FC Botev Vratsa

Football club infobox
clubname = Botev (Vratsa)


fullname = OFC Botev Vratsa
founded = 1921
ground = Hristo Botev Stadium, Vratsa
capacity = 32,000
captain =
chairman =
director = Veselin Ivanov
manager =
league = Bulgarian North-West V AFG
season = 2007-08
position = Bulgarian North-West V AFG, 4th
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leftarm1=348153|body1=348153|rightarm1=348153|shorts1=FCFCFC|socks1=348153
pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=FF2020|body2=FF2020|rightarm2=FF2020|shorts2=FCFCFC|socks2=FF2020

History

* Botev Vratsa Football Club was founded in 1921 by Nikola Kunov, Ivan Abuzov, Nako Paunov, Gergo Boytchev, Todor Orozov, Hristo Lighenski and Angel Rachinski. The place of foundation is a playground near the Old market in Vratsa.
* 1921 - 1956 Various sport clubs are founded in the city.
* 1957 Most of the sport clubs in the city are joined together to form Botev Vratsa F.C.
* 1957 - 1964 7 years after its official foundation Botev Vratsa is a member of Bulgarian B Professional Football Group.
* 1964 Botev Vratsa enters the Bulgarian A Professional Football Group and plays there for 26 seasons. [ [http://www.bulgarian-football.com/arhiv/bgrupa2.html "B" Group archive] ]
* 1964 - 1990 Botev plays 788 games in the top flight of Bulgarian football

Honours

* Bulgarian Championship
** Third place - 1971
** Fourth place - 1985
** Fifth place - 1977

2008/2009 Team

Stadium

The team's home stadium, "Hristo Botev", was built in 1948. It is situated in the Hristo Botev sport complex, in the east side of Vratsa. The stadium originally holds 32 000 seats. After a recent reconstruction, which took place in the first half of 2008 the stadium has 3 reconstructed seated sectors with a total of 6000 seats.

Fans

Despite playing in the third division of Bulgarian football, FC Botev is still one of the most popular non-capital based football clubs in Bulgaria. Its fans are famous for their non-violent support and fair-play doctrine. The "Botev Vratsa Forever" fan-club is well-known to organize trips in support of the Bulgarian National team with destinations such as Bucharest, Zagreb, Budapest, etc. The fan club has established connections with fans from all over Europe and is in active partnership with the fans of second-division Dutch club Go Ahead Engels (Deventer).

Notable players

* Martin Petrov
* Valentin Iliev
* Georgi Kamenov
* Petar Kamenov
* Ilia Dragomirov
* Ilia Valov
* Valentin Stanchev

References

External links

* [http://www.botev.vratza.com/ Official website]