2003–04 A Group

A Group
Season	2003-04
Champions	Lokomotiv Plovdiv (1st title)
Relegated	Botev Plovdiv Makedonska slava Chernomorets Burgas
Champions League	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
UEFA Cup	CSKA Levski Sofia Litex
Intertoto Cup	Marek Dupnitsa
Matches played	240
Goals scored	686 (2.86 per match)
Top goalscorer	Martin Kamburov (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Lokomotiv Plovdiv 8–1 Cherno More Varna
Biggest away win	Rodopa Smolyan 1–5 Lokomotiv Plovdiv Belasitsa Petrich 0–4 CSKA Makedonska slava 0–4 Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Highest scoring	Lokomotiv Plovdiv 8–1 Cherno More Varna (9 goals)
← 2002–03 2004–05 →

The 2003–04 A Group is 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 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 became champions for the first time in their history.^[1]

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, while 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 and Makedonska slava from the West division - were directly promoted to the top level of Bulgarian football.

Stadia and Locations

Their home grounds are located as follows.

CSKA
Levski
Lokomotiv
Slavia

Chernomorets
Naftex Burgas

Rodopa Smolyan

Location of teams in 2003-04 A PFG

Team	City	Stadium	Stadium capacity
Belasitsa	Petrich	Tsar Samuil Stadium	9,500
Botev	Plovdiv	Hristo Botev Stadium	22,000
Cherno More	Varna	Ticha	12,000
Chernomorets Burgas	Burgas	Lazur	18,037
CSKA	Sofia	Balgarska Armia	22,015
Levski	Sofia	Georgi Asparuhov	29,986
Litex	Lovech	Lovech	7,050
Lokomotiv	Plovdiv	Lokomotiv (Plovdiv)	13,800
Lokomotiv	Sofia	Lokomotiv (Sofia)	22,000
Makedonska slava	Blagoevgrad	Hristo Botev	11,000
Marek	Dupnitsa	Bonchuk Stadium	16,050
Naftex	Burgas	Lazur	18,037
Rodopa Smolyan	Smolyan	Septemvri	6,100
Slavia	Sofia	Ovcha Kupel	18,000
Spartak	Varna	Spartak Stadium	7,500
Vidima-Rakovski	Sevlievo	Rakovski	8,816

League Table


Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation	Head-to-head
1	Lokomotiv Plovdiv !Lokomotiv Plovdiv (C)	30	24	3	3	74	24	+50	75	2004–05 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round
2	Levski Sofia !Levski Sofia	30	22	6	2	59	16	+43	72	2004–05 UEFA Cup Second qualifying round
3	CSKA Sofia !CSKA Sofia	30	20	5	5	65	28	+37	65
4	Litex Lovech !Litex Lovech	30	18	10	2	43	20	+23	64
5	Slavia Sofia !Slavia Sofia	30	18	3	9	57	30	+27	57
6	Cherno More Varna !Cherno More Varna	30	10	8	12	45	53	−8	38		CHM 3–0 MAR MAR 4–2 CHM
7	Marek Dupnitsa !Marek Dupnitsa	30	12	2	16	33	50	−17	38	2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup Second round	CHM 3–0 MAR MAR 4–2 CHM
8	Naftex Burgas !Naftex Burgas	30	9	8	13	49	38	+11	35
9	Lokomotiv Sofia !Lokomotiv Sofia	30	8	9	13	37	48	−11	33		LSO 1–0 RSM RSM 2–1 LSO
10	Rodopa Smolyan !Rodopa Smolyan	30	10	3	17	28	47	−19	33		LSO 1–0 RSM RSM 2–1 LSO
11	Belasitsa Petrich !Belasitsa Petrich	30	8	7	15	34	52	−18	31
12	Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo !Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo	30	6	12	12	32	48	−16	30		VRA 1–1 SPV SPV 1–2 VRA
13	Spartak Varna !Spartak Varna	30	8	6	16	35	46	−11	30		VRA 1–1 SPV SPV 1–2 VRA
14	Botev Plovdiv !Botev Plovdiv (R)	30	7	6	17	33	60	−27	27	Relegation to B PFG
15	Makedonska slava !Makedonska slava (R)	30	8	2	20	32	58	−26	26
16	Chernomorets Burgas !Chernomorets Burgas (R)	30	4	6	20	30	68	−38	18

Updated to games played on 23 March 2014.
Source: A PFG (Bulgarian)
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th head-to-head away goals scored; 6th season goal difference; 7th season goals scored; 8th "sportsmanship" (R & Y cards); 9th draw
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Results

Home ╲ Away	Belasitsa Petrich !BEL	Botev Plovdiv !BOT	Cherno More Varna !CHM	Chernomorets Burgas !CHB	CSKA Sofia !CSK	Levski Sofia !LEV	Litex Lovech !LIT	Lokomotiv Plovdiv !LPL	Lokomotiv Sofia !LSO	Makedonska slava !MKS	Marek Dupnitsa !MAR	Naftex Burgas !NAF	Rodopa Smolyan !RSM	Slavia Sofia !SLA	Spartak Varna !SPV	Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo !VRA
Belasitsa Petrich !Belasitsa Petrich		3–0	3–1	1–0	0–4	0–1	1–1	1–2	2–0	2–2	2–1	0–3	3–0	2–2	3–0	2–2
Botev Plovdiv !Botev Plovdiv	1–0		3–4	1–1	3–1	1–2	1–1	0–0	0–1	2–1	0–2	0–3	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–1
Cherno More Varna !Cherno More Varna	0–0	3–1		2–2	3–0	0–0	1–2	1–2	2–2	2–0	3–0	2–2	1–0	0–3	1–1	4–1
Chernomorets Burgas !Chernomorets Burgas	2–0	2–5	0–3		1–3	1–2	0–3	0–1	3–3	3–1	0–1	0–2	2–1	2–5	0–0	3–0
CSKA Sofia !CSKA Sofia	5–1	4–1	2–0	3–0		1–2	1–1	1–1	3–0	4–1	4–0	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	3–1
Levski Sofia !Levski Sofia	4–2	3–1	0–0	3–0	1–1		1–1	3–0	3–0	6–0	3–0	3–0	3–0	1–0	2–0	2–0
Litex Lovech !Litex Lovech	1–0	0–0	2–0	3–0	0–0	1–0		2–1	3–1	0–0	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–1	2–2
Lokomotiv Plovdiv !Lokomotiv Plovdiv	2–0	3–2	8–1	6–0	3–1	3–1	3–1		3–1	1–0	4–1	2–0	2–0	3–2	1–0	2–0
Lokomotiv Sofia !Lokomotiv Sofia	5–2	0–1	3–2	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–0		1–0	1–1	3–1	1–0	2–2	3–0	1–1
Makedonska slava !Makedonska slava	1–3	4–3	3–4	3–2	0–2	1–2	1–2	0–4	1–0		4–0	2–1	1–0	3–0	1–0	0–0
Marek Dupnitsa !Marek Dupnitsa	0–0	1–0	4–2	1–0	0–3	0–1	1–2	0–3	2–1	3–0		3–0	2–0	1–2	1–2	1–0
Naftex Burgas !Naftex Burgas	3–1	6–0	1–1	1–1	3–3	0–1	1–1	1–2	1–2	3–0	5–0		5–0	0–1	4–1	0–0
Rodopa Smolyan !Rodopa Smolyan	2–0	2–1	2–0	3–0	1–3	2–1	1–2	1–5	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–0		1–3	1–1	1–1
Slavia Sofia !Slavia Sofia	3–0	5–0	2–0	3–1	2–4	1–2	2–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–2		4–0	2–0
Spartak Varna !Spartak Varna	4–0	4–2	1–2	4–2	0–0	0–2	0–1	1–3	4–0	2–0	2–4	2–0	3–1	0–1		1–2
Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo !Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo	0–0	2–0	3–0	3–1	0–1	0–3	0–2	1–4	3–3	3–2	1–3	1–1	3–2	0–0	1–1

Updated to games played on 24 March 2014.
Source: A PFG
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Champions

Lokomotiv Plovdiv

Goalkeepers
01	Vasil Kamburov	16	0(0)
12	Rumen Popov	00	0(0)
32	Krasimir Petkov	14	0(0)

Defenders
02	Vladimir Ivanov	28	0(1)
03	Aleksandar Tunchev	25	0(1)
05	Georgi Petrov	02	0(0)
06	Kiril Kotev	30	0(3)
20	Ivan Paskov	20	0(3)
22	Trayan Dyankov	01	0(0)
24	Robert Petrov	29	0(1)

Midfielders
04	Nedyalko Hubenov	06	0(0)
07	Žarko Serafimovski*	04	0(0)
10	Svetoslav Barkanichkov	10	0(2)
14	Velko Hristev	05	0(0)
16	Ivo Mihaylov	19	0(2)
17	Vančo Trajanov	16	0(0)
19	Krasimir Dimitrov	22	0(1)
21	Georgi Iliev	27	0(1)
25	Ivan Krizmanić	10	0(0)
	Nesim Özgür*	06	0(1)
	Atanas Georgiev*	02	0(0)

Forwards
09	Boban Jančevski	21	(11)
11	Martin Kamburov	29	(25)
13	Metodi Stoynev	20	0(3)
15	Neško Milovanović	10	0(4)
18	Yavor Vandev	03	0(0)
23	Ekundayo Jayeoba	27	0(9)
	Darko Spalević*	10	0(4)

Manager
	Eduard Eranosyan

Serafimovski, Özgür, Georgiev and Spalević left the club during a season.

Top goalscorers

25 goals

Martin Kamburov (Lokomotiv Plovdiv)

17 goals

Stoyko Sakaliev (Naftex Burgas / CSKA Sofia)
Blagoy Georgiev (Slavia Sofia)

References

↑ ""Черно-бяла" луда шампионска история" (in Bulgarian). blitz.bg. 8 May 2014.

External links

Bulgaria - List of final tables (RSSSF)
2003–04 Statistics of A Group at a-pfg.com

Bulgarian football championship seasons

State Championship (National Football Division)	1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1941 1942 1943 1944

Republic Championship	1945 1946 1947 1948

A Group	1948–49 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16

First League	2016–17

2003–04 in European football (UEFA)

« 2002–03 2004–05 »

Domestic leagues	Albania Andorra Armenia '03 '04 Austria Azerbaijan Belarus '03 '04 Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia '03 '04 Faroe Islands '03 '04 Finland '03 '04 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '03 '04 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '03 '04 Latvia '03 '04 Lithuania '03 '04 Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '03 '04 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland '03 '04 Romania Russia '03 '04 San Marino Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '03 '04 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales

Domestic cups	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia Faroe Islands '03 '04 Finland '03 '04 France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '03 '04 Israel Italy Kazakhstan '03 '04 Latvia '03 '04 Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '03 '04 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland '03 '04 Romania Russia San Marino Scotland Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden '03 '04 Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales

League cups	England Finland '03 '04 France Germany Iceland '03 '04 Israel Northern Ireland Republic of Ireland '03 '04 Scotland Wales

UEFA competitions	Champions League (Qualifying rounds, Group stage, Knockout stage, Final) UEFA Cup (Final) Intertoto Cup Super Cup

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