PFC Slavia Sofia

Football club infobox
clubname = PFC Slavia Sofia


fullname = Professional Football Club Slavia Sofia
nickname = "The Whites"/ White Avalanche
founded = 10 April 1913
ground = Slavia Stadium, Sofia
capacity = 32,000
chairman = flagicon|Bulgaria Ventsislav Stefanov
manager = flagicon|Republic of Macedonia Stevica Kuzmanovski
league = TBI A Football Group
season = 2006/07
position = Bulgarian A PFG, 5th
pattern_la1=_blackshoulders|pattern_b1=_collarblack|pattern_ra1=_blackshoulders|leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=FFFFFF|rightarm1=FFFFFF| shorts1=FFFFFF|socks1=FFFFFF
pattern_la2=_whiteshoulders|pattern_b2=_collarwhite|pattern_ra2=_whiteshoulders|leftarm2=000000|body2=000000|rightarm2=000000| shorts2=000000|socks2=000000|

PFC Slavia Sofia ( _bg. ПФК Славия София) is a Bulgarian football club founded on 10 April 1913 in Sofia.

Slavia's ground is Ovcha Kupel Stadium with a capacity of 32,000. The team's colours are white and black.

The club has won the Bulgarian Championship 7 times and the Bulgarian Cup 8 times coming 9 times second in the championship and reaching the cup final 5 times without winning.

Among the team's international successes are a Cup Winners' Cup semifinal in 1967 and a quarterfinal in 1981, as well as two consecutive Balkans Cup trophies (1986 and 1988).

Honours

*Champion of Bulgaria – 7 times 1928,1930,1936,1939,1941,1943,1996
*Vice-champion of Bulgaria – 9 times 1932,1934,1950,1954,1955,1959,1967,1980, 1990
*Third place - bronze medals – 12 times 1940, 1942, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1982, 1986, 1991 и 1997
*Holder of National Cup – 12 times 1926, 1928, 1930, 1936, 1943, 1952, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1975, 1980 и 1996
*Participations – UEFA Cup – 7 times Semi finals – 1967, won “Swansea” (Wales), “Racing” (Strassbourg – France), “Servette” (Geneva-Switzerland); eliminated by Glasgow Rangers (Scotland) 0:1 – Sofia, 0:1 – Glasgow Participant in ? finals – 1981
*Holder of Balkan's Cup – 1986, 1988

History

Birth date – 10.04.1913. On this day a group of young people living near a Russian Monument in Sofia and representatives of the local capital clubs “Botev” and “Razvitie” in a coffee-house – Alabin str. in Sofia, have made a decision to establish an incorporated sport club – the fist organized sport club in Sofia and in Bulgaria. The new incorporated club has named SLAVIA.

Dimitar Blagoev – Palio, a 21 year-old student, was elected as the first president of the club. As members of the first club administrative council were elected Emanuil Geshev, Ferdinand Michailov, Zviatko Velichkov, Georgi Grigorov, Todor Kalkanjiev. On 19.04 1913 was elected the first football team of the club - Stefan Lalov, Ilia Georgiev, Emanuil Geshev, Todor Kalkandzhiev, Stefan Chumpalov, Dimitar Blagoev – Palio ( all of them from “Botev”) and Pavel Grozdanov, Ferdinand Mihaylov, Boris Sharankov, Asen Bramchev, Dimitar Cvetkov (all of them from “Razvitie”). The first sport dresses of the club were white shirts and black shorts. Since 1924 the team plays with white shirts and white shorts and up to present days it is popular as the “White pride”. Slavia plays its first match on 11.08.1913 versus the local team “Savata” and wins by 1:0. Until now Slavia has played in all championships of Bulgaria , starting from 1924 to 2003 – 2004. In its 90-year history Slavia has achieved the “double” once – winning in 1996 the championship and the cup of Buigaria, as well.

05.06.1928 Slavia won its first champion title – in the final match - Slavia – Vladislav ( Varna ) 4:0. Players in this match: Nikola Spirov, Arico Levy, Petar Kartevsky, Nikola Kalkandzhiev, Stefan Chumpalov, Hristo Minkovsky, Nikola Stoykov, Velcho Stoianov, Boris Romanov, Dimitar Manolov, Vladimir Cvetkov.

Records

*Atanas Aleksandrov - the great number of matches in Slavia – 338
*Andrey Zhelyazkov – the great number of goals for Slavia – 134
*Aleksandar Shalamanov player № 1 in Bulgaria – 1963, 1966
*Simeon Simeonov player № 1 in Bulgaria – 1968
*Bozhidar Grigorov player № 1 in Bulgaria – 1976
*Andrey Zhelyazkov player № 1 in Bulgaria – 1980

Current squad

Slavia Sofia'2008

Squad changes summer'2008

In:
* Blagoy Georgiev - from MSV Duisburg
* Mbaye Diop - from Porto B
* Pavle Popara - from Enosis Neon Paralimni
* Slavcho Georgievski - from Zhejiang Lücheng

Out:
* Zoran Belošević - to FK Sarajevo
* Saša Simonović - to Lokomotiv Mezdra
* Elton - to ???
* Iliya Iliev - to Lokomotiv Mezdra

Notable players

Coaches

*flagicon|Russia Oleg Bazilevich
*flagicon|Bulgaria Nasko Sirakov
*flagicon|Serbia Zharko Olarevic
*flagicon|Serbia Ratko Dostanić
*flagicon|Bulgaria Petar Hubchev
*flagicon|Bulgaria Atanas Djambazki
*flagicon|Serbia Miodrag Ješić
*flagicon|Bulgaria Miroslav Mironov
*flagicon|Bulgaria Stoyan Kotzev
*flagicon|Bulgaria Alyosha Andonov

External links

* [http://www.pfcslavia.com/ Official website] bg icon en icon
* [http://clubs.bul-foot.org/html/a/a/Slavia(Sofia).htm Bulgarian clubs - Slavia (Sofia)]