sport.wikisort.org - Team

FK Spartak 1918 Varna (Bulgarian: Футболен клуб „Спартак 1918“ Варна, romanized: Futbolen klub Spartak 1918 Varna) is a Bulgarian association football phoenix club based in Varna, which currently competes in the First League, the top level of Bulgarian football league system. Spartak plays its home matches at the local Stadion Spartak.

Spartak Varna

Full name	Футболен клуб „Спартак 1918“ Варна Spartak 1918 Varna Football Club
Nickname(s)	Соколите (The Falcons)
Founded	28 August 1918; 104 years ago (1918-08-28) as SC Balgarski Sokol
Ground	Stadion Spartak
Capacity	6,000
Chairman	Asen Milanov / Pavlin Nikolov
Manager	Todor Kiselichkov
League	First League
2021–22	Second League, 3rd (promoted)
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Founded in 1918, Spartak Varna established itself as one of the early pioneering clubs in Bulgarian football. Spartak won the Bulgarian league in 1932, and was runner up in 1931 and 1933. Spartak has spent the majority of its existence in the first tier of Bulgarian football, with the club’s most recent top flight participation being season 2022–2023.

Spartak's nickname is the "Falcons", and the club has a very heated rivalry with fellow Varna-based club, Cherno More Varna. Matches between the two sides are known as the "Derby of Varna". The two sides even used to share the Yuri Gagarin Stadium before it was demolished.

History

1918–1945: Foundation of SC Sokol

Spartak Varna was founded on 28 August 1918 by a group of young people, who were playing football together for two years. At the initial meeting, regarding the establishment of the club, the name was decided to be SC Sokol. Niagol Kolev was elected as the first chairman of the club. A few days later, the members of the board registered the Football Club to the government under the name "Bulgarski Sokol". The colors of the team were blue and white. "Bulgarski Sokol," one of the poor suburban teams in Varna, is poorly circumstanced in comparison to the leading teams at that time such as Ticha and "Vladislav." Nonetheless, the football team quickly became stronger, and improved their style of play.

On 30 January 1924 "Bulgarski Sokol" merged with the sport club "Shipka". These days the team proved itself as one of the strongest teams in Varna. Among all the players called with a lot of love from the fans "Falcons" with most successful plays was the forward Mihail Tunchev. In 1924 he was invited in the national team and that way he became the first national player of the team.

A few years later started the rise of the team. In the season 1928/29 the team won for the first time the championship of Varna, and joined the State Championship where they reached third place. Two years later 1930/31 the falcons were again champions of Varna. For the State Championship they reached the final with the Sofia's AS-23. Next year "Shipchenski Sokol" again reached the final, where the rival was the capitol's team Slavia. On 18.09.1932 in front of 10 000 audience on the football field of AS-23 the falcons won with 2:1 and became State Champion and Winner of the Cup of the King. In the next season "Shipchenski sokol" were again champion of Varna, and for the State Championship they reach for the third consecutive time the final. On 03.10.1933 in Sofia rival of the "falcons" was PFC Levski Sofia. Varna's team lost with 3:1 and took the second place in the State Championship.

1945–2010: Merge and Spartak naming

In 1945 the club merged with other two Varna's football clubs "Levski" and "Radetski". This happened on 18 October 1945, and the team accepted a new name - Spartak Varna (the name Spartak means "Spartacus", a gladiator who led an uprising against Ancient Rome). In the years between 1945–1948, three times Spartak reached the semi-finals of the State Championship. In 1950, the team took the fifth place in the newly created "A" Republican Football League. Spartak Stalin relegated to B League in 1952 but returned to A League at next year. Spartak again relegated to second level in 1963–64 season but returned in 1964–65 season. However, this return was short-lived and relegated in 1965–66.

In 1955, Spartak won the third place and bronze medals in the championship of "A" League. In 1959 the forward of Spartak Georgi Arnaudov-"Alaha" became a shooter of the championship with nine goals. Two years later, Spartak again had a winner in the shooters list: Liuben Kostov with 12 goals. In 1960/61, Spartak had very good matches in the tournament of the Soviet Army which then was playing the role of the Cup of Bulgaria. They reached the final where and meet the strongest team in Bulgaria at that time- CSKA. Spartak lost the final 3:0. As a finalist, Spartak won the right to play in the tournament of the National Cup Winners. In 1969 another sport club merged with Spartak – it was the "Lokomotiv" sport club. The merge became a fact on 06.03.1969 and the club took the name "JSK-Spartak". JSK-Spartak returned to first level in 1970–71 but relegated in 1973–74 and returned to first level in 1974–75. JSK-Spartak relegated again in 1977–78.

In 1982 the "Falcons" reached the final of the Cup of Bulgaria as they won the semi-final against Levski-Spartak in Kazanlak in front of a crowd of 20,000. In Plovdiv, Spartak lost the final 4:0 to CSKA-Septemvriisko Zname, but as a finalist they obtained the right to play in the Cup of the National Cup Winners. In the same year, JSK-Spartak returned to the A League. In the season 1983/84, after mighty and successful games, Spartak reached third place. The goalkeeper Krasimir Zafirov was declared the best goalkeeper in the championship. Since 1985 the football was separated from the other sports in JSK-Spartak, and that way the FC Spartak Varna is differentiated as well.

The 80's will be remembered and with the regular participation of the team in the tournaments for the Varna Summer Cup. Rivals of the "falcons" were the teams of NK Rijeka Croatia, the English Oxford United F.C., Hungarian Újpest FC and many others. In 1988/89, Spartak became the first Bulgarian team with private sponsor and president Atanas Atanasov-Kebie. From the autumn of 1994, president of the club was Nikolay Ishkov. Spartak relegated to B league in 1988–89 and returned to A League in 1991–92. However, Spartak relegated to second level in 1993–94.

In the season 1994/95 after mighty games the falcons won the cup as the most progressive team in Bulgaria. In the same season the forward Ivo Georgiev scores 21 goals and became shooter number one of Bulgaria. At this time Spartak was considered one of the strongest teams in Bulgaria. For the first time there was successful transfer policy and perspective selection. Many of the players has a profitable offers from capitol's and foreign clubs. In its 84 years of history Spartak went through many peaks and downfall moments, but it left a bright trace in the Bulgarian football. F.C. Spartak is one of the clubs with the greatest traditions, between the 10 clubs which have most participations in the A PFG, and between the 15 who reached the Champions title of Bulgaria. The same season Spartak returned to the first level.

2010–2015: Dark times

In May 2010, Spartak Varna was relegated to Bulgarian North East amateur division due to inability to comply with requirements for a professional license. Furthermore, under new ownership, it was founded Spartak 1918. A month later, fans of Spartak Varna (forming the majority of the ultras), not happy with the previous management and not seeing a change after the new registration, formed a new club taking over the same league FC Topolite license. However, although reaching an agreement with FC Topolite they have not been allowed to change the name of that club to Spartak. Their team has finished second after Spartak 1918 the first half of 2010/2011 season, but due to financial problems has stopped his participation. The group of fans who formed FC Topolite still boycotts the current management of Spartak 1918 and doesn't attend the team's games.

For this 2010–11 season, the club is participating in the Bulgarian North-East V AFG.

2015–present: Refounding of new Spartak

2015–2017: FC Spartak and Spartak 1918

A new team was founded on 17 May 2015 by founding board led by Spartak's legends Atanas Atanasov, Lyudmil Goranov, Dimitar Trendafilov, Ilko Stanchev and Trayan Dyankov,[1] after the original club (named Spartak 1918 at the time) had bad leadership in the last years. The team wanted to use Spartak Stadium in order to start from the 3rd league - the Bulgarian V AFG, but this hasn't happened since the stadium was given to Spartak 1918, which withdrew from V Group and was dissolved. Some of the players who joined the team played also for the local futsal club Grand Pro Varna.

On 11 October 2015 the team signed a sponsorship with UltraGas, which would guarantee them enough money to prepare a new strong team in the future.[2]

On 6 May 2016 team applied to gain rights to play and operate at Spartak Stadium because they can't play at Lokomotiv Stadium in V Group in 2016–17 season if they get promotion. Atanas Atanasov had a talk with the sports minister Krasen Kralev who promised to give these right to Spartak, if the stadium become municipal property, because Spartak 1918 is the current operator of the stadium, even after the condition of the stadium is critical. Atanasov also said, that the team is looking for sponsors and eventually a club owner.[3] On 11 May 2016 the club gain the rights on Lokomotiv Stadium, which would give them the chance to start a complete youth academy from the 2016/17 season.[4]

On 3 July 2016 Trayan Dyankov was appointed as the new manager of the team and would lead the team in Third Amateur League.[5] On 1 August 2016 Dyankov died from a heart attack during training at Lokomotiv Stadium.[6] Atanas Atanasov become the manager of the team for the beginning of the season.[7]

On 26 November 2016 the manager of Spartak, Atanas Atanasov, announced that the club will merge with Spartak 1918 to have one Spartak.[8] On 1 February 2017 it was announced the official merge with Spartak 1918 manager, Ivan Naydenov, taking the team. The complete merge would be after the season end.[9]

2017–Present: Merge of Spartak teams

On 25 June 2017 FC Spartak and Spartak 1918 finally merged.[10] Three days earlier the new logo of the team was announced.[11] On 29 December 2017 Engibar Engibarov was announced as the new manager of the team.[12] On 6 July 2018 Spartak returned the rights over to Spartak Stadium.[13]

On 12 May 2019 Spartak secured their return to professional football, winning their group two rounds before its end and managing to be promoted to the Second League.[14] However, Spartak endured a difficult season back into the second tier, finishing second to last, suffering an immediate relegation.

For the 2020-21 season, Spartak finally returned to their renovated home stadium.[15] On 16 May 2021 the team secured their first place in their Third League group and won the promotion to Second League once again.[16] The team ended up on top of the standings before the winter break. On 5 May 2022, after a 2:1 home win against Sozopol the team secured a top 3 place and their return to First League in the 2022–23 season, after 12 years of absence.[17] The team missed the chance to win the last league match and ended up on 3rd place with having the same points with first and second team in group.[18]

Honours

First League:

• Winners (1): 1932 (as Shipchenski Sokol)
• Runners-up (2): 1931, 1933 (as Shipchenski Sokol)
• Third-place (6): 1929, 1945 (as Shipchenski Sokol)
  1946, 1948, 1955, 1984 (as Spartak Varna)

Second League:

• Winners (7): 1953, 1964–65, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1981–82, 1994–95, 2005–06

Third League:

• Winners (3): 2010–11, 2018–19, 2020–21

A Regional Group:

• Winners (1): 2015–16

Bulgarian Cup:

• Runners-up (2): 1961, 1983

Crest, shirt and sponsors

Spartak Varna adopted blue, white and red, the main colours of the original Spartak Varna. On 11 October 2015 the team signed a sponsorship with UltraGas.[2] For the first match in 2018 Spartak signed a contract with the reseller store iPhonePlace.[19]

After adopting a new logo in 2016, on 23 January 2018 Spartak managed to return the rights to their original logo.[20]

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt partner
2015–2017	Krasiko	Ultra Gas
2017		None
2018–2019	Uhlsport	iPhonePlace.bg
2019–	Jako	Efbet

European tournaments history

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1961–62	Cup Winners' Cup	Preliminary round	Rapid Wien	2–5	0–0	2–5
1983–84	Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Mersin İY	1–0	0–0	1–0
		Second Round	Manchester United	1–2	0–2	1–4
1996	Intertoto Cup	Group 8	ŁKS Łódź	–	1–1	4th
			KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny	–	2–2
			1860 München	2–1	–
			Kaučuk Opava	0–1	–
1997	Intertoto Cup	Group 10	Montpellier	1–1	–	5th
			Groningen	0–2	–
			Gloria Bistrita	–	1–2
			Čukarički	–	0–3
1998	Intertoto Cup	First Round	Baltika Kaliningrad	1–1	0–4	1–5
1999	Intertoto Cup	First Round	Sint-Truidense	1–2	0–6	1–8
2001	Intertoto Cup	First Round	Dyskobolia Grodzisk	4–0	0–1	4–1
		Second Round	Tavriya Simferopol	0–3	2–2	2–5

Players

First-team squad

As of 30 August 2022

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  BUL Stefan Petkov 2 DF  BUL Velislav Boev 3 DF  BUL Ibryam Ibryam 6 DF  BRA Emanuel 7 FW  BUL Georgi Babaliev 8 MF  BUL Ivaylo Klimentov 9 FW  BUL Mehmed Sabri 10 MF  BUL Yancho Andreev (captain) 11 MF  BUL Viktor Mitev 12 DF  BUL Genadi Lugo 14 MF  PAN Romeesh Ivey 17 MF  BUL Tsvetan Iliev 19 DF  BUL Nikola Borisov

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 GK  BUL Ivan Dichevski (vice-captain) 22 DF  MAR Sami El Anabi 23 DF  GNB Prosper Mendy 24 MF  CUW Liandro Martis 25 DF  BUL Plamen Dimov 27 FW  UKR Denys Balanyuk 30 MF  BUL Bozhidar Vasev 33 MF  BUL Zdravko Dimitrov (on loan from Levski Sofia) 45 MF  BUL Daniel Nachev 47 MF  NED Rodney Antwi 51 DF  BUL Ilker Budinov (on loan from Ludogorets) 67 GK  BUL Hristiyan Hristov 77 MF  BUL Rumen Rumenov

For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2022.

Out on loan

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

No. Pos. Nation Player

No. Pos. Nation Player

Foreign players

Up to five non-EU nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Bulgarian First Professional League however only three can be used in a match day. 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.

Goalscoring and appearance records

As of 22 April 2022

Most appearances for the club in First League

Rank	Name	Career	Appearances
1	Iliya Kirchev	1951–1965	286
2	Nikolay Stanchev	1994–2006	247
3	Krasimir Zafirov	1972–1984 1955–1964	227
4	Biser Dimitrov	1955–1964	224
5	Blagoy Yanev	1951–1964	216
6	Kiril Pandov	1948–1960	207
7	Hristo Valchanov	1954–1966	206
8	Stefan Naydenov	1982–1990 1991–1993	193
9	Encho Nedev	1969–1983	190
10	Plamen Kazakov	1979–1981 1982–1990 1991–1992 1994–1995	132

Most goals for the club in First League

Rank	Name	Career	Goals
1	Stefan Naydenov	1982–1990 1991–1993	56
2	Hristo Nikolov	1958–1967	48
—	Valentin Stanchev	1994–1998 2000–2003	48
4	Georgi Arnaudov	1949–1961	42
5	Zhivko Gospodinov	1974–1977 1978–1987 1988 1990–1991	41
6	Plamen Kazakov	1979–1981 1982–1990 1991–1992 1994–1995	39
7	Stefan Stefanov	1949–1961	31
8	Ivan Petrov	1974–1984 1989–1990	30
9	Ivan Filipov	1956–1968	29
10	Gerasim Kalugerov	1954–2065	27
–	Ivo Georgiev	1995–1996 1998	27

• Players in bold are still playing for Spartak.

|}

Personnel

Board of directors

Position	Name	Nationality
President	Stefan Kalimenov
Vice President	Evgeniiy Balev
Sports Director	Martin Zafirov
Member	Krasimir Zafirov
Member	Borislav Georgiev
Member	Radostin Stanev
Member	Martin Zafirov
Member	Todor Stoykov
Member	Georgi Simeonov
Member	Marin Marinov

Current technical body

Position	Name	Nationality
Head Coach	Todor Kiselichkov
Assistant Coach	Angel Pavlov
Goalkeeper Coach	Rumen Rusev
Academy Director	Vasil Petrov
Academy Coordinator	Miroslav Milošević

Manager history

Dates Name Honours 1932 Ferenz Fann 1 A Group Title 1933 Dietmar Marius 1945 Aleksandar Kondov 1949–1950 Stefan Kalachev 1950 Kiril Pavlov 1951 Hristo Minkovski 1952–1954 Kiril Pavlov 1954–1955 Trendafil Stankov 1956–1957 Stefan Kalachev 1958–1964 Toma Zahariev 1964 Trendafil Stankov 1965–1966 Petar Minchev 1966–1967 Ivan Radoev 1967–1969 Toma Zahariev 1969 Trendafil Stankov 1970–1971 Stefan Semov 1971 Vladislav Mirchev 1971 Ivan Filipov 1972 Vasil Spasov 1972–1973 Borislav Milenov 1973–1974 Iliya Kirchev 1974–1975 Dobromir Tashkov 1975–1978 Dimitar Doychinov 1978–1979 Iliya Kirchev 1979–1980 Ivan Filipov 1980 Boris Pavlov 1981 Vasil Nenov 1981–1983 Ivan Vutsov 1983–1985 Lyudmil Goranov

Dates Name Honours 1985–1987 Ivan Filipov 1987–1988 Evgeni Yanchovski 1988–1989 Blagoy Kalfov 1989–1990 Stancho Bonchev 1990 Ivan Vasilev 1991–1993 Lyudmil Goranov 1993 Blagoy Kalfov 1993 Kiril Ivkov 1994 Krasimir Zafirov 1994–1995 Lyudmil Goranov 1995–1996 Nikola Hristov 1996–1997 Stefan Grozdanov 1997 Ferario Spasov 1997 Blagoy Kalfov 1998 Dimitar Penev 1998–1999 Radoslav Zdravkov 1999–2000 Velislav Vutsov 2000–2002 Stefan Grozdanov 2002 Dimitar Stoychev 2003 Miroslav Mironov 2004 Stefan Grozdanov 2004 Rumen Dimov 2004 Petar Kurdov 2005 Radoslav Zdravkov 2006 Nikolay Stanchev 2006–2007 Miroslav Mironov 2007 Nedelcho Matushev 2007 Georgi Ivanov 2007–2008 Atanas Atanasov

Dates Name Honours 2008 Radoslav Zdravkov 2008 Slobodan Stašević 2008 Ilko Stanchev 2009 Dragoljub Simonović 2009 Anatolii Kirilov † 2009 Atanas Atanasov 2009–2010 Stoil Trankov 2010 Todor Popov 2010 Deyan Donchev 2010–2012 Dimitar Trendafilov 2012–2013 Ivan Naydenov 2013–2014 Georgi Ivanov 2014 Atanas Atanasov 2014 Zlatko Yankov 2015 Marian Pane 2015–2016 Dimitar Pantev 1 A RFG Title 2016 Trayan Dyankov † 2016–2017 Atanas Atanasov (interim) 2017 Ivan Naydenov 2017 Zlatin Mihaylov 2018–2019 Engibar Engibarov 2019 Diyan Bozhilov 2019–2020 Kyriakos Georgiou 2020–2022 Vasil Petrov 2022 Georgi Ivanov* 2022– Todor Kiselichkov

League positions

Past seasons

Season	League	Place	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Bulgarian Cup
2015–16	A RFG (IV)	1st	19	0	3	90	20	57	Did not qualify
2016–17	Third League (III)	12th	4	1	17	21	51	10	Did not qualify
2017–18	Third League	8th	10	6	14	43	61	36	Did not qualify
2018–19	Third League	1st	22	7	0	105	19	73	Round of 32
2019–20	Second League (II)	15th	2	4	15	6	42	10	Round of 32
2020–21	Third League	1st	22	5	1	81	11	71	Round of 32
2021–22	Second League	3rd	21	7	8	64	39	70	Round of 32
2022–23	First League (I)	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Qualified
Green marks a season followed by promotion, red a season followed by relegation.

Spartak II

Spartak Varna II

Full name	Spartak 1918 Varna II Football Club
Nickname(s)	Соколите (The Falcons)
Founded	1 July 2021; 16 months ago (2021-07-01)
Ground	Lokomotiv Stadium, Varna
Capacity	1,000
Chairman	Asen Milanov / Pavlin Nikolov
Manager	Vasil Petrov
League	Third League
2021–22	Third League, 7th
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Spartak II (Bulgarian: Спартак II) or Spartak 2 is a Bulgarian football team based in Varna. Founded in 2021, it is the reserve team of Spartak Varna, and currently plays in Third League, the third level of Bulgarian football.

Obliged to play one level below their main side, Spartak II is ineligible for promotion to First League and also can not compete in the Bulgarian Cup.

Players

As of 20 June 2022

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  BUL Yosif Slavchev 2 DF  UKR Pavel Bachuriyski 3 DF  BUL Pavlin Petkov 4 DF  BUL Aleksandar Trendafilov 6 DF  BUL Aleksandar Aleksandrov 7 FW  BUL Kaloyan Yanchev 8 MF  BUL Kristiyan Kurbanov 9 FW  BUL Simeon Ivanov 10 MF  BUL Denislav Stoyanov 11 FW  BUL Dimitar Todorov 12 GK  BUL Samuil Dechev 13 DF  BUL Stefan Stefanov

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 MF  BUL Nikolay Vasilev (captain) 17 FW  USA Dakarai Truvillion 19 MF  BUL Daniel Halachev 22 DF  BUL Stefan Stoyanov 23 MF  BUL Aleksandar Yanchev 24 FW  BUL Viktor Varbanov 27 MF  BUL Nikolay Dimitrov 45 FW  BUL Tsvetoslav Marinov 51 MF  MDA Laur Chițanu 77 DF  BUL Lyuboslav Marinov 97 MF  BUL Barash Nikolaev

Foreign players

Up to five non-EU nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Bulgarian First Professional League however only three can be used in a match day. 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.

Seasons

Season	League	Place	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts
2021–22	Third League (III)	7th	9	6	11	40	36	33
2022–23	Third League	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Green marks a season followed by promotion, red a season followed by relegation.

References

External links

• Official website
• bgclubs.eu

На других языках

---

[de] Spartak Warna

Der FK Spartak 1918 Warna (bulgarisch футболен клуб Спартак 1918 Варна) ist ein bulgarischer Fußballverein in Warna. Derzeit spielt der Klub in der Parwa liga, der ersten Liga des Landes.

---

- [en] FC Spartak Varna

---

[es] FC Spartak Varna

El FC Spartak Varna (en búlgaro, ПФК Спартак Варна) es un club de fútbol de Bulgaria que milita en la A PFG, la liga de fútbol más importante del país.

---

[ru] Спартак (футбольный клуб, Варна)

«Спартак» — болгарский футбольный клуб из города Варна, играющий в ПФГ Б Болгарии.

---

---