2022–23 First Professional Football League (Bulgaria)

	League stub This article about 2022–23 First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) is a stub, an article too short to provide more than rudimentary information about a subject. You can help The Football Database Wiki by expanding it.

First Professional Football League
Season information
Dates	8 July 2022–June 2023
Season statistics
Matches played	58
Goals scored	151
Top goalscorer	Ivaylo Chochev (8 goals)
← 2021–22	2023–24 →

The 2022–23 First Professional Football League, also known as efbet League for sponsorship reasons, is the 99th season of the top division of the Bulgarian football league system, the 74th since a league format was adopted for the national competition of A Group as a top tier of the pyramid, and also the 7th season of the First Professional Football League, which decides the Bulgarian champion. Ludogorets Razgrad are the 11-time defending champions. It begin on 8 July 2022. As the 2022 FIFA World Cup will start on 21 November, the last round before stoppage will be held on 19–20 November. The league will resume games on 11 February.

Teams

From this season, the league was expanded from 14 to 16 teams, with 12 teams returning from last season, three teams promoted from the 2021–22 Second League, as well as the winner of the promotion/relegation playoff.

The first team to earn promotion from the Second League was Spartak Varna, who mathematically secured a top three finish after winning their game against Sozopol on May 5, coupled with Etar losing to CSKA 1948 II. Spartak return to the top level after a 13-year absence.

The second team to earn promotion from the Second League was Septemvri Sofia, who mathematically secured a top three finish after drawing with Sportist Svoge on May 9. Septemvri Sofia return to the top level after a 3-year absence.

The third team to earn promotion from the Second League was Hebar, who secured a top three finish in the very last round of the Second League, on May 21. Hebar return to the top level of Bulgarian football after a 21-year absence.

Additionally, Botev Vratsa managed to defeat Etar with a score of 3–2 in the promotion/relegation playoff, thus maintaining its place in the First League.

Stadia and locations

Arda	Beroe	Botev Plovdiv	Botev Vratsa
Arena Arda	Beroe	Futbolen kompleks Botev 1912	Hristo Botev
Capacity: 11,114	Capacity: 12,128	Capacity: 4,000	Capacity: 6,417
Cherno More	CSKA 1948	CSKA Sofia	Hebar
Ticha	Bistritsa	Balgarska Armia	Georgi Benkovski
Capacity: 8,250	Capacity: 2,500	Capacity: 22,995	Capacity: 13,128
Levski Sofia			Lokomotiv Plovdiv
Vivacom Arena - Georgi Asparuhov			Lokomotiv
Capacity: 25,000			Capacity: 8,610
Lokomotiv Sofia			Ludogorets
Lokomotiv			Huvepharma Arena
Capacity: 22,000			Capacity: 10,422
Pirin Blagoevgrad	Septemvri Sofia	Slavia Sofia	Spartak Varna
Hristo Botev	Vasil Levski National Stadium	Aleksandar Shalamanov	Spartak
Capacity: 7,500	Capacity: 43,230	Capacity: 25,556	Capacity: 6,000

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor	Additional
Arda	Aleksandar Tunchev	Ivan Kokonov	Uhlsport	efbet	IA Nataliya Ltd.
Beroe	Petar Hubchev	Georgi Dinkov	Jako	efbet	Chahov Ltd.
Botev Plovdiv	Željko Kopić	Todor Nedelev	Macron	WinBet	—
Botev Vratsa	Rosen Kirilov	Krasimir Kostov	Zeus	WinBet	Vratsa Municipality, SportRespect
Cherno More	Ilian Iliev	Daniel Dimov	Uhlsport	Armeets	—
CSKA 1948	Lyuboslav Penev	Daniel Naumov	Adidas	efbet	Bachkovo
CSKA Sofia	Saša Ilić	Jurgen Mattheij	Macron	WinBet	—
Hebar	Fulvio Pea	Tsvetelin Tonev	Jako	efbet	Pazardzhik Municipality, JOKER GROUP S.R.I.
Levski Sofia	Stanimir Stoilov	Nikolay Mihaylov	Joma	PalmsBet	—
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	Aleksandar Tomash	Dimitar Iliev	Nike	WinBet	General Broker, Money+
Lokomotiv Sofia	Stanislav Genchev	Krasimir Miloshev	Joma	Betano	Casa Boyana, Malizia, Intesa, VIA 2000, Club 33
Ludogorets	Ante Šimundža	Anton Nedyalkov	Nike	efbet	Vivacom, HUVESEPT
Pirin Blagoevgrad	Krasimir Petrov	Nikolay Bodurov	Adidas	8888.bg	—
Septemvri Sofia	Slavko Matić	Asen Chandarov	Uhlsport	8888.bg	—
Slavia Sofia	Zlatomir Zagorčić	Georgi Petkov	Uhlsport	bet365	Asset Insurance
Spartak Varna	Todor Kiselichkov	Yancho Andreev	Jako	efbet	Intercom Group

Note: Individual clubs may wear jerseys with advertising. However, only one sponsorship is permitted per jersey for official tournaments organised by UEFA in addition to that of the kit manufacturer (exceptions are made for non-profit organisations). Clubs in the domestic league can have more than one sponsorship per jersey which can feature on the front of the shirt, incorporated with the main sponsor or in place of it; or on the back, either below the squad number or on the collar area. Shorts also have space available for advertisement.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Arda	Stamen Belchev	End of contract	16 May 2022	Pre-season	Aleksandar Tunchev	19 May 2022
Lokomotiv Sofia	Ivan Kolev		23 May 2022		Stanislav Genchev	25 May 2022
CSKA 1948	Nikolay Kirov	Mutual consent	23 May 2022		Lyuboslav Penev	28 May 2022
CSKA Sofia	Alan Pardew		1 June 2022		Saša Ilić	2 June 2022
Botev Vratsa	Gennaro Iezzo	Sacked	2 June 2022		Rosen Kirilov	2 June 2022
Hebar	Nikolay Mitov	End of contract	8 June 2022		Fulvio Pea	13 June 2022
Pirin Blagoevgrad	Radoslav Mitrevski	Resigned	20 June 2022		Petar Mihtarski (interim)	21 June 2022
	Petar Mihtarski	End of interim period	3 July 2022		Krasimir Petrov	4 July 2022
Botev Plovdiv	Azrudin Valentić	Reassigned as an adviser	29 July 2022	16th	Željko Kopić	3 August 2022
Spartak Varna	Vasil Petrov	Resigned	11 August 2022	15th	Georgi Ivanov (interim)	11 August 2022
	Georgi Ivanov	End of interim period	22 August 2022	16th	Todor Kiselichkov	23 August 2022

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	CSKA 1948	8	5	2	1	14	7	+7	17	Qualification for the Championship group
2	Ludogorets Razgrad	6	5	1	0	19	4	+15	16
3	CSKA Sofia	6	5	1	0	13	3	+10	16
4	Cherno More	7	5	0	2	11	7	+4	15
5	Arda	8	5	0	3	10	8	+2	15
6	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	7	4	1	2	6	6	0	13
7	Levski Sofia	5	4	0	1	12	1	+11	12	Qualification for the Europa Conference League group
8	Slavia Sofia	6	4	0	2	8	4	+4	12
9	Lokomotiv Sofia	8	3	3	2	10	7	+3	12
10	Beroe	8	2	2	4	8	14	−6	8
11	Septemvri Sofia	8	2	1	5	10	16	−6	7	Qualification for the Relegation group
12	Botev Vratsa	8	2	1	5	9	15	−6	7
13	Hebar	8	2	1	5	4	13	−9	7
14	Botev Plovdiv	7	1	1	5	9	14	−5	4
15	Pirin Blagoevgrad	8	0	3	5	4	12	−8	3
16	Spartak Varna	8	0	1	7	4	20	−16	1

Updated to match(es) played on 29 August 2022. Source: soccerway, Bulgarian Football
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Head-to-head away goals scored (only if two teams); 6) Goal difference; 7) Goals scored; 8) Fairplay ranking; 9) Draw.

Results

Home \ Away	ARD	BSZ	BPD	BVR	CHM	CSK	CSS	HEB	LEV	LPD	LSO	LUD	PIR	SEP	SLA	SPV
Arda	—	1–0				0–1								3–2	1–0
Beroe		—	1–1	2–1	0–2					2–0	1–1
Botev Plovdiv	0–2		—		3–4			0–1		a				3–1
Botev Vratsa			3–2	—					0–2	0–1						1–0
Cherno More					—							2–3	1–0		1–0
CSKA 1948				5–2		—			1–0		2–0	2–2
CSKA Sofia	3–0	5–1			1–0	2–1	—		a					1–0
Hebar						0–1		—					0–0	1–3	0–3
Levski Sofia							a	4–0	—				1–0		a	5–0
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	1–0		a					2–1		—	a		2–1
Lokomotiv Sofia			2–0		0–1		1–1			0–0	—					3–2
Ludogorets										2–0		—				5–0
Pirin Blagoevgrad						1–1						0–4	—		1–2
Septemvri Sofia		3–1		1–1							0–3	0–3		—
Slavia Sofia				2–1					a						—
Spartak Varna	1–3							0–1					1–1		0–1	—

Updated to match(es) played on 29 August 2022. Source: Bulgarian Football
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 29 August 2022

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ivaylo Chochev	CSKA 1948	8
2	Dimitar Mitkov	Lokomotiv Sofia	6
	Aboubacar Toungara	Beroe
4	Maurício Garcez	CSKA Sofia	5
	Brayan Perea	Botev Vratsa
6	Simeon Aleksandrov	Septemvri Sofia	4
	Antoine Baroan	Botev Plovdiv
	Georgi Rusev	CSKA 1948
9	Cauly	Ludogorets	3
	Birsent Karagaren	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
	Filip Krastev	Levski Sofia
	Brayan Moreno	CSKA Sofia
	Bernard Tekpetey	Ludogorets

Most assists

As of 26 August 2022

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Lachezar Kotev	Arda	3
	Igor Thiago	Ludogorets
	Simeon Mechev	Beroe
3	Brayan Perea	Botev Vratsa	2
	Birsent Karagaren	Lokomotiv Plovdiv
	Toni Tasev	Slavia Sofia
	Jean-Pierre Da Sylva	Botev Vratsa
	Redi Kasa	Septemvri Sofia
	Kiril Despodov	Ludogorets
	Serkan Yusein	Beroe
	Thibaut Vion	CSKA Sofia

Template:BG A PFG Template:A Group seasons Template:2022–23 in Bulgarian football