FC Lyubimets
FC Lyubimets is a Bulgarian football club based in Lyubimets. The team was founded in 1921 and re-founded in 2007. They currently compete in the Bulgarian fourth tier, the Regional Amateur Football Groups. The club competed in the A PFG for the first time during the 2013-14 season.
The club's home ground is the local Municipal Stadium in Lyubimets, which has an overall capacity of 4,000 seats.
History
The first club was founded as Football Club Maritsa in 1921. In 1947 the club changed its name to Football Club Strela. In the 1960s the club finally was named Football Club Lyubimets. They participated just in third and fourth divisions of Bulgarian football and was dissolved by the end of 1993–94 season.In 2007, thirteen years later, the club was restored as Football Club Lyubimets 2007. In his first season, the club were promoted for first time to second division. In the first season in professional football, the club finished in 7th place.
On 9 January 2013, club's former player Veselin Velikov was announced as the new manager. Four months later he led Lyubimets to promotion to the A PFG for first time in the club's history, finishing in 2nd place in the B PFG.
The first season in the professional top-flight began with a 1-0 win over defending champions Ludogorets Razgrad. Lyubimets went on to win 9 points from their first four games, including wins against Lokomotiv Sofia and Europa League participants Botev Plovdiv. Their form dropped after the fifth round, however, as the team managed to win only one of their next 18 games in the first phase. This placed them in the relegation group for the remainder of the season. In the relegation round, they won only one of twelve possible matches, and were relegated to the B PFG, after finishing last.
In the summer of 2014, the BFU decided to refuse to give FC Lyubimets a license for the second league, similarly to the other teams relegated that year from the first tier, Neftochimic Burgas and PFC Pirin Gotse Delchev. This was done mainly because of financial reasons. Lyubimets was subsequently relegated to the third tier, the V AFG.
League positions
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PlotArea = left:10 right:10 bottom:30 top:10
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2020
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:2008
Colors =
id:bl1 value:rgb
id:bl2 value:rgb
id:rs value:rgb
id:rn value:rgb
PlotData=
bar:Position width:16 color:white align:center
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 shift: text:2
from:01/07/2007 till:01/07/2008 color:red shift: text: "V Group"
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2009 shift: text:7
from:01/07/2009 till:01/07/2010 shift: text:5
from:01/07/2010 till:01/07/2011 shift: text:6
from:01/07/2011 till:01/07/2012 shift: text:4
from:01/07/2012 till:01/07/2013 shift: text:2
from:01/07/2008 till:01/07/2013 color:white shift: text: "B Group"
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 shift: text:14
from:01/07/2013 till:01/07/2014 color:green shift: text: "A Group"
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2015 shift: text:5
from:01/07/2015 till:01/07/2016 shift: text:4
from:01/07/2014 till:01/07/2016 color:yellow shift: text: "Regional"
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 shift: text:17
from:01/07/2016 till:01/07/2017 color:red shift: text: "Third League"
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2018 shift: text:11
from:01/07/2018 till:01/07/2019 shift: text:5
from:01/07/2019 till:01/07/2020 shift: text:
from:01/07/2017 till:01/07/2020 color:yellow shift: text: "Regional"
Honours
Bulgarian A Group- 14th place 2013–14
- Runners-up: 2012–13
Current squad
Managerial history
;After restoredNotable stats;After restored in 2007
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