The 2001–02 A Group was the 54th season of the A Football Group, the top Bulgarian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1948.

Defending champions Levski Sofia won their third consecutive title, and 23rd title overall.

Overview The format of the league was changed from last season, with the intention of making the league more competitive. This resulted in the league being divided into two groups after the regular season. The top 6 teams from the regular season would continue in the championship round, while the bottom 8 teams would play in the relegation round. It was contested by 14 teams, and Levski Sofia won the championship.

Teams Fourteen teams competed in the league. The promoted teams from the 2000–01 B Group were Spartak Pleven (returning to the top flight after a three-year absence) and Marek Dupnitsa (returning after a nineteen-year absence). The league also included Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Belasitsa Petrich after mergers with Velbazhd Kyustendil and Hebar Pazardzhik respectively.

These teams replace Botev Plovdiv and Minyor Pernik, who were relegated at the end of the last season.

Stadiums and Locations

Team Location Stadium CapacityBelasitsaPetrichTsar Samuil 9,500BeroeStara Zagora Beroe 22,500Cherno MoreVarna Ticha 8,250ChernomoretsBurgasChernomorets 22,000CSKASofiaBalgarska Armia 22,015LevskiSofiaGeorgi Asparuhov 29,200LitexLovechGradski 7,050LokomotivPlovdivLokomotiv 24,000LokomotivSofiaLokomotiv 22,000MarekDupnitsa Bonchuk 16,050NaftexBurgas Lazur 18,037SlaviaSofiaSlavia 32,000SpartakPlevenSlavi Aleksiev 21,940SpartakVarnaSpartak 7,500

Personnel and kits Team Manager Captain Kit manufacturer Shirt sponsorBelasitsa Mihail Valchev Vitosha ADBeroe Venelin Sivriev Vanyo Shishkov Erima Cherno More Aleksandar Stankov Ventsislav Marinov BURGELOF St. EliasChernomorets Ivan Tsvetanov Kostadin Dzhambazov CSKA Sofia Luigi Simoni Georgi Antonov Lotto —Levski Sofia Slavoljub Muslin Stanimir Stoilov Diadora MobiltelLokomotiv Plovdiv Dimitar Dimitrov Asics VAI HoldingLokomotiv Sofia Emil Dimitrov Adidas Delta-GLitex Ferario Spasov Vitomir Vutov Asics Litex CommerceMarek Dimitar Aleksiev Velizar Dimitrov Nike Naftex Dimitar Stoychev Stanimir Dimitrov Puma Petrol ADSlavia Sofia Žarko Olarević Veselin Vachev Adidas Sofiyski ImotiSpartak Pleven Angel Stankov Slavcho Pavlov Asics VIS-2Spartak Varna Stefan Grozdanov Valentin Stanchev

Managerial changes TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyPosition in tableIncoming managerDate of appointment Beroe Tsvetomir Parvanov Mutual consent 1 June 2001 Pre-season Ivan Vutov 21 June 2001 Chernomorets Nikolay Rusev Mutual consent 1 June 2001 Pre-season Mihail Valchev 22 June 2001 Marek Dupnitsa Petar Zehtinski Mutual consent 8 September 2001 12th Yanko Dinkov 10 September 2001 Chernomorets Mihail Valchev Sacked 9 September 2001 14th Ivan Tsvetanov 12 September 2001 Levski Sofia Ljupko Petrović Mutual consent 10 September 2001 1st Georgi Todorov (caretaker) 10 September 2001 Slavia Sofia Kiril Kachamanov Sacked 25 September 2001 10th Žarko Olarević 25 September 2001 Lokomotiv Sofia Angel Kolev Sacked 28 October 2001 9th Emil Dimitrov 28 October 2001 CSKA Sofia Asparuh Nikodimov Sacked 4 December 2001 3rd Luigi Simoni 10 December 2001 Marek Dupnitsa Yanko Dinkov Mutual consent 2 January 2002 13th Dimitar Aleksiev 2 January 2002 Levski Sofia Georgi Todorov End of caretaker tenure 3 January 2002 1st Rüdiger Abramczik 3 January 2002 Beroe Ivan Vutov Mutual consent 4 January 2002 14th Tsvetomir Parvanov 4 January 2002 Levski Sofia Rüdiger Abramczik Sacked 11 March 2002 1st Slavoljub Muslin 17 March 2002 Beroe Tsvetomir Parvanov Sacked 12 March 2002 14th Iliya Iliev 17 March 2002 Spartak Pleven Velislav Vutsov Mutual consent 12 March 2002 7th Angel Stankov 18 March 2002 Belasitsa Voyn Voynov Sacked 12 May 2002 12th Mihail Valchev 13 May 2002

First stage

League standings

Results

Championship group Standings

Results

Relegation group Standings

Results

Champions Levski Sofia Goalkeepers1 Georgi Petkov 27 (0)12 Georgi Sheytanov 1 (0)27 Dimitar Ivankov 9 (0) Defenders2 Martin Stankov 15 (0)3 Stanimir Stoilov 30 (0)5 Georgi Markov* 16 (0)11 Elin Topuzakov 26 (5)13 Ivo Trenchev 19 (1)14 Vladimir Ivanov 11 (0)20 Stanislav Angelov 28 (5)22 Ilian Stoyanov 25 (0)23 Dalibor Dragić 24 (5)26 Tsanko Tsvetanov 6 (0)28 Bogomil Dyakov 1 (0) Midfielders4 Biser Ivanov 24 (1)6 Stanislav Genchev 21 (3)7 Péter Kabát 15 (5)15 Saša Simonović 6 (3)17 Konstantin Golovskoy 20 (0)18 Brent Rahim 11 (0)21 Dimitar Telkiyski 30 (4)25 Yordan Terziev* 4 (0)30 Dimitar Krastev 3 (0) Asen Nikolov* 3 (0) William Batista* 1 (0) Svetoslav Barkanichkov* 2 (0) Forwards8 Georgi Bachev 18 (8)9 Georgi Ivanov 19 (13)10 István Ferenczi 4 (3)16 Martin Kushev 15 (6)19 Georgi Chilikov 27 (10)24 Miodrag Pantelić 29 (4)29 Dimitar Makriev 1 (0) Rogério Gaúcho* 8 (0) Todor Kolev* 2 (0) Manager Slavoljub Muslin

Markov, Terziev, Nikolov, Batista, Barkanichkov, Gaucho and Kolev left the club during a season.

Top scorers RankScorerClubGoals1 Vladimir ManchevCSKA Sofia 212 Todor KolevSpartak Pleven 183 Stoyko SakalievNaftex Burgas 174 Stefan YurukovLitex Lovech 14 Metodi StoynevLokomotiv Plovdiv Boyko VelichkovLokomotiv Sofia Velizar DimitrovMarek Dupnitsa 8 Georgi IvanovLevski Sofia 13 Zoran JankovićLitex Lovech Martin KushevSlavia SofiaLevski Sofia

Attendances

# Club Average Highest 1 Neftochimik 8,750 18,000 2 Lokomotiv Plovdiv 7,650 20,000 3 Levski 7,250 18,000 4 Marek 4,150 15,000 5 CSKA Sofia 4,111 18,000 6 Pleven 3,590 18,000 7 Beroe 3,547 9,000 8 Chernomorets 3,505 8,000 9 Lovech 3,094 6,000 10 Cherno More 3,028 8,500 11 Belasitsa 2,825 10,000 12 Lokomotiv Sofia 2,030 9,000 13 Slavia Sofia 1,850 8,000 14 Spartak Varna 1,565 7,000Source:

References

External links Bulgaria – List of final tables (RSSSF) 2001–02 Statistics of A Group at a-pfg.com