PFC Litex Lovech

Football club infobox
clubname = PFC Litex Lovech


fullname = PFC Litex Lovech AD
nickname = The Lilacs
founded = 1921
ground = Lovech Stadium
capacity = 7,000
honorary president = flagicon|BUL Pat Sharp
chairman = flagicon|BUL Grisha Gantchev
manager = flagicon|BUL Stanimir Stoilov
league = TBI A Football Group
season = 2007-08
position = 3rd
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pattern_la2=|pattern_b2=_whitestripeonright|pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=00936B|body2=00936B|rightarm2=00936B|shorts2=00936B|socks2=00936B

PFC Litex Lovech ( _bg. ПФК Литекс (Ловеч)) is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Lovech.

Litex takes part in the TBI A Football Group. The team plays its home games at the local Lovech Stadium with 7,000 seats, electric lighting and permission to stage international matches. Litex has twice been Bulgarian champion and three times Bulgarian Cup winner.

Honours

Bulgarian A Professional Football Group
*Champions - 1997–98, 1998–99

Bulgarian Cup
*Winners - 2001, 2004, 2008
*Runners-up - 1999, 2003, 2007

Bulgarian League Cup
*Runners-Up - 1997

Bulgarian Supercup
*Runners-Up - 2004, 2007, 2008

History

The football club of the town of Lovech was founded in 1921 under the name "Hisarya". The first official game was held in 1923.

The club changed its name several times over the years, before becoming "Osum" in 1979. Under that name the club played constantly in the Bulgarian Second Division and was close to promotion several times, before finally achieving in 1994 under the name "LEX" (the sponsoring company at the time) after finishing in 1st position.

The first season in the Premier League was a kind of success for a club like LEX, finishing 11th after scoring victories over the teams of CSKA (1:0), Slavia Sofia (1:0) and Lokomotiv Sofia (1:0), which were some of the best teams in Bulgaria at that time.

The next season was not so successful and the team, renamed "Lovech" in the meantime, was relegated back to the Second Division. This was the turning point in the history of the club. Petrol businessman and citizen of Lovech Grisha Ganchev bought the club and renamed it "Litex". Almost all of the current players were released and a significant number of valuable players were signed. The team won first place without difficulty, finishing more than 10 points ahead of the second team in the table and qualifying for the First Division. In the same season Litex reached the quarter-final of the Bulgarian Cup and the final of the Bulgarian League Cup, which they unfortunately lost after a 2:2 draw in regular time and a penalty shoot-out. Litex also won against every team from the top of the table of the Bulgarian First Division (either in friendly matches or cup matches).

In 1997, Litex were promoted for a second time to the First Division and immediately became Bulgarian champions, finishing the season 5 points ahead of the second-placed Levski Sofia. This was unprecedented in Bulgarian football history. The striker of the team Dimcho Belyakov became top goalscorer with his 21 goals during the season. Midfielder Stoycho Stoilov received the Best League Player award. The club's first participation in European club tournaments was also promising, with Litex eliminating the Swedish Halmstads BK (2:0 and 1:2) and reaching the second qualifying round (but being knocked out by Spartak Moscow). The team won the Bulgarian Championship for the second successive time a year later.

Litex Lovech have also won the Bulgarian Cup three times — 2001 (beating the team of Velbazhd Kyustendil 1:0 in the final match after extra time) and 2004 (a win over CSKA after 2:2 in the regular time and a penalty shootout)and 2008 a win over Cherno More Varna (1:0)

Litex is also the team which inflicted the biggest defeat on CSKA Sofia — 8:0 in Lovech in the autumn of 1998. The club is honoured as the first Bulgarian team to win against a German team in Germany — 2:0 over Union Berlin in the Second Round of the UEFA Cup in October 2001.

The biggest win in Europe so far is 7:0 over NK Željezničar in Lovech in August 2004.

In early August 2007, Litex signed a three-year sponsorship and advertising contract with Bulgarian mobile operator GLOBUL and started the 2007/2008 season with the logo of the mobile service i-mode on their jerseys. In December 2007, Litex was the first Bulgarian club to have branded mobile phone game- Litex Football.

Before 2008/2009 season Litex lost 0:1 the Bulgarian Super cup final against CSKA Sofia. The wining goal for the army team was scored by Kiril Kotev in the 65th minute. In this way Litex lost for the third time a Super cup match. The previous two ones were vs. Lokomotiv Plovdiv (0:1) and Levski Sofia (1:2).

Litex were drawn against Aston Villa of the English Premier League in the first knockout round of the 2008/09 UEFA Cup, Aston Villa won the first leg 3-1 and the return leg finished 1-1 at Villa Park.

European cup history

Stadium

Litex Lovech play their home games at Lovech Stadium, a multi-use stadium in Lovech. Built in 1962 the ground underwent a total reconstruction in 1999 and was brought to a suitable stand to host international matches, one of only four in Bulgaria. It has approximately 7,000 seats with pitch dimensions of 110 x 82 metres. The record attendance is 12,500 for a game against Levski Sofia in October 1998.

Current squad

"As of August 2008"

"For recent transfers see List of Bulgarian football transfers 2008-09."

Notable players

For a complete list of Litex players, see ; Bulgaria flagicon|Bulgaria
* Georgi Denev
* Petar Hubchev
* Radostin Kishishev
* Dimcho Belyakov
* Svetoslav Todorov
* Rosen Kirilov
* Zoran Janković
* Zlatomir Zagorcic
* Stoycho Stoilov
* Stefan Kolev
* Hristo Yovov
* Zhivko Zhelev
* Zdravko Zdravkov
* Ivaylo Petkov; Albania flagicon|Albania
* Altin Haxhi
* Alban Bushi

; Argentina flagicon|Argentina
* Claudio Graf

; Brazil flagicon|Brazil
* Tiago Silva
* Joãozinho

; France flagicon|France
Jean-Philippe Caillet

; Macedonia flagicon|Macedonia
* Robert Popov

; Morocco flagicon|Morocco
* Mourad Hdiouad
* Abdelkarim Kissi

; Romania flagicon|Romania
* Eugen Trică
* Florin Prunea
* Valeriu Rachita

; Serbia flagicon|Serbia
* Nebojša Jelenković

; Slovenia flagicon|Slovenia
* Milivoje Novakovič

; Venezuela flagicon|Venezuela
* Alejandro Cichero

External links

* [http://www.pfclitex.com/ Official website]
* [http://litex.dankofff.net/ Another Unofficial Website in Bulgarian]
* [http://clubs.bul-foot.org/html/a/a/Litex(Lovech).htm Bulgarian clubs - Litex (Lovech)]
* [http://forums.data.bg/viewtopic.php?t=1651045 Fan Тheme (composition) ]