first round. Slavia were eliminated from the competition 2–1 on aggregate. Its most important achievements in Europe during 1966–67 Cup Winners' Cup campaign when Slavia eliminated Swansea City, Strasbourg and Servette, before being eliminated by Rangers in the semi-finals. The team consisted of great players such as goalkeeper Simeon Simeonov, Ivan Davidov, Aleksandar Shalamanov, Dimitar Largov, Dimitar Kostov and Aleksandar Vasilev.

In 1969, Slavia was merged with Lokomotiv Sofia under the name ZhSK Slavia. Two years later, the two clubs split again after a split was supported by 100,000 fans.

In the 1980–81 season, led by Chavdar Tsvetkov and Andrey Zhelyazkov, Slavia reached the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup before losing 6–3 on aggregate to Feyenoord. In 1986, Slavia won Balkans Cup, defeating Greek side Panionios 5–3 on aggregate in the final. In 1988, Slavia won the Balkans Cup for the second time.

In 1994, Stoyan Kotsev, the former Slavia midfielder, was appointed as the club's new manager. After finishing fourth in 1995, they went on to win the A PFG title in 1995–96. Slavia finished with five points more than second-placed Levski Sofia. This marked Slavia's first Bulgarian title since 1943. In the 2010–11 season, Slavia reached the Bulgarian Cup final, defeating Ludogorets Razgrad, Etar 1924, Chernomorets Burgas and Pirin Blagoevgrad ''en route''. However, they lost the final 1–0 to CSKA Sofia.

In 2018, Slavia won the Bulgarian Cup for the eight time in its history, defeating rivals Levski Sofia at the Vasil Levski National Stadium after a penalty shootout. This enabled the team to play in the 2018-19 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round. In the second qualifying round, Slavia eliminated Finnish side FC Ilves. However, in the third qualifying round, they lost to Hajduk Split of Croatia, thus being eliminated.

The 2019–20 season was very successful for Slavia. The team finished in third place, qualifying for the Europa League playoff. Slavia clinched the third place in the last round of the season, defeating champions Ludogorets 3–1 at home, while Levski Sofia lost 1–2 to Lokomotiv Plovdiv, thus making Slavia third. This was Slavia’s best placement since the 1996–97 season.

League positions

ImageSize = width:1600 height:70
PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/1948 till:01/07/2023
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:2 start:1949
Colors =
id:bl1 value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5)
id:bl2 value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.3)
id:rs value:rgb(0.8,0.6,0.6)
id:rn value:rgb(0.9,0.1,0.1)

PlotData=
bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center
from:01/07/1948 till:01/07/1949 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1949 till:01/07/1950 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1948 till:01/07/1950 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A Group"
from:01/07/1950 till:01/07/1951 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1950 till:01/07/1951 color:white shift:(0,14) text: " B Group"
from:01/07/1951 till:01/07/1952 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1952 till:01/07/1953 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1953 till:01/07/1954 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1954 till:01/07/1955 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1955 till:01/07/1956 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1956 till:01/07/1957 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/1957 till:01/07/1958 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1958 till:01/07/1959 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1959 till:01/07/1960 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1960 till:01/07/1961 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/1961 till:01/07/1962 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1962 till:01/07/1963 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1963 till:01/07/1964 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1964 till:01/07/1965 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1965 till:01/07/1966 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1966 till:01/07/1967 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1967 till:01/07/1968 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1968 till:01/07/1969 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1969 till:01/07/1970 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1970 till:01/07/1971 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/1971 till:01/07/1972 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1972 till:01/07/1973 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1973 till:01/07/1974 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/1974 till:01/07/1975 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1975 till:01/07/1976 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1976 till:01/07/1977 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1977 till:01/07/1978 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1978 till:01/07/1979 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1979 till:01/07/1980 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1980 till:01/07/1981 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1981 till:01/07/1982 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1982 till:01/07/1983 shift:(0,-4) text:12
from:01/07/1983 till:01/07/1984 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/1984 till:01/07/1985 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1985 till:01/07/1986 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1986 till:01/07/1987 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1987 till:01/07/1988 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1988 till:01/07/1989 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/1989 till:01/07/1990 shift:(0,-4) text:2
from:01/07/1990 till:01/07/1991 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1991 till:01/07/1992 shift:(0,-4) text:10
from:01/07/1992 till:01/07/1993 shift:(0,-4) text:14
from:01/07/1993 till:01/07/1994 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/1994 till:01/07/1995 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1995 till:01/07/1996 shift:(0,-4) text:1
from:01/07/1996 till:01/07/1997 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/1997 till:01/07/1998 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/1998 till:01/07/1999 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/1999 till:01/07/2000 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/2000 till:01/07/2001 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/2001 till:01/07/2002 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/2002 till:01/07/2003 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/2003 till:01/07/2004 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/2004 till:01/07/2005 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/2005 till:01/07/2006 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2006 till:01/07/2007 shift:(0,-4) text:5
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:7
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:4
from:01/07/1951 till:01/07/2016 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " A Group"
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:9
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:8
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:3
from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:11
from:01/07/2021 till:01/07/2022 shift:(0,-4) text:6
from:01/07/2022 till:01/07/2023 shift:(0,-4) text:
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2023 color:green shift:(0,14) text: " First League"

Players

Current squad

'

''For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2022 and Transfers winter 2022–23.''

Out on loan

Foreign players

Up to twenty foreign nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Bulgarian First League, however only five non-EU nationals can be used during a match day. Those non-EU nationals with European ancestry can claim citizenship from the nation their ancestors came from. If a player does not have European ancestry he can claim Bulgarian citizenship after playing in Bulgaria for 5 years.

Supporters

There is one remaining ultras group called ''Boys Sofia'', a name referring to the fact the traditional support is from the south of the city; in the past there were multiple other groups. They have a long standing friendship with BSC Young Boys. The traditional rivalry has been with Levski Sofia, also known as Oldest capital derby, however in recent decades Lokomotiv Sofia has become the major rival. The derby between them is called Little capital derby. The other city rivalry is with CSKA Sofia.

Stadium

In the first ten years after Slavia was founded, the club played in the stadium of his predecessor SC Razvitie. On 3 October 1923, Slavia became the owner of land to the Russian Monument in Sofia, where was the first ground of the club. They played their home games there for the next few decades, until they moved to southwest Sofia in the 1960s.

On 12 March 1958, started the construction of Slavia Stadium. Mayor of the sixth area in Sofia and president of the Slavia women's basketball team, Dimitar Tinev, presided at the laying in place of the first stone. The stadium is built in a residential area Ovcha Kupel, served by regular bus services 6 km from Sofia city centre. Slavia Stadium has undergone many changes over the years and it presently has a capacity of 25,556.

Honours

National

Bulgarian State Football Championship / First League:
* Winners (7): 1928, 1930, 1936, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1995–96
* Runners-up (10): 1926, 1932, 1934, 1950, 1954, 1955, 1958–59, 1966–67, 1979–80, 1989–90
* Third place (13): 1939–40, 1942, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1965–66, 1969–70, 1972–73, 1974–75, 1981–82, 1985–86, 1990–91, 1996–97, 2019–20
Bulgarian Cup:
* Winners (8): 1952, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1965–66, 1974–75, 1979–80, 1995–96, 2017–18
* Runners-up (3): 1954, 1971–72, 2010–11

European

*Balkans Cup
: Winners: 1986, 1987–88
* Cup Winners Cup
: Semi-finals: 1966–67
*UEFA Intertoto Cup
: First place in group four: 1977

Board of directors

Technical staff

Notable stats

Managerial history

This is a list of the last Slavia managers:

References

External links

Official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slavia Sofia

Association football clubs established in 1913
1913 establishments in Bulgaria