| Clubname: | Lyubimets |
| Upright: | 0.75 |
| Fullname: | Football Club Lyubimets |
| Founded: | /restored 2007/ |
| Ground: | Gradski Stadium, Lyubimets |
| Capacity: | 4,000 |
| Chairman: | Atanas Stalev |
| Manager: | Toshko Yordanov |
| Season: | 2023-24 |
| Position: | A RFG Haskovo, 4th |
| Pattern La1: | _river1214h |
| Pattern B1: | _shoulder_stripes_black_stripes |
| Pattern Ra1: | _river1214h |
| Pattern Sh1: | _adidaswhite |
| Pattern So1: | _color 3 stripes black |
| Leftarm1: | FFFFFF |
| Body1: | FFFFFF |
| Rightarm1: | FFFFFF |
| Shorts1: | 000000 |
| Socks1: | FFFFFF |
| Pattern La2: | _shoulder_stripes_white_stripes |
| Pattern B2: | _shoulder_stripes_white_stripes |
| Pattern Ra2: | _shoulder_stripes_white_stripes |
| Pattern Sh2: | _adidaswhite |
| Pattern So2: | _color 3 stripes blue |
| Leftarm2: | 436EEE |
| Body2: | 436EEE |
| Rightarm2: | 436EEE |
| Shorts2: | 000000 |
| Socks2: | FFFFFF |
FC Lyubimets (Bulgarian: ФК Любимец) is a Bulgarian football club based in Lyubimets. The team was founded in 1921 and re-founded in 2007. The team currently competes in the fourth tier of Bulgarian football, the A RFG Haskovo.[1]
The club's biggest achievement came in 2013, when Lyubimets managed to promote to the A Group for the first time in club history for the 2013–14 season. Lyubimets was relegated, however, and has since slipped into the amateur levels of Bulgarian football. The club's home ground is the local Municipal Stadium in Lyubimets, which has an overall capacity of 4,000 seats.
The first club was founded as Football Club Maritsa in 1921. In 1947 the club changed its name to Football Club Strela. In the 1960s the club was finally named Football Club Lyubimets. The club participated in the third and fourth divisions of Bulgarian football for the majority of its history, before being dissolved by the end of the 1993–94 season.
In 2007, thirteen years later, the club was restored as Football Club Lyubimets 2007. In its first season, the club was promoted for the first time to the second division. In its first season in professional football, the club finished in 7th place.
On 9 January 2013, club's former player Veselin Velikov was announced as the new manager.[2] Four months later he led Lyubimets to promotion to the A PFG for first time in the club's history, finishing in 2nd place in the B PFG.[3]
The maiden season in the professional top-flight began with a 1–0 win over defending champions Ludogorets Razgrad, a big surprise in Bulgarian football. Lyubimets went on to earn 9 points from their first four games, including wins against Lokomotiv Sofia and Europa League participants Botev Plovdiv (2–1 away in Plovdiv). The team's form dropped after the fifth round, however, as it managed to win only one of their next 18 games in the first phase. This placed them in the relegation group for the remainder of the season. In the relegation round, they won only one of twelve possible matches, and were relegated to the B PFG, after finishing last.
In the summer of 2014, the BFU decided to refuse to give FC Lyubimets a license for the second league, similarly to the other teams relegated that year from the first tier, Neftochimic and Pirin Gotse Delchev. This was done mainly because of financial reasons, as Lyubimets could not provide enough financial resources to sustain themselves in professional football. Lyubimets was subsequently relegated to the fourth tier, the regional league of Haskovo. The team returned to the third tier after two seasons in the fourth division, but was relegated immediately.
PlotData= bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 color:red shift:(0,14) text: "V Group" from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift:(0,-4) text:7 from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift:(0,-4) text:6 from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift:(0,-4) text:4 from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift:(0,-4) text:2 from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2013 color:white shift:(0,14) text: "B Group" from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift:(0,-4) text:14 from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 color:green shift:(0,14) text: "A Group" from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift:(0,-4) text:4 from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2016 color:yellow shift:(0,14) text: "Regional" from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift:(0,-4) text:17 from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 color:red shift:(0,14) text: "Third League" from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift:(0,-4) text:11 from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift:(0,-4) text:5 from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift:(0,-4) text:6 from:01/07/2020 till:01/07/2021 shift:(0,-4) text:4 from:01/07/2021 till:01/07/2022 shift:(0,-4) text: from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2022 color:yellow shift:(0,14) text: "Regional"
|
Most appearances for the club
| Most goals for the club
|
Notes:
| Season | League | Place | W | D | L | GF | GA | Pts | Bulgarian Cup | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015–16 | A RFG (IV) | 4th | 13 | 7 | 4 | 58 | 32 | 46 | not qualified | |||
| 2016–17 | Third League (III) | 17th | 9 | 6 | 19 | 38 | 79 | 33 | not qualified | |||
| 2017–18 | A RFG (IV) | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | TBD | |||
| Green marks a season followed by promotion, red a season followed by relegation. | ||||||||||||
