PFC Litex Lovech

PFC Litex Lovech (Bulgarian: ПФК Литекс Ловеч) or simply Litex (Bulgarian: Литекс) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Lovech, which currently competes in the Bulgarian A Professional Football Group, the top division of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Football Club.

The club's home ground is the Lovech Stadium, which has a capacity of 8000 seats, electric floodlights and permission to stage European matches. To date, Litex has won the championship four times and has won the Bulgarian Cup four times. Together with CSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia, Litex is the third Bulgarian football club that represents the country in the European Club Association.

History

1921–1996

The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya and began playing league football during 1923. Over the years, the club has changed its name several times. From 1957 named Karpachev, before becoming Osam in 1979. Under that name the club played constantly in the B PFG, the second division of Bulgarian football and was close to promotion several times. A notable star during this period was Plamen Linkov who broke the club's appearance record, playing 575 times, scoring 167 goals.

In 1990 sponsor of the team become a company LEX. In the same year, the club had changed its name to LEX Football Club. The 1993–94 season was successful for LEX, which finished 1st in second division and qualified for the A PFG for first time in the club's history. The first season in the A PFG was a success for a club like LEX, finishing 11th after victories against teams of the likes of CSKA Sofia (1:0), Slavia Sofia (1:0) and Lokomotiv Sofia (1:0). The next season was not successful and the club, renamed Lovech, was relegated to the second division.

Grisha Ganchev takeover (1996–present)

In June 1996, the club was purchased by the petrol businessman and citizen of Lovech Grisha Ganchev and it was renamed to Litex. The takeover was immediately followed by a flurry of bids for high profile players. Ferario Spasov was named as the new Litex coach. He led the club back to the A PFG at the first attempt. During the 1996–97 season Litex also reached the quarter-finals of the Bulgarian Cup and the final of the Bulgarian League Cup, which was lost after penalty shoot-out.

In 1997, Litex was promoted for the second time to the top 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 scored during the season. The midfielder Stoycho Stoilov received the Best League Player award. The club's first participation in the 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 Russian powerhouse Spartak Moscow).

A year later Litex retained their league title, losing only two league games all season. They became the first provincial club to win back-to-back league titles since the 1920s. During the campaign Litex inflicted the biggest defeat of CSKA Sofia's all history, beating 8–0 at Lovech Stadium.

In the recent years, Litex won the Bulgarian Cup four times, in 2001 (a 1:0 win against Velbazhd Kyustendil after extra time), in 2004 (a win over CSKA after a 2:2 in the regular time and a penalty shootout), in 2008 a win over Cherno More Varna (1:0)^[1] and in 2009 against Pirin Blagoevgrad (3:0 in the regular time).^[2] In early August, 2007, Litex signed a three-year sponsorship and advertising contract with Bulgarian mobile operator GLOBUL and started the 2007/08 season with the logo of the mobile service i-mode on the team's kits. In December, 2007, Litex became the first Bulgarian club to have branded a mobile phone game, Litex Football. Before the start of the 2008/09 season, Litex lost the Bulgarian Supercup final with 0:1 from CSKA Sofia. The winning goal for the army team was scored by Kiril Kotev in the 65th minute. After a season later, Litex again lost the Bulgarian Supercup with 0:1 the champion Levski Sofia.

In 2009–10 season Litex became a champion of Bulgaria for the third time in his history, finishing with 12 points more than the second, CSKA Sofia.^[3] On August 12th 2010, Litex defeated Beroe 2–1 to win the Bulgarian Supercup, for first time in the club's history. In 2010–11 Litex achieved a 4th league title, securing the championship with a 3–1 away win against Lokomotiv Sofia on 21 May 2011.^[4]

League positions

Recent league statistics

Stadium

Litex Lovech's home ground is the Lovech Stadium, a football stadium in Lovech. Built in 1962, the ground underwent a total reconstruction in 1999 and was brought to a suitable stand to host international matches in 1999. The stadium has more than 8000 seating places with pitch dimensions of 105 x 68 metres. The record attendance is 12,500 for the game against Levski Sofia in 19 April, 1998. The record attendance in the European club competitions was achieved against Aston Villa F.C. on September 18, 2008, when around 8,000 spectators supported the team. In the summer of 2010, a massive reconstruction of the venue was started, new side sectors with roof covers were built and the media sectors were expanded in order to meet the UEFA guidelines for Champions League matches. On July 12, 2010, the stadium officially received from UEFA a 3-star rating. The reconstructions continued in the summer of 2011. New covered stands and media boxes were built.

Honours

National competitions

Bulgarian A PFG:

• Champions (4): 1997–98, 1998–99, 2009–10, 2010–11
• Runners-up (1): 2001–02
• Third (2): 2002–03, 2005–06

Bulgarian Cup:

• Winners (4): 2001, 2004, 2008, 2009
• Runners-up (3): 1999, 2003, 2007

Bulgarian League Cup:

• Runners-up (1): 1997

Bulgarian Supercup:

• Winners (1): 2010
• Runners-up (4): 2004, 2007, 2008 , 2009, 2011

Unofficial competitions

Norcia Winter Cup:

• Winners (1): 2001

PFC Litex Lovech in Europe

Current squad

As of December 8, 2011 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

For recent transfers, see List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2011–12.

UEFA Ranking

As of 28 April 2011

Club Ranking for 2011 (Previous year rank in italics, UEFA Club Coefficients in parentheses)

• 171 Sturm Graz (8.640)
• 172 Litex (8.575)
• 173 Sivasspor (8.510)
• Full List

Notable players

The following players included were either playing for their respective national teams or left good impression among the fans.

Note: For a complete list of Litex Lovech players, see Category:PFC Litex Lovech players.

Managerial history

This is a list of the recent Litex Lovech managers:

As of March 11, 2011.

Notable stats

Notes:

• Bold signals active players
• Correct as of 2010-05-16

References

External links

Official websites

• Official website
• UEFA Profile

Supporters website

• Ultras website

Information and statistics

• Litex at worldfootball.net