PFC Botev Plovdiv

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Botev Plovdiv

Full name

PFC Botev Plovdiv 1912 AD

Nickname(s)

The Canaries

Founded

March 12, 1912

Ground

Hristo Botev (The College),
(Capacity 22,000)

Chairman

Dimitar Hristolov

Manager

Tencho Tenev

League

TBI A Football Group

2006-07

A Grupa, 9th





Home colours





Away colours

Botev Plovdiv (Bulgarian: Ботев Пловдив), also known as the Canaries, founded on March 12, 1912, is a Bulgarian football club from the city of Plovdiv.

Botev Plovdiv is the oldest and one of the most prominent football clubs in Bulgaria, playing its home matches at Hristo Botev Stadium in the residential quarter of Kamenitza.

1 History
2 Motto
3 Honours
4 Colors
5 Stadium
6 Current squad 2007/08
7 Presidents
8 Former Players
9 Address
10 External links

[edit] History

Botev Plovdiv Football Club was founded by students from the Catholic College and the First Male High school. They chose to name it "Botev" in honour of the Bulgarian national hero Hristo Botyov.

The club stadium of Botev Pld, renovated in 1961, is "Stadion Botev". Originally the stadium was named 'The College' due to the fact that in the early 1900's the pitch was owned by the Catholic College and it is still known by this name among the fans.

The club several times changes his name: Botev, DNV (1947-51), DNA (1952-57), SKNA, Botev (1957-1968) and Trakia (1968-1989). Now the name is PFK Botev Plovdiv. The club is one of the best known clubs in Bulgaria. Many great Bulgarian football players had played in it. Most capped players of the team in "A" PFL was Dinko Dermedzhiev (447), Viden Apostolov (429), Petar Zehtinski (351), Kostadin Kostadinov (349), Dimitar Mladenov (347). Most goals scored for the team in "A" PFL: Dinko Dermendzhiev (194), Kostadin Kostadinov (106), Atanas Pashev (100), Antim Pehlivanov (89), Georgi Popov (83).

[edit] Motto

Botev Pld's motto is: Krasota, vjara, borba ("Beauty, faith, fight").

[edit] Honours

Champions of Bulgaria: 1929, 1967
National Cup winners: 1962, 1981
Europe - Quarter-final Cup Winners Cup, 1963
Balkans Cup winners: 1972
Trimontium Cup winners : 1943, 1984, 1987, 1989

[edit] Colors

Yellow and black - adopted in 1917. There are two versions about how the colors have been chosen.

The first one tells that yellow and black are symbol of the unity between the catholic collegians (yellow) and the orthodox schoolfellows (black). The second one explains that because the founders copied the whole organizational structure from the then very popular Austrian clubs, they took the colors of the Austro-Hungarian imperial flag (also the first club badge was an exact copy of the SK Rapid Wien crest).

[edit] Stadium

In 1959 the authorities allowed the building of a new club stadium at the place of the old field in the neighborhood of “Kamenitza”. The first building works begin on 21 July 1959. Two years later, Botev Plovdiv finally returns to its home - “The College.” On May 14, 1961 the stadium was officially opened. The prime minister at the time – Anton Yugov – attended the celebrations together with the deputy-minister of defense Dobri Dzhurov and most of the influential communist leaders. The celebrations ended with a friendly match against FC Steaua Bucureşti won by the yellow-blacks with 3:0.

For more than 30 years there were no big repair works on the College. In 1993, during the presidency of Hristo Danov, some serious repair works were made. The visitors’ changing room was moved to the eastern part of the stadium. A tunnel under the East and the North stand was built in order to connect the visitors’ changing room with the field and the capacity of the stadium was reduced. In 1995 electric lighting was built, but ironically it did not face the standards for playing football in the night.

In the years from 1926 to 1947 the yellow-black club plays 6 international games on this field- from which two wins, three loses and one draw. The matches were against Admira Vienna (1:7), Keshkemet Budapest (3:2 and 2:4), Beshiktash (0:0), Bohemians Prague (1:3) and the “Wunderteam” of Austria Vienna (sensational win with 5:4)

The attendance record was set on February 27, 1963 during the quarter-final of the Cup Winner’s Cup against Atletico Madrid (1:1) – 40 000 people. The record for the Bulgarian championship was set in 1966 against Levski Sofia(0:1) – 37 000 people, but because of the riots between the fans and the rush of fans on the field, Botev Plovdiv was forced to play its derbies at “The Big House” – the City Stadium.

Several times the city rivals from Lokomotiv Plovdiv and Spartak Plovdiv have played their home matches at The College. During the spring of 1980 “The Smurfs”(Lokomotiv) played their home matches there (followed by a relegation in Second Division) as well as one match in the Spring of 2004 (when they became Champions for first time).

The Gladiators from Spartak used the stadium for several matches during the 1995/1996 season.

One final for the National Cup was held at the College in 2000 when Levski Sofia won the cup after 2:0 against Naftex Burgas.

[edit] Current squad 2007/08

As of January 2008

1. ARSOV

25. MINEV

5. VELICHKOV

15. POPOV

3. BOZHKOV

18. AVRAMOV

27. ALEGRE

23. KARAMATEV

14. HARIZANOV

11. HRISTOV

9. KAKALOV

Botev Plovdiv'2008

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Lilcho Arsov
2	DF	Vasil Vasilev
3	DF	Daniel Bozhkov
5	DF	Velichko Velichkov
9	FW	Georgi Kakalov
11	FW	Georgi Hristov
12	GK	Slavcho Toshev
14	MF	Nikolay Harizanov
15	DF	Apostol Popov
17	MF	Krasimir Krastev
18	MF	Georgi Avramov
19	MF	Dimitar Vitanov
20	MF	Nikolay Manchev

No.	Position	Player
21	FW	Yordan Etov
23	MF	Borislav Karamatev
24	FW	Ilian Guarov
25	DF	Yordan Minev
27	MF	Mauro Alegre
28	MF	Georgi Korudzhiev
30	DF	Nikolay Aleksandrov
32	FW	Petko Vasilev
33	DF	Nikolay Dimitrov
34	FW	Veselin Filipov
38	MF	Mohamed Sеllam
99	FW	Dormushali Saidhodzha