P. Volov were surprise winners of the North Second Division – they never played in the First Division before and traditionally were not considered a likely candidate for promotion. Unlike Pernik, they had no noticeable players in the squad.

Panayot Volov (Shumen) proudly posing before their debute in the First Division. This is not an advertising on their jersyes, but the club’s name. The club is named after 19th Century revolutionary, but nobody used the official combination of first and last name – they were called simply ‘Volov’ and the abreaviated first name appeared only in print. Later the club was renamed Shumen – the name of the home town – and restored their original name in 2008 after some pressure from the fans. P. Volov, unlike Pernik, did not survived the trial of First Division football – they were unable to recruit decent squad. Only two players of the team are worth mentioning: young, rugged, fiary, and lethal defenseman Tzonyo Vasilev was the only impressive player Volov had. CSKA recruited him and he became the regular left full back of both CSKA and the national team during the 70s. Vasilev never played clean football and was somewhat a liability, for he often collected yellow and red cards, leading to suspencions. The other player is the goalie on the right – Kandilarov. It is not his skills worth mentioning, but freak statistical point: he was the only player of the above squad surviving to the next time Volov played in the First Division. In 1972 Kandilarov was young player, but he appeared only in few games, for he was severely suspended I don’t remember for what crime. Ten years the club, called Shumen and no longer playing in yellow and blue by then, reached promotion again – Kandilarov, a veteran by that time, was their regular keeper… and Shumen lasted only one season in the First Division, just like in 1972-73…

Second Division – a glimpse of the two winners in 1972, largely because I have photos of the teams… Pernik won the Southern Second Division in 1972 and were promoted to the First.
Top, left to right: P. Vladimirov – coach, V. Evgeniev, Zl. Avramov, R. Milanov, S. Malinov, Evl. Banchev – captain, P. Stefanov, N. Velinov, D. Dyulgersky – assistant coach.
Bottom: T. Vasilev, S. Yankov, V. Varadinov, R. Bozhilov, At. Cholakov, G. Yordanov, F. Slavchev, S. Shadov, An. Slavov.
The club from the industrial working class city of Pernik was one of the victims of 1968 forced mergers, but there were hardly any tensions because of that: the original clubs, representing the industrial nature of the city – Minyor (Miner) and Metallurg (Metalourgist) were never seen as rivals locally. Minyor was the oldest and generally popular club, representing the city and traditionally playing in the First Division. Metallurg belonged to a giant metalourgical plant and was seen mostly as a club belonging only to the plant and not to the city – coal mining was the traditional industry. Besides both clubs almost never in the same division and no rivalry developed. Minyor had reputation of tough guys, which was mostly due to the general perception of burly miners and industrial workers. Usually Minyor inhabited the lower half of the table, fighting to avoid relegation - they played rough football often, but obviously not to great results.
The merger brought new name – Krakra Pernishky (Krakra of Pernik, midevla local lord) and under this name they sunk one more time to the Second Division. But the new name was difficult to chant and in any case had nothing to do with industrial workers, so it was changed to Pernik, the name of the city. Eventually this name did not last either – in 1973 the club became Minyor again, the merger was quietly dissolved and Metallurg restored as well, starting in the 4th Division.
The close proximity of Sofia was the curse of Minyor (or Pernik) – they were routinely robbed of players by the clubs of the capital. Their coach is point in case – Vladimirov was one of the better Bulgarian players in the 1950s and CSKA got him, but did not used him much. The 1972 selection eventually suffered too – three key players eventually went to play for CSKA, Levsky-Spartak, and Akademik. But so far the team was quite good for a Second Division squad: they had great pair in the center of defense – Evlogy Banchev and Vesselin Evgeniev, both included in the national team. A very promising young broom commanded midfield – Varadin Varadinov (alas, never fulfilling the promise and soon disappearing from top level football) and very decent attacking line – Filip Slavchev – Georgy Yordanov - Angel Slavov (the wingers Slavchev and Slavov were eventually grabbed by Levsky-Spartak and CSKA, where they rarely played).
Good for Second Division, but not really good for the First: Pernik returned to their usual place – to the fight of avoiding relegation.

A little gallery of the Bulgarian 1971-72 season.

This photo from CSKA – Botev (Vratza) perfectly shows the huge gap between the top club and… almost everybody else. The small Tzvetan Atanasov is much higher than the big goalie and defensemen of Botev. Yet, it does not look particularly effective action…

Goal… The photographer called this photo ‘The Goalkeeper’s prayer’, because of the hands, although it was already too late for praying. May be training would have prevented the goal?

Defensive tactics were bitterly criticized in Bulgaria for years: teams most often depended on lone striker, who had little chance to beat heavy defenses. As a result Bulgarian football was much more attractive in photography than on the pitch.

This is a collage amusingly true to the real game – a lot of effort, but who plays the ball? And to what end? The defense missed it; the striker is going to miss it, clearly running for something else. No goal! Again! This is a rare glimpse of the bottom of Bulgarian First Division – Chernomoretz (Bourgas) against N. Laskov (Yambol). Both teams survived in 1972, but soon after were relegated. The club from Yambol – here in defense, with white sleeves (but don’t ask me about the team colours!) – played only 3 seasons in the First Division, finishing 13th in 1971, 16th in 1972, and finally 17th – relegation zone – in 1973.

Another rare photo – CSKA – Marek 6-1. Marek ended 17th and were relegated, but this club is worth mentioning: they were the only small town club to last more than a season in the First Division (and at the end of 1970s to reach European tournaments). Their home town is Dupnitza, which was renamed Stanke Dimitrov during Communist time – after rather dubious Communist hero, a Soviet spy, if I remember correctly, who happened to be born in the town. His conspiratorial nickname was Marek – which became the name of the club. Since Marek is not Bulgarian name (Polish really), hardly anybody thought of the club’s name as the same as of the Commie. After the fall of Communism the town reversed to its original name, but not the club – fans are used to Marek.

In 1972 the club was related to something else: the sorry fate of small clubs in the Communist world. Never having good players, Marek depended on brutality for survival – they were notorious butchers, considered CSKA’s satellites. Since they were not an army club, the reason for that was different: CSKA applied political pressure on Marek – Dupnitza’s Party Secretary, the local semi-god, was told that the army will let local boys to stay in the city and play for Marek during their army service if Marek take it easy when playing against CSKA. As a result, Marek never resisted the ‘Reds’ – here is a prime example: Sapinev (#5, in white), one of the worst offenders in Bulgarian football, playing the lamb.

And one more point: Levsky-Spartak, like the original Levsky before, often lacked concentration against lower clubs, struggling as a result and losing points. CSKA had entirely different attitude: they were always concentrated and routinely thrashed the small fry, achieving supreme goal difference at the end of the season. There was no mercy for friend and foe alike, which helped them to many a title.

This is the junior team of Levsky-Spartak, Bulgarian champions in 1971. Only one player made it in the first team – Voyn Voynov, right of the goalie. The right winger eventually went to play for the national team and at the 1974 World Cup, he is interesting here in another aspect: during the 1970s he and only one other player coming from the club’s youth system were established in the first squad. In the past, Levsky depended largely on their youth teams – now, with first team clearly in trouble, no youths were included, no matter how good they played. To the horror of Levsky’s fans the Police club mirrored the Army club – Levsky-Spartak started stealing players from other clubs. Whatever talent emerged in Bulgaria was snatched either by CSKA or Levsky-Spartak. No wonder youths were abandoned – it was easier to get already established players from elsewhere… Voynov made it and also he turned out to be with ‘old fashioned’ mentality – he played only for Levsky-Spartak during his not very long career. When the club no longer needed him, he declined other offers and retired. But that was just about everything good about ‘Suek’ Voynov: he never ranked high – fans prefer other wingers from before or after Voynov’s time, and rightly so. Voynov was irritating player – not very fast for a winger and possessed by time-wasting attitude: not a great technician, Voynov constantly whirled around himself, pretty much at one place, and hardly ever moving his eyes away from the ball. He slowed attacks and worse: keeping his eyes on the ball, he hardly knew where his teammates were and many an opportunity was lost because Voynov never saw it. May be not a great player, but a nice guy and surprisingly good coach presently. Voynov appeared in the squad partly because of constant troubles Tzvetan ‘Metzy’ Vesselinov was having.

‘Metzi in action. A very fast traditional right winger, Vesselinov was fragile player, easily injured. By 1972 it was clear that Metzy that he was not really to recover and he missed most of the season. Although predictable with his monotonous runs on the wing, Metzy was giving Levsky and later Levsky-Spartak an edge, which Voynov clearly was unable to provide. Metzy was much better goal scorer too.

Levsky-Spartak finished second – by Bulgarian standards, normal affair, since domestic football was and is dominated by two clubs. By 1972 Levsky’s fans somewhat accepted the forced addition of the Police club Spartak… and tried to downplay it, although it was not possible – the Police ruled the club. Old fans left never to return, but the club was still the most popular in Bulgaria and no effort to make fans accepting the new name succeeded – there were officially peddled chants for instance, which the fans routinely ignored. It was only ‘Levsky’ at the stands – irritating chants to the Communist regime, since the fans were stubborn and there was nothing to really do against their attitudes. Not only Levsky’s fans refused to accept the new name of their club: in Plovdiv nobody ever chanted ‘Trakia’ – the crowds chanted ‘Botev.
Below the stands Levsky-Spartak was in trouble – the team was aging and clearly declining. It was largely made of former Spartak players, which the fans were still unable to embrace as their own. Memories of better days constantly confronted the present, but at least in one aspect the fans were entirely right: the new club drastically changed the old philosophy of Levsky and to very regretful ends. Levsky traditionally claimed moral superiority – CSKA was stealing players from everywhere; Levsky made their own. At the end, the clash between Levsky and CSKA was always seen as people versus government: small, home made Levsky versus ruthless omnipotent CSKA, collected from the best the whole country made. Producers versus consumers. No longer that and on top of it – Levsky played poorly. 1972 was bad season, but worse was coming… so far, second place, boring football, 8 points behind the champions.
Bottom, left to right: Y. Kirilov, Y. Haralampiev, B. Mikhailov, St. Pavlov, St. Aladzhov, K. Ivkov, G. Tzvetkov, G. Kamensky, Iv. Stoyanov, V. Mitkov
Top: Yoncho Arsov – coach, G. Todorov, Tz. Vesselinov, Kr. Bogdanov, P. Panov, D. Zhechev, M. Gaydarsky, P. Kirilov, V. Arsov, St. Vassilev – assistant coach.

A lot of dead meat here… Yanko Kirilov, Petar Kirilov, Haralampiev, Bogdanov… not really old, but whatever good days they had, it was in remote past. Fragile ‘Metzy’ Vesselinov, eternally injured. Rapidly declining old horses – Kamensky, Gaydarsky, Mikhailov. Soft Tzvetkov, never playing up to expectations… highly suspect young talent, playing like Tzvetkov – Panov and Todorov… political problems with ‘Fiffy the Feather’ Pavlov, whose ancestry made him ‘unfit’ for Communist Police… It was very telling for the state of Bulgarian football in 1972 – Levsky-Spartak finished 8 points ahead of Beroe (Stara Zagora), having perhaps their best ever team, and Levsky-Spartak – one of the their weakest. Beroe ended 3 points clear from the 4th placed Slavia, thus, the champions were 19 points above the 4th placed… and 27 points ahead the 7th placed Botev (Vratza), who finished 3rd in 1971. And Botev were only 5 points ahead of the 17th placed and relegated Marek… enourmous division in three tiers, more than half the league no good at all. The future did not look bright… and not for Levsky-Spartak particularly.

CSKA ‘Septemvriisko zname’ made a double, winning both championship and cup. Little surprise in that: CSKA had their ‘silver team’ – after the terrible 1960s, they had a squad evoking the glorious 50s, when nobody else was a match for the Army boys. How good this team was is hard to really tell – it was strong and well balanced, carefully built and maintained. Yet, the core players came from the disastrous 60s, when they were not dominant. True, the team came into maturity, but maturity was helped by outside factors – when other teams were forced into mergers and chaos disrupted their selections and performance, CSKA enjoyed tranquility. It should be mentioned that none of the 1960s Bulgarian champions remained in 1970, save for CSKA – both Plovdiv’s champions were destroyed in 1967: Spartak and Botev were merged into Trakia. Local fans hated the new creation. Levsky was merged with Spartak, becoming Levsky-Spartak (Sofia) to the displeasure of the fans. Lokomotiv was merged, however briefly, with Slavia into a disaster called ZhSK Slavia. CSKA was also merged, but only for the sake of appearances: the lowly Septemvry (Sofia) provided only slight change of name – CSKA ‘Cherveno zname’ (Red Banner) became CSKA ‘Septemvriisko zname’ (September’s Banner), replacing one Communist symbol with pretty much the same – the meaning of September in this case is September 9th, 1944, when the Communists took the political power in their hands thanks to the Soviet Army occupation and the secret deal between Stalin and Churchill. Official Communist history doctored that into ‘Communist Revolution’. Anyway, name is one thing, but squad is something else – no player at all was taken from old Septemvri. Unlike any other ‘merged’ club, CSKA kept their original squad intact – no superfluous players, no frictions between players forming mutually exclusive groups, no trouble of making a new team. CSKA simply shaped and tuned its squad, carefully replacing aging players with whatever talent emerged in the country. No wonder they ended up with very good team, but there was one more factor: CSKA were traditionally ruthless in their policy and this time they went to the extent which their own fans found unpleasant at least. CSKA retired one of their biggest ever stars, Dimitar Yakimov, very hastily – he was barely 30 years old. No testimony match for him – actually, his ‘retirement’ was not even announced. Yakimov surely was able to play a few more years – if not for CSKA, for some other club then, but no: CSKA both blamed him for the bad years and feared that another club with Yakimov would be ‘unreasonably’ strong. Yakimov was practically ordered not to play anymore and that was that.

Dominant team, CSKA, but tainted dominance. Yet, the squad itself was good and well balanced – it was practically 12 players, who were the team. The rest were full time bench players… some temporary inlcuded, some warming the bench for years. Stability brought results though: CSKA finished 8 points (2 points for a win in those days) clear from the second placed Levsky-Spartak and 16 points ahead of the 3rd finisher Beroe (Stara Zagora). They also scored 95 goals – the all time record in Bulgarian football.

CSKA posing after collecting the Cup: bottom, left to right: Plamen Yankov, Borislav Sredkov, Todor Simov, Kiril Stankov, Christo Zapranyov (physiotherapist) Georgy Denev, Petar Zhekov, Dimitar Penev – captain, Dimitar Gevrenov (doctor), Boris Gaganelov.Top: Tzvetan Atanasov, Drazho Stoyanov, Asparukh Nikodimov, Ivan Zafirov, Manol Manolov (coach), Stefan Bozhkov (head of the CSKA’s football section), Colonel Givi Ordzhonikidze (USSR’s Military Atache in Bulgaria), Nikola Kovachev (assistant coach), Bozhil Kolev, Dimitar Marashliev, Stoyan Yordanov. If the Soviet representative surprises you, there was a reason: Bulgaria had no national cup as usually understood – it had the Soviet Army Cup instead, donated by the Soviets. Eventually UEFA forced Bulgaria to organize normal tournament and a new trophy in the early 1980s (The Soviet Army Cup remained until the fall of Communism, but no longer recognized by UEFA, it became unimportant and rapidly declining competition.) Until the new cup was established Soviet representative attended the final and awarded the Soviet Cup to the winners.

Yes, this squad was good… by Bulgarian standards. However, I can’t master much enthusiasm for the archenemy.

North of Greece and outside of foreign-players market, Bulgaria had her own excitement of sorts. Back in the summer of 1971, before the season started, the first of forced 1968 mergers collapsed – ZhSK Slavia split into old Slavia and Lokomotiv. Since those were relatively high profiled old clubs from Sofia, others had their hopes too – particularly Levsky’s fans. Futile hopes, as it turned out – they had to wait until the collapse of Communism for restoration of their beloved club. At least Spartak (Sofia) had no fans, so there were no frictions between different groups of supporters, but ZhSK Slavia was another matter altogether. The ill-fated merger did not go well from day one – functionaries, coaches, players, and fans of the two original clubs were at each other’s throats. Both blamed the other part and tensions were high. On the surface, the split appeared ‘democratic’, and often was seen as such by distant observers, not related to either club and not related to any other club forced into merging in 1968. But it was not so innocent affair: firstly, it was downplayed as much as possible, in hope not to provoke demands for dismantling the other merged clubs. Secondly, damage was already done – both Slavia and Lokomotiv lost old fan base during the artificial years and never recovered popularity. Thirdly, I think Lokomotiv was specifically damaged more than Slavia – Lokomotiv, in the past, played their best matches against the Communist creation CSKA. Slavia on the other hand was attached to an army branch, which was somewhat independent, yet not entirely – at the bottom, this branch was still part of the army and had to obey orders – CSKA was the army club, hence, Slavia rarely put much effort when playing against CSKA, but came strong against Levsky. Nobody can prove direct orders, yet the tradition is suspicious. Lokomotiv’s too, for that matter – they rarely opposed Levsky, saving themselves for CSKA. But in ZhSK Slavia old Slavia had the upper hand, which immediately created problem for the restored Lokomotiv – since most players were originally Slavia’s players, the split left Lokomotiv short and they pleaded for help. Characteristically, CSKA donated nothing – in the whole of their history the army club never helped anybody, always taking, never giving. Levsky-Spartak donated their third goalie Rumen Goranov. Apparently, nobody envisioned him playing for the ‘Blues’, so the short-sighted management gave him to Lokomotiv. Goranov immediately became not only top goalie of both club and national team – he is one of the best goalkeepers in Bulgarian football history, and although Levsky-Spartak got in the summer of 1972 very good keeper, who also played for the national team, Goranov was better one. However, mistakes happen often in football, so Goranov’s case is rather a historic curiosity. The most important result of the split was the increase of the First Division – since the split occurred late and out of the blue, there was only this way to deal with the situation – Lokomotiv was to be included in the league, since they were playing in it before the merger, but that made an odd number and either one more team was to be relegated or the league to be enlarged. Without early warning, relegation was out of question – instead, the lowly Chernomoretz (Burgas), who finished 15th in 1971 were allowed to stay and the league now consisted of 18 teams. This is the largest Bulgarian league ever, which lasted 2 years. This number most likely will never equaled, judging by the current state of Bulgarian football. Presently, shrinking of the league is more likely and entirely reasonable possibility.

The first restored Lokomotiv finished 5th – not bad for a club having to beg for players before the beginning of the season.