2012–13 B Group

The 2012–13 B Group was the 58th season of the Bulgarian B Football Group, the second tier of the Bulgarian football league system. The season started on 19 August 2012 and finished in May 2013.

B Group
Season2012–13
PromotedNeftochimic
Lyubimets
RelegatedVidima-Rakovski
Shumen 2010
Septemvri Simitli
Sliven
Matches played182
Goals scored456 (2.51 per match)
Top goalscorerBlagoy Nakov (17 goals)

On 15 June the Executive Committee of Bulgarian Football Union decided to reduce further the number of teams due licensing problems in most of the clubs and reuniting the teams into one league. The new format will consist 14 teams, playing twice against all the other, once home and once away. The original intention was to have a group of 16 teams, but two teams decided to cancel their participation before the start of the season.

In contrast to the last season, there will be no promotion play-off this year. The idea behind is the decision, made by the BFU to reduce the number of teams at A PFG. This season there will be just two teams, promoting to A PFG, and 4 teams relegating from to the top league.

Team changes from 2011–12

Movement between A PFG and B PFG

The champions of the two groups of B PFG were promoted to the A PFG. These were Pirin (Gotse Delchev) (West B PFG champions) and Etar (Veliko Tarnovo) (East B PFG champions) . The third promoted team is Botev (Plovdiv), which won the promotion play-off against Sportist (Svoge).

Vidima-Rakovski, Kaliakra and Svetkavitsa were relegated after finishing in the bottom three places of the table at the end of season 2011/12.

Movement between B PFG and V AFG

During the winter break Dorostol (Silistra) and Chavdar (Byala Slatina) decided to cancel their participation on the East B PFG and West B PFG and relegated. Additionally the teams of Dobrudzha (Dobrich) and Nesebar (from East B PFG) and Slivnishki Geroi and Malesh (Mikrevo) (from West B PFG) relegated after finishing on 9th and 10th place. Additionally the teams of Chernomorets (Pomorie) and Akademik (Sofia) did not receive a professional license from the BFU and were relegated to V AFG.

On the place of those six teams came the V AFG champions Rakovski 2011 (South-East), Shumen 2010 (North-East), Pirin (Razlog) (South-West) and Spartak 1919 (Pleven) (North-West).

On 20 July 2012 Bdin (Vidin) canceled their participation from B PFG because of unpaid debts and unsatisfactory financial planning, which would not allow the club to survive throughout the season. This left the league with 15 teams only.[1] Five days later Sportist Svoge also filed an application for exclusion from B Grupa.[2] On 2 August the BFU confirmed that 14 teams will start the new season, with Bdin and Sportist excluded. The first games took place on 19 August.[3]

Winter break

On 15 February the owners of Spartak Pleven announced they were going to cancel the club's participation in the championship within the next three days due to financial difficulties. All remaining fixtures were to be awarded 0–3 against them.[4] On 21 February a new sponsor began talks to take over the club, as representatives paid the players and staff their outstanding salaries. The decision to suspend the team's participation in the 2012/13 season was overturned until the deal is finalized.[5] On the next day a group of around 20 fans held a protest in front of the local municipality, demanding that the city takes action to help their team.[6]

On 26 February the BFU announced it was suspending OFC Sliven 2000 due to their inability to field at least 7 players in their senior team. Due to this, the club's first spring game on 2 March at home to FC Bansko was cancelled, and the rest of their season was placed under question.[7] The Football Union confirmed its decision in a statement released on 7 March, while also cancelling Sliven's second game against Spartak (Varna) and awarding them a 3–0 win. Four days later the BFU suspended OFC Sliven 2000 from the 2012–13 B PFG due to the club's failure to appear in two consecutive games.[8]

Stadia and locations
Location of teams in B Group 2012–13
Team City Stadium Capacity
BanskoBanskoSaint Peter3,000
ChavdarEtropoleChavdar5,000
KaliakraKavarnaKavarna5,000
LyubimetsLyubimetsLyubimetz5,000
NeftochimicBurgasLazur18,037
PirinRazlogPirin2,000
Rakovski 2011RakovskiRakovski3,000
SeptemvriSimitliStruma8,000
Shumen 2010ShumenPanayot Volov24,390
SpartakPlevenPleven22,000
SpartakVarnaSpartak13,000
Sliven 2000SlivenHadzhi Dimitar10,000
SvetkavitsaTargovishteDimitar Burkov8,000
Vidima-RakovskiSevlievoRakovski8,816

League table
Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Promotion or relegation
1 Neftochimic (P) 26 16 6 4 49 22 +27 54 Promotion to 2013–14 A Group
2 Lyubimets (P) 26 16 3 7 44 28 +16 51
3 Rakovski 2011 26 13 9 4 38 28 +10 48
4 Svetkavitsa 26 13 8 5 34 20 +14 47
5 Bansko 26 13 7 6 48 26 +22 46
6 Spartak Pleven 26 11 9 6 33 25 +8 42
7 Spartak Varna 26 10 8 8 26 19 +7 38
8 Chavdar Etropole 26 11 4 11 31 32 −1 37
9 Kaliakra 26 9 7 10 33 31 +2 34
10 Pirin Razlog 26 8 9 9 33 28 +5 33
11 Vidima-Rakovski (R) 26 8 5 13 33 31 +2 29 Relegation to 2013–14 V Group
12 Shumen 2010 (R) 26 8 5 13 32 52 −20 29
13 Septemvri Simitli (R) 26 4 3 19 18 39 −21 15
14 OFC Sliven[lower-alpha 1] (R) 26 0 1 25 4 75 −71 −2
Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th goal difference; 6th number of goals scored; 7th Fair-play points; 8th Draw
(P) Promoted; (R) Relegated.
Notes:
  1. Sliven were expelled from B PFG because they did not have a squad of minimum 7 players for the beginning of the spring games. All remaining fixtures are awarded 0–3 against them and they received a 3-point deduction.[9]

Results
Home \ Away BAN CET KAV LYU NEF PRZ RAK SIM SHU OFC SPL SPV SVE VRA
Bansko 2–1 1–1 2–3 2–2 1–1 2–1 2–0 9–2 4–0 2–0 0–0 1–2 2–0
Chavdar Etropole 3–0 0–2 1–3 1–0 1–0 0–1 2–2 1–0 3–1 2–1 1–0 1–3 1–2
Kaliakra 0–1 3–1 1–4 2–1 2–1 2–2 3–1 2–2 4–1 0–0 0–0 5–2 1–0
Lyubimets 1–2 1–2 1–0 2–1 3–2 1–1 2–1 1–0 2–0 2–1 2–2 1–1 3–1
Neftochimic 1–1 3–1 2–1 1–0 1–0 4–0 2–0 2–0 5–0 2–2 0–2 1–0 1–0
Pirin Razlog 0–0 4–0 1–0 2–1 2–5 1–1 2–0 2–2 3–0 1–1 3–0 2–2 1–2
Rakovski 2011 3–1 1–0 0–0 2–1 1–1 2–1 2–0 4–0 1–0 3–3 2–1 1–0 2–1
Septemvri Simitli 0–2 0–1 2–0 1–3 1–2 0–0 0–1 0–1 3–0 0–4 1–2 1–1 1–0
Shumen 2010 1–5 0–3 2–0 1–2 1–3 3–1 3–0 1–0 3–0 2–2 1–1 1–1 0–2
OFC Sliven 0–3 0–3 0–3 0–3 0–3 0–0 0–3 1–3 1–4 0–2 0–1 0–1 0–6
Spartak Pleven 1–0 1–0 0–0 1–0 1–2 0–1 2–2 1–0 1–0 3–0 1–0 0–0 2–1
Spartak Varna 0–2 1–1 3–0 0–1 0–0 0–2 2–0 1–0 3–0 3–0 0–0 0–0 2–0
Svetkavitsa 2–0 0–0 1–0 2–0 1–3 1–0 1–1 1–0 0–1 3–0 4–1 2–0 1–0
Vidima-Rakovski 1–1 1–1 2–1 0–1 1–1 0–0 1–1 2–1 6–1 3–0 1–2 0–2 0–2
Source: Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Season statistics

Top scorers
Rank Scorer Club Goals
1 Blagoy Nakov Bansko 17
2 Zhivko Petkov Neftochimic Burgas 14
Anton Ognyanov Lyubimets 2007 14
4 Emanuil Manev Neftochimic Burgas 9

References
  1. "Новата "Б" група остана с отбор по-малко" (in Bulgarian). www.sportal.bg. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  2. ""Б" група остана с 14 отбора" (in Bulgarian). www.sportal.bg. 25 July 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
  3. "Изтеглиха отново жребия за "Б" група" (in Bulgarian). www.sportal.bg. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  4. "Спартак (Плевен) напуска "Б" група след три дни" (in Bulgarian). www.sportal.bg. 15 February 2013. Archived from the original on 20 February 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  5. "Парите потекоха в Спартак (Пл), новият шеф иска промоция" (in Bulgarian). www.sportal.bg. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  6. "Фенове на Спартак (Плевен) протестираха пред общината" (in Bulgarian). www.sportal.bg. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  7. "БФС спря Сливен от участие в "Б" група" (in Bulgarian). www.sportal.bg. 26 February 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  8. "БФС пак не позволи на Сливен да играе в "Б" група" (in Bulgarian). www.football24.bg. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  9. ""Б" група остава с 13 отбора" (in Bulgarian). www.sportal.bg. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
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