The Bulgarian football league system or the Bulgarian football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Bulgaria. The system has a hierarchical format with promotion and relegation between leagues at different levels, and allows even the smallest club to dream of rising to the very top of the system.
The first organised national tournament was founded in 1924. It was called the National championship (Bulgarian: Държавно първенство). The teams taking part in the tournament were separated in different regional divisions and the winners of each division then played for the Championship title via play-offs.
In 1948, A Republican Football Group (Bulgarian: „А“ Републиканска футболна група) was founded, a new national top division. The second level of the football league system - the B Republican Football Group (Bulgarian: „Б“ Републиканска футболна група) was founded two years later. The lower levels of the pyramid - V Republican Football Group (Bulgarian: „В“ Републиканска футболна група) and below - were structured in 1959.
This system (with minor changes during the years) existed until 2000. Then experimentally a new Bulgarian Premier Football League (Bulgarian: Висша лига по футбол) was founded replacing A Football Group. B Football Group was replaced by the new Bulgarian First Football League (Bulgarian: Първа лига по футбол). But these changes lasted for just three years - in 2003 the old A and B Football Groups were restored at the top of the football pyramid.
From 2016, the top level league name was changed to First Professional Football League and B Group name to Second Professional Football League.[1]
Currently the Bulgarian football league system consists of 55 different divisions forming 5 levels of the pyramid:[2] [3]
| Level | League/Group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional Leagues | |||||
| 1 | First League 16 clubs ↓ 2 relegation spots + 1 relegation playoff spot | ||||
| 2 | Second League 18 clubs ↑ 2 promotion spot + 1 promotion playoff spots ↓ 4 relegation spots | ||||
| Non-professional Leagues | |||||
| 3 | North-East Third League 15 clubs ↑ 1 promotion spot ↓ 1 relegation spot + 2 relegation playoff spots | North-West Third League 16 clubs ↑ 1 promotion spot ↓ 1 relegation spot + 3 relegation playoff spots | South-East Third League 20 clubs ↑ 1 promotion spot ↓ 2 relegation spots + 3 relegation playoff spots | South-West Third League 22 clubs ↑ 1 promotion spot ↓ 2 to 5 relegation spots | |
| 4 | A OFGs (A OFGs - A Oblast Football Groups) 39 in total (all divisions run in parallel):
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| 5 | B OFGs (B OFGs - B Oblast Football Groups) 10 in total (all divisions run in parallel):
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