PFC Litex Lovech

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PFC Litex Lovech

Full name

PFC Litex Lovech AD

Nickname(s)

The Lilacs

Founded

1921

Ground

Lovech Stadium
(Capacity 7,000)

Chairman

Angel Bonchev

Manager

Stanimir Stoilov

League

TBI A Football Group

2007-08

3th





Home colours





Away colours

PFC Litex Lovech (Bulgarian: ПФК Литекс (Ловеч)) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Lovech.

Litex takes part in the TBI A Football Group. The team plays its home games at the local Lovech Stadium with 7,000 seats, electric lighting and permission to stage international matches. Litex has twice been Bulgarian champion and twice Bulgarian Cup winner.

1 History
2 Stadium
3 Historical results
4 Current squad 2007/08
- 4.1 Squad changes winter'2008
5 Greatest team
6 Achievements
7 Notable players
8 External links

[edit] History

The football club of the town of Lovech was founded in 1921 under the name Hisarya. The first official game was held in 1923.

The club changed its name several times over the years, before becoming Osum in 1979. Under that name the club played constantly in the Bulgarian Second Division and was close to promotion several times, before finally achieving in 1994 under the name LEX (the sponsoring company at the time) after finishing in 1st position.

The first season in the Premier League was a kind of success for a club like LEX, finishing 11th after scoring victories over the teams of CSKA (1:0), Slavia Sofia (1:0) and Lokomotiv Sofia (1:0), which were some of the best teams in Bulgaria at that time.

The next season was not so successful and the team, renamed Lovech in the meantime, was relegated back to the Second Division. This was the turning point in the history of the club. Petrol businessman and citizen of Lovech Grisha Ganchev bought the club and renamed it Litex. Almost all of the current players were released and a significant number of valuable players were signed. The team won first place without difficulty, finishing more than 10 points ahead of the second team in the table and qualifying for the First Division. In the same season Litex reached the quarter-final of the Bulgarian Cup and the final of the Bulgarian League Cup, which they unfortunately lost after a 2:2 draw in regular time and a penalty shoot-out. Litex also won against every team from the top of the table of the Bulgarian First Division (either in friendly matches or cup matches).

In 1997, Litex were promoted for a second time to the First Division and immediately became Bulgarian champions, finishing the season 5 points ahead of the second-placed Levski Sofia. This was unprecedented in Bulgarian football history. The striker of the team Dimcho Belyakov became top goalscorer with his 21 goals during the season. Midfielder Stoycho Stoilov received the Best League Player award. The club's first participation in European club tournaments was also promising, with Litex eliminating the Swedish Halmstads BK (2:0 and 1:2) and reaching the second qualifying round (but being knocked out by Spartak Moscow). The team won the Bulgarian Championship for the second successive time a year later.

Litex Lovech have also won the Bulgarian Cup twice — 2001 (beating the team of Velbazhd Kyustendil 1:0 in the final match after extra time) and 2004 (a win over CSKA after 2:2 in the regular time and a penalty shootout).

Litex is also the team which inflicted the biggest defeat on CSKA Sofia — 8:0 in Lovech in the autumn of 1998. The club is honoured as the first Bulgarian team to win against a German team in Germany — 2:0 over Union Berlin in the Second Round of the UEFA Cup in October 2001.

The biggest win in Europe so far is 7:0 over NK Željezničar in Lovech in August 2004.

In early August 2007, Litex signed a three-year sponsorship and advertising contract with Bulgarian mobile operator GLOBUL and started the 2007/2008 season with the logo of the mobile service i-mode on their jerseys. In December 2007, Litex was the first Bulgarian club to have branded mobile phone game- Litex Football.

[edit] Stadium

Lovech Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Lovech, Bulgaria. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of PFC Litex Lovech.Built in 1962, and after a total reconstruction in 1999, it gained permission to stage international matches (with only 4 other Bulgarian stadiums in the list) It has around 7 000 seats and electric lighting. The field measures 110x82 meters.The most visited match has been the one versus Levski (Sofia) in 22.10.1998 - 12 500 spectators.

[edit] Historical results

22.7.1998 PFC Litex - Halmstads BK 2:0 (Champions League , preliminary round)
29.11.1998 PFC Litex - PFC CSKA Sofia 8:0 (Bulgarian championship)
24.05.2001 PFC Litex - PFC Velbazhd Kyustendil 1:0 ET (Bulgarian Cup Final)
18.10.2001 1. FC Union Berlin - PFC Litex 0:2 (Uefa cup)
11.05.2004 PFC Litex - PFC CSKA Sofia 6:5 after penalty (Bulgarian Cup Final)
29.09.2005 K.R.C. Genk - PFC Litex 0:1 (Uefa Cup)
03.11.2005 PFC Litex - Grasshopper-Club Zürich 2:1 (Uefa Cup)

[edit] Current squad 2007/08

12.Todorov

33.Berberovic

3.Cambon

22.Nikolov

5.Venkov

7.Genchev

10.Sandrinho

23.Jelenković

28.Angelov

19.Niflore

8.Tom

Litex Lovech 2007-2008

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Ilia Nikolov
3	DF	Cédric Cambon
5	DF	Mihail Venkov
6	DF	Cédric Uras
7	MF	Stanislav Genchev
8	MF	Tom
9	FW	Eduardo Du Bala
10	MF	Sandrinho
12	GK	Todor Todorov
16	MF	Stanislav Manolev
18	FW	Krum Bibishkov

No.	Position	Player
19	FW	Wilfried Niflore
21	FW	Zoran Janković
22	DF	Plamen Nikolov
23	MF	Nebojša Jelenković
26	MF	Dudu
27	FW	Momchil Cvetanov
28	FW	Emil Angelov
29	DF	Radoslav Dimitrov
30	GK	Evgeni Aleksandrov
32	MF	Ivelin Popov
33	DF	Džemal Berberović

[edit] Squad changes winter'2008

In:

Out:

[edit] Greatest team

[edit] Achievements

2 times champion of Bulgaria (1998, 1999)
3 times Bulgarian Cup winner (2001, 2004, 2008)
3 times Bulgarian Cup finalist (1999, 2003, 2007)
1 time Bulgarian League Cup Runner-Up(1997)
2 time Bulgarian Supercup Runner-Up 2004, 2007
Winner in the international friendly tournament in Norcia, Italy (2001), defeating Steaua Bucureşti 4:2 in the final)