| Full name | Професионален футболен клуб Берое (Professional football club Beroe) |
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| Nickname(s) | Зелените (The Greens) | ||
| Founded | 1916 | ||
| Ground | Beroe Stadium, Stara Zagora (Capacity: 25,000) |
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| Manager | Ilian Iliev | ||
| League | A PFG | ||
| 2010–11 | A PFG, 7th | ||
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PFC Beroe Stara Zagora (Bulgarian: ПФК Берое Стара Загора) or simply Beroe (Bulgarian: ПФК Берое) is a Bulgarian football club from Stara Zagora, that currently plays in the country's top division, the A PFG.
The football department of the sports club was founded on March 19, 1959, but its roots trace back to 1924, when SC Beroya was founded. Since then the home ground of Beroe has been the Beroe Stadium in Stara Zagora with 25,000 spectators seating capacity. Beroe were the 1986 champions of the top division and they also won the domestic cup in 2010. The club's most noted and successful player is Petko Petkov Bulgarian League Top Scorer – 2 times: 1974 (with 20 goals); 1976 (with 19 goals)
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European Cup / UEFA Champions League
Football was played in Stara Zagora as early as 1916, however with no organized championship in Bulgaria until the late 1920s, numerous clubs enjoyed regional success in those early years for the game in both the city and Bulgaria itself. Beroe can trace its roots back to 4 May 1924, when it was founded as Beroya, after the merger of two other clubs – Borislav and Rekord.
The club managed to withstand the almost constant chaos and strife of the times, often caused by numerous shifts in the political regimes of Bulgaria, and despite many mergers and name changes throughout the first four decades of its history, it is constantly among the top 3 clubs in the city. It has also often been the platform for attempts to unite all the clubs in Stara Zagora, which foreshadowed its role and meaning for the city in the years to come.
The establishment of an organized league to determine the champion of Bulgaria in the late 40s coincided with the consolidation of football in Stara Zagora, the city finally seeing a one single strong club emerge to represent it at the highest level of Bulgarian football. That club was Beroe, at first bearing the names of Udarnik and Botev, before finally restoring its old name in 1959.
1968 marked the beginning of Beroe's golden age. During the summer transfer period, the forward Petko Petkov joined the club. In the next 12 years he scored 144 goals for the club in A PFG. Beroe became all-powerful, winning the Balkans Cup in 1968 (beating in the final Spartak Sofia with a 6–4 on aggregate) and 1969 (beating Dinamo Tirana with a 4–0 on aggregate).
In season 1971–72 in the domestic league was very successful for the team, which finished 3rd, and qualified for the UEFA Cup. The club's first participation in UEFA Cup was also promising, with Beroe eliminating the Austrian Austria Wien (7:0 and 3:1) and the Hungarian Honvéd FC (3:0 and 0:1) respectively and reaching the 1/8 final (but being knocked out by the Serbian OFK Beograd).
Beroe have had some success in Europe, such as the 1:0 win over Juventus in a Cup Winners' Cup first-leg in 1979 and a 3:0 win over Athletic Bilbao in 1973. Moreover, Beroe is one of the two Bulgarian football clubs that has a positive record of the matches played in European club competitions.
In 1982 and 1984 Beroe won the Balkans Cup for the third and fourth times.
Beroe's most glorious moment came in 1986, when the team led by the coach Evgeni Yanchovski (formerly notable player of the team) won the Bulgarian title, the first and so far the only in the club's history.[1] Beroe finished the season with 43 points (after 20 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses), 2 more than the second, Trakia Plovdiv. In the successful season, the left winger Mümün Kashmer scored 23 goals. Key players during the fantastic season included the captain Tenyo Minchev, Petko Tenev,Ilia Iliev, Ivko Ganchev, Yordan Mitev, Vasil Dragolov, Kancho Kasherov, Stoyan Bonchev and Venelin Sivriev. Beroe did however represent Bulgaria in the 1986–87 UEFA European Champions Cup where they were eliminated in the first round to Dinamo Kyiv of Ukraine after 1:1 at Beroe Stadium and 0:2 loss in Kiev.[2]
The 1990s would see a gradual decline Beroe were finally relegated to second division in 1994–95 season, finishing on last place with only 12 points.
The advent of democracy in Bulgaria ushered a new period of chaos and economical hardship for the country, and that didn't pass by Beroe. Nevertheless despite several seasons of crisis the club again withstood the test of time, and despite needing a helpful merger with another team – Olimpik (Teteven) – managed to remain a key player on the Bulgarian football scene.
The first two seasons back in top division saw Beroe fight relegation, with safety being achieved by excellent second half runs. But in 2001–02 season the team again relegated.
In the autumn of 2007 the actual majority shareholder of Professional Football Club Beroe JSCo Nikolay Banev gave up the financial support of the team. In spite of that, the team demonstrated good football in most of the games. On the 10th of January, 2008 23 players and 3 coaches terminated their contracts with the club after a planned sale of the shares had failed.
Beroe got out of trouble on the 3rd of February 2008, when the Beroe veterans’ club and the national fanclub, assisted by lawyer Damian Georgiev managed to initiate, through related firms, insolvency proceedings in respect of the club in the Regional Court of Stara Zagora. The appointed administrator Elka Petrova transferred all the assets and liabilities of the club to a newly established joint-stock company Professional Football Club Beroe Stara Zagora JSCo.
The new entity succeeded Professional Football Club Beroe JSCo as regard of the license, the membership in the Bulgarian Football Union and the running of the football team itself.
In the summer of 2009 due to the world economic crisis most of the shareholders left the club due to financial problems. The club’s main sponsor Brikel JSCo transferred it’s shares to Beroe veterans’ club and the national fanclub, who appointed a new Board of Directors. It consists of Damyan Georgiev – Chairman, Genyo Petrov – Executive Director and Tsvetelin Zhoevski.
In the 2007–2008 season Beroe lost their place in A PFG, due to a fraud in the last match between Belasitsa Petrich and Marek Dupnitsa. In the very next season however Beroe achieved first place in the second division and returned to the top league. At that time Ilian Iliev had already been manager of the club for the last 2 years, spending millions of the owner"s money . In the year to follow, Beroe achieved its best season in the last 20+ years, beating all of the main competitors for the Bulgarian Cup due to the pure luck of the draw playing weaker 2second division teams in the competition for the domestic cup Beroe eliminated CSKA Sofia on the 1/4 final, which paved the way for them to obtain the trophy, winning against second-division Chernomorets Pomorie 1:0 in the final at Lovech Stadium.[3] The winning goal was scored dramatically in the very last seconds of the added time by Beroe's former youth player Doncho Atanasov, who as well went on to become top goalscorer of the tournament with 4 goals. Beroe became one of the only two Bulgarian teams that have won the cup without succeeding any goals. This success lead Ilian Iliev to be pronounced Coach of the Season in Bulgaria, whereas Ivo Ivanov (defender) was proclaimed best defender in Bulgarian A PFG for 2009. Besides him other players that played main role throughout the season were Iskren Pisarov, Georgi Andonov, Zdravko Iliev, Slavi Zhekov, Dian Genchev. One of the players with most matches in A PFG for all times Kostadin Vidolov ended up his career mid-season with Beroe and went on to become a coach for Beroe's second team.
Beroe started 2010–11 season with the debut of the team in the UEFA Europa League.[4] Beroe entered the competition in the third qualifying round and faced Rapid Wien. The game in Bulgaria ended in a 1–1 draw. Rapid Wien managed to win the rematch 3–0[5] putting an end to the international campaign of the Bulgarian team.
Evgeni Yanchovski holds Beroe's overall appearance record—he played 341 matches over the course of 14 seasons from 1960 to 1974. This is also the record for League appearances. Beroe's all-time leading scorer is Petko Petkov, who scored 144 goals while at the club from 1968 to 1980. Beroe's biggest victory is 8–0 in A PFG against Minyor Pernik in 1973–74 and Chernomorets Burgas Sofia in 2006–07. Beroe's 7–0 defeat of Austria Wien in 1972 was its largest Europe win. Beroe's heaviest defeat, 2–10, came against CSKA Sofia in 1991–92.
Beroe Stadium is situated in the northwestern part of Stara Zagora near the biggest park of the city – Ayazmoto. That's the biggest sport facility of the team. The team has also three training grounds, the Beroe stadium base includes also tennis facilities and covered training hall. Built in 1962, the stadium is currently being renovated and has around 23,000 seating places, most of which are covered. The stadium has its own gymnastics, acrobatics and boxing hall. There is also a table-tennis facility. The stadium's overall capacity is about 25,000. The Beroe stadium has the fastest athletics lane and was often used for such competitions. The biggest attendance was in 1986 when the team won the championship title and more than 40,000 spectators were celebrating together with the players.
As of December 9, 2011 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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As of December 9, 2011 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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For recent transfers, see List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2011–12.
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