PFC Cherno More Varna

Cherno More

Full name	Професионален футболен клуб Черно Море Варна (Professional football club Cherno More Varna)
Nickname(s)	Моряците (The Sailors)
Short name	Cherno More
Founded	February 18, 1945 as TVP-45
Ground	Ticha Stadium, Varna (Capacity: 12,500)
Owner	Marin Mitev[1]
Chairman	Marin Marinov
Manager	Stefan Genov
League	A PFG
2010–11	A PFG, 6th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours
Current season

PFC Cherno More Varna (Bulgarian: ПФК Черно Море Варна), or simply Cherno More (Bulgarian: ПФК Черно Море) is a Bulgarian professional football club from the city of Varna, which currently competes in Bulgaria's top football league, the A PFG.

The club is named after the Black Sea and it was officially established on February 18, 1945, when the two teams from the city FC Vladislav (1916) and SC Ticha (1913) merged together to form a new club. Cherno More's home ground is the Ticha Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 12,500 spectators. To date, the club has won the championship four times and has been a runner-up for the Bulgarian Cup twice.

Honours

Domestic

Bulgarian State Football Championship:

• Winners (4): 1925, 1926, 1934 (as Vladislav Varna)
  1938 (as Ticha Varna)

• Runners-up (7): 1935, 1936 (as Ticha Varna)
  1928, 1930, 1938, 1939 (as Vladislav Varna)

• Third-place (2): 1939 (as Ticha Varna)

Bulgarian A PFG:

• Third place (2): 1953, 2009

Bulgarian Cup:

• Runners-up (2): 2006, 2008

International

Bucharest Cup:

• Winners (1): 1925 (as Ticha Varna)

History

Early years

Оn March 3, 1910, Varna's naval academy for men became the birth place of association football in the country. Here is created the Galata sports association, which later on, in 1913, by the suggestion of a school teacher named Karel Shkorpil, changed its name to Reka Ticha, using the former name of the Kamchia river. Over the next years, it slowly combined with the Sportist sports club and grew into an association of the education, a sports club and the tourism in Varna. The football department of the sports club dominated against all of the clubs in the city, whose existence is quite short. Soon, the first official football match of Ticha, played in 1915, with the 21st Pomeranski polk is a success, and 2 years later, in 1917, so is the first inter-city match. The growth of Bulgarian football required knowledge of the rules, so in 1919, Ticha published for the first time in Bulgaria the book: "Football - rules and admonitions".

Vladislav Varna in 1925. Vladislav was one of the predecessors of Cherno More.

Significant were the first meetings between Ticha and the capital teams. In early 1919, the first away game against Levski Sofia was celebrated with the first away victory for the team - 4:1. The same went for Slavia Sofia, a 3:0 win. On the return game as guests, the players again won easy against Slavia Sofia with 1:0. Unfortunately, the game with Levski Sofia didn't take place, because the city mayor didn't allow it, since there were protests from dock workers the same day. However, these victories against the capital teams were continued not only by Ticha, but from the city rivals Vladislav and Shipchenski Sokol as well.

On January 21, 1919, the association changed its name to Sports Club Ticha, and the kit colours of the outfit were chosen to be red and white. The same year, the famous Bulgarian musician Nikola Nitsov wrote the official anthem of the club.

In 1925, the international successes came nearby. SC Ticha won the Cup of Bucharest, the first international football trophy won by a football club from Bulgaria. The European matches of Ticha easily earned the 1st place of favor among most of the football fans in Varna. The same and the following year, SC Ticha made another remarkable achievement, twice winning the football title of Bulgaria. A few years later, the club managed to finish in 2nd place in the 1934/35 and in the 1935/36 season. Soon, in 1937, the football governing body in the country created the National Football Division. Several reforms were made in the football clubs, but during the two half-seasons in 1937/38, Ticha dominated and it was one of the best football teams in Bulgaria, despite finishing the table in the 2nd place at the end of the season.

The establishment

In 1945, the two former city club rivals, SC Ticha and FC Vladislav merged together to establish a new club, named TVP-45 (a few years later SC Primorec was also invited to join TV-45 so the name of the association was changed to "TVP".). This marked the creation of a new sports association, which met the development requirements of the leading communist authorities at that time. In the following years, due to these requirements, the club's name was forced to be changed several times to Botev pri DNA (1948–1950), VMS (1950–1955), SCNA (1956–1957), ASC Botev Varna (1957–1959) and many others.

In 1953, VMS, won most of the matches with the capital teams, and finally managed to finish the season in the 3rd place and to participate in the European club competitions.

In 1959, the football club changed its name to Cherno More (The Bulgarian name of the Black Sea), which is known by this name to present date. The recently appointed new coach Ivan Mokanov managed to put together a stable team, which starting line-up was constant, as much in the field, as in their love for the association. These years, many friendly club matches were made and famous football clubs came to Varna in order to compare skills, giving Cherno More's players more experience and self-confidence. One of these matches, was the remarkable victory against AFC Ajax in 1966, won with 3:1, in which the young Johan Cruijff took participation.

Many players from that Cherno More generation founded place among the different national teams. The national jersey have put on Ivan Ivanov, Nikola Dimitrov, Zdravko Mitev, Stefan Bogomilov, Damyan Georgiev, while others made just the bench. Then followed years of planting roots in the youth academy, which produced talented competitors, worthy of their ancestors. The successes came in the Republican League, where the youth teams, minors, juveniles, and seniors were always in the final stage of the competitions.

Recent years

In the 2007-08 season, the sailors finished 5th in A PFG and qualified for the last season of the UEFA Cup, due to the license problems of CSKA Sofia. Led by their captain Alex they had a very successful run - they defeated UE Sant Julia from Andora in the first qualifying round (9-0 on aggregate)^[2] and Maccabi Netanya from Israel in the second qualifying round (3-1 on aggregate). Cherno More than challenged German side VfB Stuttgart in the 1st round and were eliminated after a 1-2 loss at home and a surprising 2-2 draw in Stuttgart. The same season in the domestic league was also very successful for the team, which finished 3rd in A PFG, and qualified for the newly created Europa League.

Cherno More started the new 2009-10 season with the debut of the team in the UEFA Europa League. The sailors defeated Iskra-Stal in the second qualifying round (4-0 on aggregate) and were drawn to play against the Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven in the third qualifying round.^[3] The team from Varna was eliminated after a 0-1 loss at Eindhoven and another 0-1 loss at the Lazur Stadium in Burgas.

Chronology of the names

Year(s)	Name
1945–47	TV-45 (TVP-45)
1948–50	Botev pri DNA
1950–55	VMS
1956-57	SCNA
1957-59	ASC Botev
1959-69	ASC Cherno More
1969-85	FSVD Cherno More
1985-	Cherno More

Recent Seasons

Season		Pos.	Pl.	W	D	L	GS	GA	P	Cup	Notes
2001-02	A PFG	12	26	6	6	14	28	36	24	1/8
2002-03	A PFG	5	26	14	6	6	42	21	48	1/8
2003-04	A PFG	6	30	10	8	12	45	53	38	1/8
2004-05	A PFG	8	30	10	5	15	30	38	35	1/16
2005-06	A PFG	8	28	10	7	11	29	27	37	Runner-up
2006-07	A PFG	6	30	14	5	11	37	29	47	1/8
2007-08	A PFG	5	30	13	9	8	40	26	48	Runner-up
2008-09	A PFG	3	30	18	6	6	48	19	63	1/16
2009-10	A PFG	7	30	13	9	8	40	28	48	1/4
2010-11	A PFG	6	30	15	6	9	36	28	51	1/4

European cup history

Season	Competition	Round	Country	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2007	UEFA Intertoto Cup	2R		Makedonija GP	4-0	3-0	7-0
		3R		U.C. Sampdoria	0-1	0-1	0-2
2008/09	UEFA Cup	1Q		UE Sant Julia	4-0	5-0	9-0
		2Q		Maccabi Netanya	2-0	1-1	3-1
		1		VfB Stuttgart	1-2	2-2	3-4
2009/10	UEFA Europa League	2Q		Iskra-Stal	1-0	3-0	4-0
		3Q		PSV Eindhoven	0-1	0-1	0-2

Stadium

Ticha Stadium

See also: Ticha Stadium

See also: New Varna Stadium

Ticha Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Varna, Bulgaria. It is currently used for football matches and is the home ground of Cherno More. It is situated in the north-eastern part of Varna. Built in 1968, the stadium currently has a capacity of 12,500 seating places, spread in two opposite stands. The main north stand has a roof cover and holds 7,000 spectators, while the opposite south stand has a seating capacity of 5,500 spectators. The south stand is commonly used by the Cherno More ultras and the away fans. The current stadium was built with the help of hundreds of volunteers and fans of the club.

It was officially announced, that the club will move to a new stadium^[4], which will replace the unused Yuri Gagarin Stadium and the current Ticha. The stadium will have a capacity of 30,000 spectators. The stadium, as part of Sport Complex Varna, will have an underground parking area, convertible roof covers, office lounges, two-tier stands and four 50 meter towers, which will block the pressure of the terrain and bring the stadium in a shape of a ship. The convertible roof covers will be made of transparent panels, which will allow the light of the floodlights to stream inside the pitch on a night match. The venue will be awarded with an Elite Stadium rating by UEFA.

Statistics and Records

Todor Marev holds A PFG's and Cherno More's overall appearances record — 422 matches for 19 seasons (from 1971 to 1990).

Cherno More's all-time leading scorer is Stefan Bogomilov, who scored 162 goals for the club (from 1962 to 1977). The club's second highest scorer is Nikola Dimitrov, who scored 63 goals. Bogomilov also holds the club record of 4 hat tricks. Brazilian player Marcos Da Silva holds the club's and A PFG's record for the fastest goal - 12 seconds after the referee's first signal, against PFC Chernomorets Burgas Sofia on April 6, 2007.

Cherno More's biggest victories in A PFG are the 8-0 wins against Cherveno Zname Pavlikeni in 1955 and Maritsa Plovdiv in 1968. Cherno More's largest defeat, 1–8, was against Lokomotiv Plovdiv in 2004. Also, the club's win against UE Sant Julia, 5-0, in 2008, was the largest European win in the club's history.

Rank Name Nat Apps 1 Todor Marev 422 2 Stefan Bogomilov 353 3 Dimitar Bosnov 343 4 Zdravko Mitev 269 5 Todor Atanasov 258

Rank Name Nat Goals 1 Stefan Bogomilov 162 2 Nikola Dimitrov 63 3 Rafi Rafiev 62 4 Zdravko Mitev 61 5 Damyan Georgiev 56

Current squad

As of August 6, 2011 Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Petar Denchev 3 DF Tsvetan Yotov 5 MF Samuel Camazzola 7 MF Stanislav Stoyanov (vice-captain) 8 MF Doncho Atanasov 9 FW Hermes Palomino 10 FW Miroslav Manolov 11 MF Todor Kolev 14 FW Georgi Bozhilov 15 DF Aleksandar Aleksandrov 16 MF Dimitar Petkov 17 MF Yancho Andreev

No. Position Player 18 DF Ivelin Yanev 19 MF Hristian Popov 20 DF Mihail Lazarov 21 MF Georgi Iliev (captain) 23 MF Simeon Simeonov 24 MF Veselin Marchev 25 DF Sasho Aleksandrov 26 GK Ilko Pirgov 27 MF Daniil Ratnikov 30 FW Ilian Kapitanov 55 DF Rosen Kolev 90 FW Rumen Nikolov

For recent transfers, see List of Bulgarian football transfers summer 2011.

See also: Cherno More Reserves and Academy

Club officials

Board of directors

Position	Name	Nationality
Owner	Marin Mitev
Technical director	Marin Marinov
Director of Communications	Krasimir Nikolov
Director of Recruitment	Todor Velikov

Current technical body

Position	Name	Nationality
Manager	Stefan Genov
Assistant Manager	Radoslav Boyanov
Goalkeeper Coach	Krasimir Kolev
Fitness coach	Veselin Markov

Coaches history

Coach Nat From To Ivan Mokanov 1948 1960 Lozan Kotsev 1960 1962 Manol Manolov 1962 1963 Ivan Mokanov 1964 1968 Georgi Dimitrov 1968 1972 Spas Kirov 1972 1974 Stoyan Ormandzhiev 1974 1975 Georgi Dimitrov 1975 1976 Kiril Rakarov 1976 1977 Ivan Vasilev 1977 1979 Ivan Mokanov 1979 1980 Ivan Vasilev 1980 1981 Spas Kirov 1981 1983 Todor Velikov 1983 1985 Bozhil Kolev 1985 1989 Todor Velikov 1989 1990 Kevork Tahmisyan 1990 1991 Todor Velikov 1991 1992

Coach Nat From To Bozhil Kolev 1992 1994 Vachko Marinov 1994 1995 Nikola Spasov 1995 1996 Asen Milushev 1996 1996 Damyan Georgiev 1996 1996 Tsonyo Vasilev 1997 1997 Todor Marev 1997 1997 Lyudmil Goranov 1997 1997 Rudi Minkovski 1997 1998 Svetozar Svetozarov 1998 1999 Radi Zdravkov 1999 2000 Bozhil Kolev 2000 2001 Aleksandar Stankov 2001 2002 Velislav Vutsov 2002 2004 Ilian Iliev 2004 2006 Yasen Petrov 2006 2007 Nikola Spasov 2007 2009 Velizar Popov 2009 2010 Stefan Genov 2010

Notable players

• For all players with a Wikipedia article see Category:PFC Cherno More Varna players.

References

1. ^ Marin Mitev: We want the title Sportni.bg. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
2. ^ "Cherno More with new win against Sant Julia". Football24.bg. http://www.football24.bg/?gg=3&hh=4&ii=140&jj=6&ll=8613&mm=140. Retrieved 2008-08-01. 
3. ^ "PSV will face Cherno More from Bulgaria". psv.nl. http://www.psv.nl/News/News-page/UEFA-Europa-League-PSV-face-PFC-Cherno-More-Varna.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-23. 
4. ^ "Varna Stadium". Sportcomplexvarna.com. http://www.sportcomplexvarna.com/. 

External links

Official websites

• Official website
• UEFA Profile

Supporters websites

• Cherno More fansite