Botev Plovdiv

Botev Plovdiv is a football (soccer) club from Bulgaria.

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Botev Plovdiv , also known as the Canaries, founded on March 12, 1912, is a Bulgarian football (soccer) club from the city of Plovdiv.

Botev Plovdiv is the oldest and one of the most prominent football clubs in Bulgaria, playing its home matches at Hristo Botev Stadium (Plovdiv) in the residential quarter of Kamenitza (district).

History

Botev Plovdiv Football Club was founded on March 12, 1912 by students from the Catholic College and the First Male High school in Plovdiv. They chose to name it "Botev" in honour of the Bulgarian national hero Hristo Botyov.

Botev Plovdiv stadium of Botev Pld, renovated in 1961, is "Stadion Botev". Originally the stadium was named 'The College' due to the fact that in the early 1900's the pitch was owned by the Catholic College and it is still known by this name among the fans.

Botev Plovdiv has changed its name several times: Botev, DNV (1947-51), DNA (1952-57), SKNA, Botev (1957-1968) and Trakia (1968-1989). The current name is PFC Botev Plovdiv.

Botev Plovdiv is one of the best known clubs in Bulgaria. BPFC has won 2 A PFG and 2 Bulgarian Cup. Internationally Botev Plovdiv has reached one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals and one Balkans Cup winners.

Many great Bulgarian football players had played in it. The most capped players of Botev Plovdiv in A PFG are Dinko Dermendzhiev (447), Viden Apostolov (429), Petar Zehtinski (351), Kostadin Stefanov Kostadinov (349), Dimitar Mladenov (347). Most goals scored for Botev Plovdiv in A PFG: Dinko Dermendzhiev (194), Kostadin Stefanov Kostadinov (106), Atanas Pashev (100), Antim Pehlivanov (89), Georgi Popov (83).

Motto

Botev Pld's motto is: Krasota, vjara, borba ("Beauty, faith, fight").

Honours

- Champions of Bulgaria: 1929, 1967
- National Cup winners: 1962, 1981
- Balkans Cup winners: 1972
- Trimontium Cup winners : 1943, 1984, 1987, 1989

Colours & Fans

Yellow and black - adopted in 1917. There are two versions about how the colors have been chosen.

The first one tells that yellow and black are symbol of the unity between the catholic collegians (yellow) and the orthodox schoolfellows (black). The second one explains that because the founders copied the whole organizational structure from the then very popular Austrian clubs, they took the colors of the Austria-Hungary imperial flag (also the first club badge was an exact copy of the SK Rapid Wien crest).File:Botev_fans_1.jpg

The botevists (supporters of Botev Plovdiv) are said to be one of the most loyal fan base in Bulgaria supporting Botev Plovdiv during both good or bad times. Botev Plovdiv is famous for its eccentric Tribuna Iztok (East Stand) occupied by bultras. Bultras is a generalized name for the extreme yellow-black fans and they are one of the three major football mobs in Bulgaria (along with Sofia’s PFC CSKA Sofia and PFC Levski Sofia). The word bultras derives from Botev Ultras and first began to be used by hardcore fans during mid-1990s.

Stadium

In 1959 the authorities allowed the building of a new club stadium at the place of the old field in the neighborhood of Kamenitza. The first building works began on 21 July 1959. Two years later, Botev Plovdiv finally returns to The College.

On May 14, 1961 the reconstructed stadium was officially inaugurated. The prime minister at that time – Anton Yugov – attended the celebrations together with the deputy-minister of defence Dobri Djurov and most of the influential communist leaders. The celebrations ended with a friendly match against FC Steaua Bucureşti won by the yellow-blacks with 3:0.

For more than 30 years there were no big repair works on the College. In 1993, during the presidency of Hristo Danov, some serious repairs were made. The visitors’ changing room was moved to the eastern part of the stadium. A tunnel under the East and the North stand was built in order to connect the visitors’ changing room with the field and the capacity of the stadium was reduced. In 1995 electric lighting was built, but ironically it did not face the standards for playing football in the night.

In the years from 1926 to 1947 the yellow-black club plays 6 international games on this field- from which two wins, three loses and one draw. The matches were against SK Admira Wien (1:7), Kecskeméti TE (3:2 and 2:4), Besiktas (0:0), Bohemians Prague (1:3) and the “Wunderteam” of Austria Vienna (sensational win with 5:4)

The attendance record was set on February 27, 1963 during the quarter-final of the Cup Winner’s Cup against Atletico Madrid (1:1) – 40 000 people. The record for the Bulgarian championship was set in 1966 against Levski Sofia(0:1) – 37 000 people, but because of the riots between the fans and the rush of fans on the field, Botev Plovdiv was forced to play its derbies at “The Big House” – the City Stadium.

Several times the city rivals from Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Spartak Plovdiv have played their home matches at The College. During the spring of 1980 “The Smurfs”(Lokomotiv) played their home matches there (followed by a relegation in Second Division) as well as one match in the Spring of 2004 (when they became Champions for first time).

The Gladiators from Spartak used the stadium for several matches during the 1995/1996 season.

One final for the National Cup was held at the College in 2000 when Levski Sofia won the cup after 2:0 against Naftex Burgas.
In the summer of 2008 the stadium underwent some renovations to meet the requirements of the Football Union - The Central Stand was renovated and new visitors' changing room was built under it.

Botev Plovdiv FC in Europe

As of January 2009

For recent transfers, see List of Bulgarian football transfers summer 2009.

Presidents

- Stoyan Puhtev (1912 – 1922)
- Ivan Nikiforov (1922 – 1923)
- Georgui Hitrilov (1923 – 1926)
- Hristo Kanchev (1926 – 1944)
- Stoyo Seizov (1944 – 1947)
- Dimitar Ganchev (1947 – 1953)
- Dimitar Vanguelov (1953 – 1960)
- Yovcho Yovchev (1960 – 1964)
- Stanko Stankov (1964 – 1972)
- Kiril Asparuhov (1972 – 13.09.1990)
- Viden Apostolov (13.09.1990 – 01.10.1992)
- Petar Baldzhiev (01.10.1992 – 16.01.1993)
- Hristo Danov (16.01.1993 – 04.01.1995)
- Mihail Markachev (04.01.1995 – 14.10.1996)
- Georgi Chakarov (14.10.1996 – 16.09.1997)
- Petko Muravenov (16.10.1997 – 26.11.1997)
- Vassil Koritarev (26.11.1997 – 16.12.1997)
- Vasko Ninov (16.12.1997 – 19.03.1999)
- Dimitar Hristolov - Rest In Pain - (19.03.1999 - 16.10.2008)

Address

10, Iztochen Blvd, kv. Kamenitza, 4017 Plovdiv

Belasitsa Petrich, Botev Plovdiv, Cherno More Varna, Chernomorets 919, CSKA Sofia, Futbolen Klub Lokomotiv Mezdra, Levski Sofia, Liteks Lovech, Lokomotiv Plovdiv, Lokomotiv Sofia, OFK Sliven 2000, PFK Minior Pernik, Pirin Blagoevgrad, Slavia Sofia, Spartak Varna, Vihren