FC Spartak Varna

Spartak Varna

Full name	Футболен клуб „Спартак“ Варна Football Club Spartak Varna
Nickname(s)	Соколите (The Falcons)
Founded	28 August 1918; 106 years ago (1918-08-28) as SC Balgarski Sokol
Ground	Stadion Spartak
Capacity	8,000
Chairman	Vacant
Manager	Nikolay Kirov
League	First League
2023–24	Second League, 1st (promoted)
Website	spartakvarna.bg
Home colours Away colours Third colours

FC Spartak Varna (Bulgarian: Футболен клуб „Спартак“ Варна) is a Bulgarian association football club based in Varna, which currently competes in the First League, the top level of Bulgarian football league system. Spartak plays its home matches at the local Stadion Spartak.

Founded in 1918, Spartak Varna established itself as one of the early pioneering clubs in Bulgarian football. Spartak won the Bulgarian league in 1932, and was runner up in 1931 and 1933. Spartak has spent the majority of its existence in the first tier of Bulgarian football, with the club’s most recent top flight participation being season 2022–2023.

Spartak's nickname is the "Falcons", and the club has a very heated rivalry with fellow Varna-based club, Cherno More Varna. Matches between the two sides are known as the "Derby of Varna". The two sides even used to share the Yuri Gagarin Stadium before it was demolished.

Spartak Varna was founded on 28 August 1918 by a group of young people, who were playing football together for two years. At the initial meeting, regarding the establishment of the club, the name was decided to be SC Sokol. Niagol Kolev was elected as the first chairman of the club. A few days later, the members of the board registered the Football Club to the government under the name "Bulgarski Sokol". The colors of the team were blue and white. "Bulgarski Sokol," one of the poor suburban teams in Varna, was poorly circumstanced in comparison to the leading teams at that time such as Ticha and "Vladislav." Nonetheless, the football team quickly became stronger, and improved their style of play.

On 30 January 1924 "Bulgarski Sokol" merged with the sport club "Shipka" and proved to be one of the strongest teams in Varna. Among all the players called with a lot of love from the fans "Falcons" with most successful plays was the forward Mihail Tunchev. In 1924 he was invited in the national team and that way he became the first national player of the team.

A few years later started the rise of the team. In the season 1928/29 the team won for the first time the championship of Varna, and joined the State Championship where they reached third place. Two years later 1930/31 the falcons were again champions of Varna. For the State Championship they reached the final with the Sofia's AS-23. Next year "Shipchenski Sokol" again reached the final, where the rival was the capitol's team Slavia. On 18.09.1932 in front of 10 000 audience on the football field of AS-23 the falcons won with 2:1 and became State Champion and Winner of the Cup of the King. In the next season "Shipchenski sokol" were again champion of Varna, and for the State Championship they reach for the third consecutive time the final. On 03.10.1933 in Sofia rival of the "falcons" was PFC Levski Sofia. Varna's team lost with 3:1 and took the second place in the State Championship.

In 1945 the club merged with other two Varna's football clubs "Levski" and "Radetski". This happened on 18 October 1945, and the team accepted a new name - Spartak Varna (the name Spartak means "Spartacus", a gladiator who led an uprising against Ancient Rome). In the years between 1945–1948, three times Spartak reached the semi-finals of the State Championship. In 1950, the team took the fifth place in the newly created "A" Republican Football League. Spartak Stalin relegated to B League in 1952 but returned to A League at next year. Spartak again relegated to second level in 1963–64 season but returned in 1964–65 season. However, this return was short-lived and relegated in 1965–66.

In 1955, Spartak won the third place and bronze medals in the championship of "A" League. In 1959, the forward of Spartak, Georgi Arnaudov-"Alaha", became a shooter of the championship with nine goals. Two years later, Spartak again had a winner in the shooters list: Liuben Kostov with 12 goals. In 1960/61, Spartak had very good matches in the tournament of the Soviet Army which then was playing the role of the Cup of Bulgaria. They reached the final and met the strongest team in Bulgaria at that time- CSKA. Spartak lost the final 3:0. As a finalist, however, Spartak won the right to play in the 1961–62 European Cup Winners' Cup. Spartak met Austrian club SK Rapid Wien in the first round. After a goalless draw in Wien, Spartak lost the second leg 5–2 at home and was eliminated. In 1969, another sport club merged with Spartak – it was the "Lokomotiv" sport club, a smaller club from Varna. The merge became a fact on 06.03.1969 and the club took the name "JSK-Spartak". JSK-Spartak returned to first level in 1971 but relegated in 1973–74 and returned to first level in 1974–75. JSK-Spartak relegated again in 1977–78.

In 1982 the "Falcons" reached the final of the Cup of Bulgaria as they won the semi-final against Levski-Spartak in Kazanlak in front of a crowd of 20,000. In Plovdiv, Spartak lost the final 4:0 to CSKA-Septemvriisko Zname, but as a finalist they obtained the right to play in the Cup of the National Cup Winners. In the first round, Spartak faced Turkish side Mersin Idman Yurdu. Spartak managed to win in Varna and draw in Mersin, enabling progression. In the next round, Spartak had the privilege to play former European champions Manchester United. Spartak displayed strong performances in both games, but narrowly lost 1-2 at the Yuri Gagarin Stadium and 0-1 at Old Trafford, thus suffering elimination. In the same year, JSK-Spartak returned to the A League. In the season 1983/84, after mighty and successful games, Spartak reached third place. The goalkeeper Krasimir Zafirov was declared the best goalkeeper in the championship. Since 1985 the football was separated from the other sports in JSK-Spartak, and that way the FC Spartak Varna is differentiated as well.

The 80's will be remembered and with the regular participation of the team in the tournaments for the Varna Summer Cup. Rivals of the "falcons" were the teams of NK Rijeka Croatia, the English Oxford United F.C., Hungarian Újpest FC and many others. In 1988/89, Spartak became the first Bulgarian team with private sponsor and president Atanas Atanasov-Kebie. From the autumn of 1994, president of the club was Nikolay Ishkov. Spartak relegated to B league in 1988–89 and returned to A League in 1991–92. However, Spartak relegated to second level in 1993–94.

In the season 1994/95 after mighty games the falcons won the cup as the most progressive team in Bulgaria. In the same season the forward Ivo Georgiev scores 21 goals and became shooter number one of Bulgaria. At this time Spartak was considered one of the strongest teams in Bulgaria. For the first time there was successful transfer policy and perspective selection. Many of the players has a profitable offers from capitol's and foreign clubs. In its 84 years of history Spartak went through many peaks and downfall moments, but it left a bright trace in the Bulgarian football. F.C. Spartak is one of the clubs with the greatest traditions, between the 10 clubs which have most participations in the A PFG, and between the 15 who reached the Champions title of Bulgaria. The same season Spartak returned to the first level.

In May 2010, Spartak Varna was relegated to Bulgarian North East V group due to the inability to comply with requirements for a professional licence. As a result, under new ownership, the club was re-registered as Spartak 1918 after a formal merger with another football club from Varna - Vladislav (an amateur club founded an year earlier in 2009 but with a professional licence). A month later, fans of Spartak Varna (forming the majority of the ultras), not happy with the previous management and not seeing a change after the new registration, formed a new club taking over the license of FC Topolite. However, although reaching an agreement with FC Topolite, the club was not allowed to change the name of that club to Spartak. The fan-owned team finished second after Spartak 1918 in the first half of the 2010/2011 season, but due to financial problems, it stopped its participation. The group of fans who formed FC Topolite kept boycotting the current management of Spartak 1918 for the next few years, by not attending the team's games.

A new team was founded on 17 May 2015 by founding board led by Spartak's legends Atanas Atanasov, Lyudmil Goranov, Dimitar Trendafilov, Ilko Stanchev and Trayan Dyankov,^[1] after the original club Spartak 1918, still alive despite the financial collapse and maintaining a youth team and an academy had bad leadership in the last years. Both teams existed in parallel; The new FC Spartak Varna team wanted to use Spartak Stadium in order to start from the 3rd league - the Bulgarian V AFG, but this hasn't happened since the stadium was given to Spartak 1918, which withdrew from V Group and only kept a youth formation and an academy that football season. Some of the players who joined the newly founded team played also for the local futsal club Grand Pro Varna.

On 11 October 2015 the new team signed a sponsorship with UltraGas, which would guarantee them enough money to prepare a new strong team in the future.^[2]

On 6 May 2016 FC Spartak Varna applied to gain rights to play and operate at Spartak Stadium because they can't play at Lokomotiv Stadium in V Group in 2016–17 season if they get promotion. Atanas Atanasov had a talk with the sports minister Krasen Kralev who promised to give these right to Spartak, if the stadium become municipal property, because Spartak 1918 was the current operator of the stadium, even after the condition of the stadium is critical. Atanasov also said, that the team is looking for sponsors and eventually a club owner.^[3] On 11 May 2016 the club gain the rights on Lokomotiv Stadium, which would give them the chance to start a complete youth academy from the 2016/17 season.^[4]

On 3 July 2016 Trayan Dyankov was appointed as the new manager of the team and would lead the team in Third Amateur League.^[5] On 1 August 2016 Dyankov died from a heart attack during training at Lokomotiv Stadium.^[6] Atanas Atanasov become the manager of the team for the beginning of the season.^[7]

On 26 November 2016 the manager of Spartak, Atanas Atanasov, announced that the new club will merge with the old Spartak 1918 to have one Spartak.^[8] In the meantime Spartak 1918, having pulled out a men's formation from the 2015/2016 season, joined in Varna Regional Group 'A' in 2016/2017 season.

On 1 February 2017 it was announced the official merger with Spartak 1918 manager, Ivan Naydenov, taking the team. The complete merger would be after the season 2016/2017 end.^[9]

On 25 June 2017 FC Spartak Varna and Spartak 1918 finally merged as Spartak 1918.^[10] Three days earlier the new logo of the team was announced.^[11] On 29 December 2017 Engibar Engibarov was announced as the new manager of the team.^[12] On 6 July 2018 the unified Spartak 1918 officially returned the rights over to Spartak Stadium.^[13]

On 12 May 2019 at the end of season 2018/19, Spartak secured their return to professional football, winning South-East Third division two rounds before its end and managing to be promoted to the Second League.^[14] However, Spartak endured a difficult season back into the second tier, finishing second to last, suffering an immediate relegation.

For the 2020-21 season, Spartak finally returned to their renovated home stadium.^[15] On 16 May 2021 the team secured their first place in their Third League group and won the promotion to Second League once again.^[16] The team ended up on top of the standings before the winter break. On 5 May 2022, after a 2–1 home win against Sozopol the team secured a top 3 place and their return to First League in the 2022–23 season, after 12 years of absence.^[17] The team missed the chance to win the last league match, and subsequently the league, ending in 3rd place, with the same number of points as Septemvri Sofia and Hebar Pazardzhik.^[18]

Spartak experienced a difficult return to the top level. The falcons largely remained within the relegation zone of the regular season and ultimately remained there for the remainder of the season, suffering immediate relegation back to Second League. Season 2023–24 marked a good run in the Bulgarian Cup for Spartak. The team managed to reach the quarterfinals, defeating top tier side Lokomotiv Sofia in the round of 16 after a penalty shootout.

• First League
  • Winners (1): 1932
• Second League
  • Winners (8): 1953, 1964–65, 1970–71, 1974–75, 1981–82, 1994–95, 2005–06, 2023–24
• Third League
  • Winners (3): 2010–11, 2018–19, 2020–21
• A Regional Group
  • Winners (1): 2015–16

Spartak Varna adopted blue, white and red, the main colours of the original Spartak Varna. On 11 October 2015 the team signed a sponsorship with UltraGas.^[2] For the first match in 2018 Spartak signed a contract with the reseller store iPhonePlace.^[19]

After adopting a new crest in 2016, on 23 January 2018 Spartak managed to return the rights to their original crest.^[20]

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt partner
2015–2017	Krasiko	Ultra Gas
2017		None
2018–2019	Uhlsport	iPhonePlace.bg
2019–2023	Jako	Efbet, Intercom Group
2023–	Nike

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
1961–62	Cup Winners' Cup	Preliminary round	Rapid Wien	2–5	0–0	2–5
1983–84	Cup Winners' Cup	First Round	Mersin İY	1–0	0–0	1–0
		Second Round	Manchester United	1–2	0–2	1–4
1996	Intertoto Cup	Group 8	ŁKS Łódź	–	1–1	4th
			KAMAZ Naberezhnye Chelny	–	2–2
			1860 München	2–1	–
			Kaučuk Opava	0–1	–
1997	Intertoto Cup	Group 10	Montpellier	1–1	–	5th
			Groningen	0–2	–
			Gloria Bistrita	–	1–2
			Čukarički	–	0–3
1998	Intertoto Cup	First Round	Baltika Kaliningrad	1–1	0–4	1–5
1999	Intertoto Cup	First Round	Sint-Truidense	1–2	0–6	1–8
2001	Intertoto Cup	First Round	Dyskobolia Grodzisk	4–0	0–1	4–1
		Second Round	Tavriya Simferopol	0–3	2–2	2–5

As of 30 October 2024^[update]

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 3 DF  CRO Mateo Jurić Petrašilo 4 DF  CRO Franjo Prce 5 MF  BUL Yoan Baurenski 6 MF  BUL Aleksandar Tsvetkov 7 MF  POR Bernardo Couto 8 MF  SVK Filip Lesniak 9 FW  FRA Franck Rivollier 11 MF  BUL Viktor Mitev 14 MF  PAN Romeesh Ivey 16 MF  CRO Christian Ilić 17 MF  BUL Tsvetoslav Marinov 18 MF  BUL Daniel Ivanov

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 DF  GUI Pa Konate 22 MF  BUL Aleksandar Yanchev 29 FW  BUL Ahmed Ahmedov 39 MF  BUL Antonio Vutov 44 DF  BUL Angel Granchov 45 MF  BUL Daniel Nachev 76 GK  BUL Martin Velichkov 77 DF  BUL Lyuboslav Marinov 88 DF  BUL Radoslav Dimitrov 89 GK  BUL Nikola Videnov 99 FW  BUL Daniel Halachev

For recent transfers, see Transfers winter 2023–24 and Transfers summer 2024.

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

No. Pos. Nation Player

No. Pos. Nation Player

Up to five non-EU nationals can be registered and given a squad number for the first team in the Bulgarian First Professional League however only three can be used in a match day. Those non-EU nationals with European ancestry can claim citizenship from the nation their ancestors came from. If a player does not have European ancestry he can claim Bulgarian citizenship after playing in Bulgaria for 5 years.

As of 22 April 2022 Most appearances for the club in First League Rank Name Career Appearances 1 Iliya Kirchev 1951–1965 286 2 Nikolay Stanchev 1994–2006 247 3 Krasimir Zafirov 1972–1984 1955–1964 227 4 Biser Dimitrov 1955–1964 224 5 Blagoy Yanev 1951–1964 216 6 Kiril Pandov 1948–1960 207 7 Hristo Valchanov 1954–1966 206 8 Stefan Naydenov 1982–1990 1991–1993 193 9 Encho Nedev 1969–1983 190 10 Plamen Kazakov 1979–1981 1982–1990 1991–1992 1994–1995 186

Most goals for the club in First League Rank Name Career Goals 1 Stefan Naydenov 1982–1990 1991–1993 56 2 Hristo Nikolov 1958–1967 48 — Valentin Stanchev 1994–1998 2000–2003 48 4 Georgi Arnaudov 1949–1961 42 5 Zhivko Gospodinov 1974–1977 1978–1987 1988 1990–1991 41 6 Plamen Kazakov 1979–1981 1982–1990 1991–1992 1994–1995 39 7 Stefan Stefanov 1949–1961 31 8 Ivan Petrov 1974–1984 1989–1990 30 9 Ivan Filipov 1956–1968 29 10 Gerasim Kalugerov 1954–2065 27 – Ivo Georgiev 1995–1996 1998 27

• Players in bold are still playing for Spartak.

Had international caps for their respective countries, held any club record, or had more than 100 league appearances. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries.

Position	Name	Nationality
Coaching staff
Head coach	Rosen Kirilov
Assistant coach	Mihail Tzokov
Assistant coach	Nikolay Grekov
Goalkeepers coach	Vitomir Vutov
Youth coach	Dimitar Trendafilov
Youth coach	Radoslav Boyanov
Management
CEO	Martin Zafirov
Sports director	Plamen Getov
Academy manager	Ivan Tsvetanov

Dates Name Honours 1932 Ferenz Fann 1 A Group Title 1933 Dietmar Marius 1945 Aleksandar Kondov 1949–1950 Stefan Kalachev 1950 Kiril Pavlov 1951 Hristo Minkovski 1952–1954 Kiril Pavlov 1954–1955 Trendafil Stankov 1956–1957 Stefan Kalachev 1958–1964 Toma Zahariev 1964 Trendafil Stankov 1965–1966 Petar Minchev 1966–1967 Ivan Radoev 1967–1969 Toma Zahariev 1969 Trendafil Stankov 1970–1971 Stefan Semov 1971 Vladislav Mirchev 1971 Ivan Filipov 1972 Vasil Spasov 1972–1973 Borislav Milenov 1973–1974 Iliya Kirchev 1974–1975 Dobromir Tashkov 1975–1978 Dimitar Doychinov 1978–1979 Iliya Kirchev 1979–1980 Ivan Filipov 1980 Boris Pavlov 1981 Vasil Nenov 1981–1983 Ivan Vutsov 1983–1985 Lyudmil Goranov

Dates Name Honours 1985–1987 Ivan Filipov 1987–1988 Evgeni Yanchovski 1988–1989 Blagoy Kalfov 1989–1990 Stancho Bonchev 1990 Ivan Vasilev 1991–1993 Lyudmil Goranov 1993 Blagoy Kalfov 1993 Kiril Ivkov 1994 Krasimir Zafirov 1994–1995 Lyudmil Goranov 1995–1996 Nikola Hristov 1996–1997 Stefan Grozdanov 1997 Ferario Spasov 1997 Blagoy Kalfov 1998 Dimitar Penev 1998–1999 Radoslav Zdravkov 1999–2000 Velislav Vutsov 2000–2002 Stefan Grozdanov 2002 Dimitar Stoychev 2003 Miroslav Mironov 2004 Stefan Grozdanov 2004 Rumen Dimov 2004 Petar Kurdov 2005 Radoslav Zdravkov 2006 Nikolay Stanchev 2006–2007 Miroslav Mironov 2007 Nedelcho Matushev 2007 Georgi Ivanov 2007–2008 Atanas Atanasov

Dates Name Honours 2008 Radoslav Zdravkov 2008 Slobodan Stašević 2008 Ilko Stanchev 2009 Dragoljub Simonović 2009 Anatolii Kirilov † 2009 Atanas Atanasov 2009–2010 Stoil Trankov 2010 Todor Popov 2010 Deyan Donchev 2010–2012 Dimitar Trendafilov 2012–2013 Ivan Naydenov 2013–2014 Georgi Ivanov 2014 Atanas Atanasov 2014 Zlatko Yankov 2015 Marian Pane 2015–2016 Dimitar Pantev 1 A RFG Title 2016 Trayan Dyankov † 2016–2017 Atanas Atanasov (interim) 2017 Ivan Naydenov 2017 Zlatin Mihaylov 2018–2019 Engibar Engibarov 2019 Diyan Bozhilov 2019–2020 Kyriakos Georgiou 2020–2022 Vasil Petrov 2022 Georgi Ivanov* 2022 Todor Kiselichkov 2023 Dimitar Dimitrov 2023 Valentin Iliev 2023–2024 Vasil Petrov

Results of league and cup competitions by season

Season	League											Bulgarian Cup	Other competitions		Top goalscorer
	Division	Level	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts	Pos
2015–16	A Regional Group Varna	4	22	19	0	03	90	20	+70	57	1st	Did not qualify	Cup of AFL	R1
2016–17	Third League	3	22	4	1	17	21	51	–30	10	12th	Did not qualify		R1	Ivaylo Rusev	6
2017–18		3	30	10	6	14	43	61	–18	36	8th	Did not qualify		R1	Desislav Dyakov	10
2018–19		3	29	22	7	0	105	19	+86	73	1st	Round of 32		R1	Rumen Nikolov Valentin Veselinov	14
2019–20	Second League	2	22	2	4	15	6	42	–36	10	15th	Round of 32			Rumen Nikolov	2
2020–21	Third League	3	28	22	5	1	81	11	+70	71	1st	Round of 32	Cup of AFL	R1	Yancho Andreev	13
2021–22	Second League	2	36	21	7	8	64	39	+25	70	3rd	Round of 32			Yancho Andreev	12
2022–23	First League	1	35	5	10	20	32	65	–33	25	16th	Quarter-finals			Denys Balanyuk	5
2023–24	Second League	2	34	23	3	8	60	28	+32	72	1st	Quarter-finals			Ahmed Ahmedov	21
2024–25	First League	1										Qulified

Key

Champions

Runners-up

Third place

Promoted

Relegated

• Official website
• bgclubs.eu