PFC Litex Lovech

Litex Lovech

Full name	Професионален футболен клуб Литекс Ловеч (Professional football club Litex Lovech)
Nickname(s)	Оранжевите (The Oranges)
Short name	Litex
Founded	1921 (1921) as Hisarya Sports Club
Ground	Lovech Stadium, Lovech
Ground Capacity	8,100
Chairman	Trifon Popov [1]
Manager	Zlatomir Zagorčić
League	A PFG
2012–13	A PFG, 5th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

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 8100 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 era (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)^[2] and in 2009 against Pirin Blagoevgrad (3:0 in the regular time).^[3] 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 0:1 against the champions 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.^[4] On 12 August 2010, Litex defeated Beroe 2–1 to win the Bulgarian Supercup, for the 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.^[5]

League positions

Recent league statistics

Season	Place	Points	W	D	L	Goal Diff.	Achievements
2007/2008	4 from 16	56	16	9	5	51–26	Bulgarian Cup
2008/2009	4 from 16	58	17	7	6	53–26	Bulgarian Cup
2009/2010	1 from 16	70	22	4	4	59–17	Champion
2010/2011	1 from 16	75	23	6	1	56–13	Supercup Champion
2011/2012	5 from 16	59	17	8	5	57–28
2012/2013	5 from 16	50	15	5	10	56–24

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 100 x 65 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 on 18 September 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 12 July 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 (5): 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011

European:

UEFA Cup:

• Round of 32 - 2001/02 and 2005/06

Unofficial competitions

Norcia Winter Cup:

• Winners (1): 2001

European record

Competition	S	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
UEFA Champions League / European Cup	4	16	8	1	7	29	28	+ 1
UEFA Europa League / UEFA Cup	12	52	21	11	20	71	57	+ 14
Total	16	68	29	12	27	100	85	+ 15

Current squad

As of 26 January 2014 (2014-01-26) Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Marin Orlinov 3 DF Anton Nedyalkov 5 DF Nikolay Bodurov (captain) 6 MF Simeon Slavchev 7 FW Georgi Minchev 8 MF Tom (on loan from İstanbul B.B.) 9 FW Wilmar Jordán 10 MF Jürgen Gjasula 11 FW Miroslav Manolov 13 DF Vasil Bozhikov 14 MF Armando Vajushi 16 DF Strahil Popov 17 MF Reyan Daskalov 18 DF Iliya Milanov

No. Position Player 19 MF Rumen Rumenov 21 MF Aleksandar Tsvetkov 22 DF Plamen Nikolov 23 DF Ivan Goranov 24 MF Petar Zlatinov 26 GK Ilko Pirgov 28 DF Plamen Galabov 30 GK Evgeni Aleksandrov 33 DF Džemal Berberović 70 MF Danilo Asprilla 77 MF Momchil Tsvetanov 88 MF Nikola Kolev 99 FW Kiril Despodov

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.

No. Position Player GK Aleksandar Konov (at Dobrudzha Dobrich) DF Ivelin Aladzhov (at Dunav Ruse) DF Emil Grozev (at Lyubimets 2007) MF Angel Zdravchev (at Dunav Ruse)

No. Position Player MF Kristiyan Malinov (at Dobrudzha Dobrich) MF Krasimir Stanoev (at Dobrudzha Dobrich) FW Kristiyan Petkov (at Dunav Ruse)

For recent transfers, see List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2013–14.

Foreign players

Up to three non-EU nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the A PFG. Those non-EU nationals with European ancestry can claim citizenship from the nation their ancestors came from. If a player does not have European ancestry he can claim Bulgarian citizenship after playing in Bulgaria for 5 years.

EU Nationals

EU Nationals (Dual citizenship) Jürgen Gjasula Armando Vajushi Tom

Non-EU Nationals Džemal Berberović Wilmar Jordán Danilo Asprilla

UEFA ranking

UEFA Club Coefficients

Rank	Country	Team	Points
176		Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC	8.075
177		PFC Litex Lovech	7.950
178		Eskişehirspor	7.900
179		Gaziantepspor	7.900

Notable players

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

Bulgaria Dimcho Belyakov Georgi Denev Nikolay Dimitrov Petar Hubchev Zoran Janković Rosen Kirilov Radostin Kishishev Stefan Kolev Stanislav Manolev Georgi Milanov Plamen Nikolov Ivaylo Petkov Ivelin Popov Stoycho Stoilov Svetoslav Todorov Mihail Venkov Hristo Yovov Stefan Yurukov Zlatomir Zagorcic Petar Zanev Zdravko Zdravkov Zhivko Zhelev

Albania Alban Bushi Altin Haxhi Armando Vajushi Bosnia and Herzegovina Džemal Berberović Brazil Doka Madureira Sandrinho Tiago Silva Tom France Alexandre Barthe Jean-Philippe Caillet Wilfried Niflore Macedonia Robert Popov Morocco Mourad Hdiouad

Romania Bogdan Pătraşcu Florin Prunea Valeriu Răchită Laurențiu Reghecampf Eugen Trică Serbia Igor Bogdanović Nebojša Jelenković Slovenia Milivoje Novakovič Uruguay Robert Flores Venezuela Alejandro Cichero

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:

Name	Nat	From	To	Honours
Stoycho Mladenov		June 2004	Nov 2004	–
Itzhak Shum		15 Nov 2004	May 2005	–
Ljupko Petrović		1 July 2005	12 June 2007	1 Bulgarian Cup
Ferario Spasov		June 2007	Nov 2007	–
Miodrag Ješić		Nov 2007	May 2008	1 Bulgarian Cup
Stanimir Stoilov		1 June 2008	28 Aug 2009	1 Bulgarian Cup
Angel Chervenkov		1 Sept 2009	5 Aug 2010	1 Bulgarian A PFG
Petko Petkov (interim)		5 Aug 2010	1 Sept 2010	1 Bulgarian Supercup
Lyuboslav Penev		2 Sept 2010	24 Oct 2011	1 Bulgarian A PFG
Atanas Dzhambazki		24 Oct 2011	31 Dec 2011
Hristo Stoichkov		5 Jan 2012	5 June 2013
Zlatomir Zagorčić		1 July 2013

Notable stats

Most appearances for the club # Name Apps 1 Plamen Linkov 575 2 Nebojša Jelenković 307 3 Vitomir Vutov 245 4 Zhivko Zhelev 225 5 Nikolay Dimitrov 210 Most goals for the club # Name Gls 01 Plamen Linkov 167 02 Stefan Yurukov 084 03 Svetoslav Todorov 070 04 Hristo Yovov 054 05 Dimcho Belyakov 048

Bulgarian league top scorer with the club Year Name Gls 1999 Dimcho Belyakov 21 2000 Svetoslav Todorov 19 2006 Milivoje Novakovič 16 2010 Wilfried Niflore 19

Notes:

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

All-time top scorers in A PFG

• Bold signals active players
• Correct as of August 13, 2013^[6]

#	Player	Games played	Goals scored	Assists	Goals per game	Years played
1.	Svetoslav Todorov	127	56	22	0.44	1997-2001, 2009-2012
2.	Stefan Yurukov	113	55	11	0.49	1996-1997, 1998-2002, 2003-2004
3.	Hristo Yovov	97	45	20	0.46	2000-2004
4.	Wilfried Niflore	72	39	11	0.54	2008-2011
5.	Dimtcho Beliakov	67	35	11	0.52	1994-1997, 1998-1999, 2004
6.	Zhivko Zhelev	194	31	7	0.16	1996-2007
7.	Zoran Janković	64	29	17	0.45	2000-2002, 2004, 2007-2008
8.	Georgi Milanov	106	28	20	0.26	2009-2013
9.	Krum Bibishkov	60	27	6	0.45	2007-2009
10.	Ivelin Popov	95	26	22	0.27	2005-2010

References

External links

Official websites

• Official website
• UEFA Profile

Supporters website

• Ultras website

Information and statistics

• Litex at worldfootball.net

v t e Litex Lovech General information Players Managers European Cup History Stadiums Lovech Other European Club Association

v t e PFC Litex Lovech – managers Angelov (1992–93) Zdravkov (1993–94) Denev (1994–96) Spasov (1996–97) Bekvalac (1997) Dimitrov (1997–98) Dimitrov (1999) Đoinčević (1999–00) Stoichiţă (2000) Ferario Spasov (2000–03) Simonović (2003–04) Petrović (2004) Mladenov (2004–05) Shum (2005) Petrović (2005–07) Spasov (2007) Ješić (2007–08) Stoilov (2008–09) Chervenkov (2009–10) Petkov (2010) Penev (2010–11) Dzhambazki (2011–12) Stoichkov (2012–13) Zagorčić (2013–)

v t e Bulgarian A Professional Football Group 2013–14 clubs Beroe Botev Plovdiv Cherno More Chernomorets CSKA Levski Litex Lokomotiv Plovdiv Lokomotiv Sofia Ludogorets Lyubimets 2007 Neftochimic Pirin GD Slavia Stadiums Beroe Hristo Botev Ticha Lazur Balgarska Armia Hadzhi Dimitar Georgi Asparuhov Lovech Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) Lokomotiv (Sofia) Ludogorets Arena Lyubimets Gotse Delchev Ovcha Kupel Former clubs Akademik Sofia Akademik Svishtov Belasitsa Botev Vratsa Chernomorets Chernomorets Burgas Sofia Dimitrovgrad Dobrudzha Dunav Etar Etar 1924 Haskovo Kaliakra Lokomotiv GO Lokomotiv Mezdra Marek Maritsa Metalurg Minyor Montana Naftex Nesebar Pirin Pirin Blagoevgrad Rilski Sportist Rodopa Rozova Dolina Septemvri Sliven Spartak Pleven Spartak Plovdiv Spartak Sofia Spartak Varna Sportist Svetkavitsa Velbazhd Vidima-Rakovski Vihren Yantra Former clubs (from Macedonia & Thrace) Belomorets Kavala Bitola Gotse Delchev Prilep Makedonija Bitola Makedonija Skopje Vardar Skopje ZhSK Skopje Competition Champions Players (foreign) Associated competitions Second Division Third Division Bulgarian Cup Bulgarian Supercup UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League Seasons 1948–49 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14

v t e Football in Bulgaria League competitions A PFG B PFG (2 divisions) V AFG (4 divisions) Regional Football Groups Bulgarian women's football championship Cup competitions Bulgarian Cup Bulgarian Supercup Cup of AFL Bulgarian Women's Cup Defunct competitions State Championship (1924–1936, 1941–1945) Tsar's Cup (1924–44) National Football Division (1937–1940) Republic Championship (1945–1948) Soviet Army Cup (1946–90) BFU's Cup (1990–91) PFL's Cup (1994–97) Premier League (2000–2003) Doubles Group (2008–2010) National teams Men Women Olympic team (U-23) Under-21 Under-19 Under-17 Lists Clubs Stadiums Foreign players Awards Footballers' Footballer of the Year BFU PFL

v t e Bulgarian football championship seasons State Championship (National Football Division) 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1941 1942 1943 1944 Republic Championship 1945 1946 1947 1948 A Professional Football Group 1948–49 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14

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