The 2011–12 A Group was the 88th season of the Bulgarian national top football division, and the 64th of A Group as the top tier football league in the country. The season began on 6 August 2011 and ended on 23 May 2012. Ludogorets Razgrad claimed their maiden title in their debut season, after winning the last round clash against

CSKA CSKA (Cyrillic: ЦСКА) is an abbreviation for "Central Sports Club of the Army" in several Slavic languages, and refers to military sports teams in may stand for: Bulgaria * Football clubs ** PFC CSKA Sofia, a professional association football ...

, which were leading by 2 points prior to the match.

Vidima-Rakovski FC Sevlievo ( bg, ФК Севлиево) is a Bulgarian association football club based in Sevlievo, which currently competes in the Third Amateur Football League (Bulgaria), North-West Third League, the third tier of Bulgarian football league sy ...

Kaliakra Kaliakra ( bg, Калиакра; ro, Caliacra) is a cape in the Southern Dobruja region of the northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, which ends with a long and narrow headland east of Kavarna, northeast of Varna and southwest of Mangalia. ...

and Svetkavitsa were relegated, after finishing at the bottom three places.

Team information

Akademik Sofia and

Sliven Sliven ( bg, Сливен ) is the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. Sliven is famous for its heroic Haiduts who fought against the Ottoman Tu ...

were directly relegated after finishing in the bottom two places of the table at the end of season 2010/11. Akademik were relegated after one year in the top league of Bulgarian football, while

ended a ''three-year'' tenure at the top flight. Furthermore, Pirin (Blagoevgrad) were excluded from A Group due to financial difficulties and demoted to V Group. The relegated teams were replaced by

Botev Vratsa Botev ( bg, Ботев) is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Vratsa, that competes in the First League, the top division of Bulgarian football. The club was founded in 1921. Since 1948, Botev have played their home games at St ...

, champions of West B Group, Ludogorets Razgrad, champions of East B Group and promotion ''play-off'' winners Svetkavitsa. Botev Vratsa returned to A Group after twenty-two years, while Ludogorets Razgrad and Svetkavitsa both made their debut on the highest level of Bulgarian football. There was some controversy regarding the relegation/promotion play-offs at the end of season 2010/11. In the original match-up, ''14''th-placed

lost 3-0 against B Group play-off winners Chernomorets (Pomorie). However,

Chernomorets Chernomorets ( bg, Черноморец ) is a town on the Black Sea coast of southeastern Bulgaria. Administratively part of Sozopol Municipality, Burgas Province, Chernomorets is a popular seaside resort. Chernomorets lies some southeast of t ...

did not receive an A Group licence, so

were spared from relegation. In order to fill the void, a second play-off match was scheduled between Svetkavitsa, ''4''th-placed team of East B Group, and Etar (Veliko Tarnovo), ''3''rd-placed team of West B Group. Svetkavitsa won this match by a score of 3-1.

Stadia and locations

As in the previous year, the league comprises the best thirteen teams of season 2010-11, the champions of the two B Groups and the winners of the promotion ''play-offs''. ;Notes #

Lokomotiv Sofia Lokomotiv 1929 ( bg, Локомотив 1929) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which currently plays in the First League, the top tier of Bulgarian football. Founded as Railway Sports Club in 1929, and refou ...

play their home matches at

Vasil Levski National Stadium Vasil Levski National Stadium ( bg, Национален стадион „Васил Левски“), named after Bulgarian national hero and revolutionary Vasil Levski (1837–1873), is the country's second largest stadium. The stadium has 43, ...

as their own ground, Lokomotiv Stadium, had not received approval from the BFU license committee.

Personnel and sponsoring

Managerial changes

Note: Georgi Ivanov subsequently stepped down and was replaced by

Yasen Petrov Yasen Petrov Petrov ( bg, Ясен Петров Петров; born 23 June 1968) is a Bulgarian former football player. His nickname is ''Giannini from Plovdiv''. Career Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Petrov played for the PFC Botev Plovdiv, PFC Lev ...

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

at the helm of Levski, with Ilian Iliev set to take over prior to the 2012/2013 season.

League table

Results

Champions

;Ludogorets Razgrad *Mihaylov, Travner, Grabus, Remzi, Atanasov, Dyulgerov and Kolev left the club during a season.

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Below is a list of the top goalscorers at the end of the competition.

Scoring

*First goal of the season: 19:08 –

Georgi Bozhilov Georgi Penkov Bozhilov ( bg, Георги Божилов, born 12 February 1987) is a Bulgarian professional footballer who plays for Kostinbrod. He has played much of his career as a second striker but he has also been used as a striker and ...

for Cherno More against

Montana Montana () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West List of regions of the United States#Census Bureau-designated regions and divisions, division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North ...

(''6 August 2011'') *Fastest goal of the season: 6 seconds –

Miroslav Manolov Miroslav Manolov ( bg, Мирослав Манолов; born 20 May 1985 in Sopot) is a former Bulgarian footballer who played as a forward. He retired in early 2016 at age of 30. Manolov has appeared in Bulgaria's top flight for CSKA Sofia ...

( Cherno More) against

(''22 March 2012'')

Transfers

List of Bulgarian football transfers summer 2011 This is a list of Bulgarian football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular wh ...

List of Bulgarian football transfers winter 2011–12 The following are lists of Bulgarian football transfers that happened in the winter between 2011 and 2012. They are listed by team. Beroe In: Out: Botev Vratsa In: Out: Cherno More In: ...

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2011-12 A PFG First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) seasons Bul 1