PFC Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo

PFC Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo (Bulgarian: ПФК Видима-Раковски Севлиево) оr simply Vidima-Rakovski (Bulgarian: Видима Раковски) is a Bulgarian football club based in Sevlievo, which currently competes in the A PFG.

The club was established on September 2, 1997, but it was named as a predecessor of SC Rakovski, which was founded on December 19, 1922. Vidima-Rakovski have spend most of their history playing in the lower divisions of the Bulgarian football league system, until 2003, when the club earned promotion to the top division. The club's home ground is the Rakovski Stadium in Sevlievo, which has a capacity of 8,816 people.

History

Vidima-Rakovski was founded on December 29, 1922, as Rakovski football club, by group of football enthusiasts of the Аssociation for tourism Rositsa. Upon its formation, Ivan Tsochev became president, Boris Popivanov secretary and Serafim Ganushev steward. Brothers Sokerovi, who played in the team, chose to name it Rakovski in honor of the Bulgarian national hero Georgi Sava Rakovski. They played their first game against Viktoria F.C. from Veliko Tarnovo, 1:1 draw.

After the reorganization in some of the sports associations in Bulgaria, in Sevlievo arose some voluntary sports organizations. The most popular was DSO Red Flag (Bulgarian: ДСО Червено знаме). In 1957 everyone voluntarys sports organizations union in VSO Rakovski. A two years later Rakovski was admitted into the Bulgarian Third Division. In 1968 the club were promoted for the first time to B PFG, the second division of Bulgarian football.

In 1980 the club was renamed F.C. Rositsa. The team finally became known as PFC Vidima-Rakovski in 1997, after union between F.C. Rakovski and F.C. Vidima, a little club of the Vidima Standart Ideal works. In the next 1998-99 season, the team won the Cup of Amateur Bulgarian league.

In 2002-03 season, with Plamen Markov as head coach, saw the first A PFG promotion ever of Vidima-Rakovski. Gerasim Zakov scored the club’s first top league goal in a 3-3 draw against Lokomotiv Sofia. The 2003-04 campaign, remembered as the first A PFG season in the club's history, ended in a good 12th place. In same season Vidima-Rakovski had their best Bulgarian Cup run in the history, beating Kameno and Belasitsa Petrich before losing to Lokomotiv Sofia in the quarter-finals. In the next campaign Vidima won just nine games and were relegated.

In 2006-07 season Vidima-Rakovski finished 2nd in B PFG, and managed to participate in the play-off for promotion in the A PFG. On June 2, 2007, Vidima surprisingly won the play-off against PFC Naftex Burgas with a result of 1:0 and finally qualified for the first division for second time in the club's history. However, the next year they were relegated again.

In 2009-10 season Vidima won a third promotion to the top division by winning the Western B PFG.

Stadium

The club's home ground is the Rakovski Stadium in Sevlievo. The stadium has an exact seating capacity of 8,816 spectators and it was opened in 1958. Since then it has been renovated once, in 2001, when plastic seats and a new scoreboard were installed.

Current squad

As of December 10, 2011 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.

Club officials

Board of directors

Current technical body

References

External links

• Official website (Bulgarian)
• At Eufo.de (German)
• At Weltfussball.de (German)
• UEFA Profile (English)