1985–86 A Group

A Group
Season	1985–86
Champions	Beroe; (1st title)
Relegated	Cherno More, Dunav
European Cup	Beroe
UEFA Cup	Trakia Plovdiv; CSKA;
Matches	240
Goals	770 (3.21 per match)
Top goalscorer	Atanas Pashev; (30 goals)
	← 1984–85 1986–87 →

The 1985–86 A Group was the 38th season of the A Football Group, the top Bulgarian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1948.

Overview

It was contested by 16 teams, and Beroe Stara Zagora won the championship.

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	0–0	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Beroe Stara Zagora (C)	30	20	3	1	6	55	36	+19	43	Qualification for European Cup first round
2	Trakia Plovdiv	30	18	5	1	6	82	38	+44	41	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
3	Slavia Sofia	30	16	4	1	9	63	33	+30	36
4	CSKA Sofia^[a]	30	16	2	0	12	62	37	+25	34	Qualification for UEFA Cup first round
5	Levski Sofia	30	14	5	1	10	55	39	+16	33	Qualification for Cup Winners' Cup first round
6	Sliven	30	12	7	1	10	46	48	−2	31
7	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	30	14	3	0	13	51	57	−6	31
8	Spartak Varna	30	11	8	1	10	31	32	−1	30
9	Lokomotiv Sofia	30	12	5	1	12	47	45	+2	29
10	Etar Veliko Tarnovo	30	12	5	0	13	52	58	−6	29
11	Akademik Svishtov	30	11	4	0	15	39	54	−15	26
12	Botev Vratsa	30	10	5	0	15	44	60	−16	25
13	Pirin Blagoevgrad	30	8	5	1	16	34	49	−15	21
14	Spartak Pleven	30	9	3	1	17	33	63	−30	21
15	Cherno More Varna (R)	30	9	2	1	18	47	58	−11	20	Relegation to 1986–87 B Group
16	Dunav Ruse (R)	30	8	2	2	18	29	63	−34	18	Relegation to 1986–87 B Group

Source: 1985-86 Football retro-football.bg
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champion; (R) Relegated
Notes:

↑ CSKA won the 1985–86 Cup of the Soviet Army and thus qualified for the 1986–87 UEFA Cup first round.

Results

Home \ Away	ASV	BSZ	BVR	CHM	CSK	DUN	ETA	LEV	LPL	LSO	PIR	SLA	SLI	SPL	SPV	TRA
Akademik Svishtov		1–0	3–1	5–3	1–0	2–0	1–1	3–1	2–3	2–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	4–1	1–1	1–1
Beroe Stara Zagora	4–0		4–1	3–0	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	3–2
Botev Vratsa	3–0	0–2		2–1	1–1	2–0	3–0	3–1	1–0	1–2	1–1	1–2	2–0	2–0	0–1	4–0
Cherno More	0–3	1–2	7–0		1–0	0–0	2–0	1–2	0–2	4–0	2–0	2–2	3–1	2–1	3–0	1–2
CSKA Sofia	6–1	4–2	5–1	4–2		6–0	2–0	1–2	3–0	0–3	2–1	0–1	3–0	6–1	2–0	2–3
Dunav Ruse	3–2	0–2	2–0	2–1	3–1		0–2	0–1	0–3	2–1	5–2	0–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1
Etar Veliko Tarnovo	3–1	1–2	6–1	3–1	1–0	2–1		1–1	4–1	5–1	2–0	2–2	4–1	2–1	0–2	2–2
Levski Sofia	1–0	2–3	3–6	3–1	1–3	6–1	5–1		0–1	2–0	3–0	2–2	3–0	6–0	1–0	1–0
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	3–0	1–0	2–1	4–2	0–2	3–1	4–2	1–3		2–2	3–1	2–4	3–2	2–3	1–0	1–1
Lokomotiv Sofia	3–1	1–4	4–1	0–2	4–1	3–1	1–1	0–0	3–1		3–0	3–1	1–1	3–2	2–0	3–1
Pirin Blagoevgrad	1–0	3–2	1–1	2–1	1–2	5–0	6–1	1–0	1–0	1–1		0–4	1–1	3–1	1–1	0–0
Slavia Sofia	4–0	5–2	1–0	7–1	1–2	1–0	5–1	1–1	9–0	1–0	2–0		3–1	0–1	0–0	3–1
Sliven	2–0	0–0	3–2	1–0	1–0	5–0	3–1	1–1	4–2	1–1	3–1	4–0		4–2	2–1	0–3
Spartak Pleven	1–0	2–2	1–1	1–0	0–2	0–0	1–2	3–1	0–3	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–0		1–1	0–4
Spartak Varna	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	1–1	3–2	1–0	1–1	2–0	2–1	3–1	1–0	0–1	1–0		2–1
Trakia Plovdiv	5–2	8–1	6–1	4–1	3–1	5–0	4–1	3–1	2–2	1–0	1–0	2–0	6–1	7–2	3–1

Source: A PFG (in Bulgarian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Champions

Beroe Stara Zagora

Goalkeepers
Ivko Ganchev	30	(0)
Valentin Grudev	1	(0)

Defenders
Tenyo Minchev	26	(4)
Kolyo Ganev	8	(0)
Iliya Iliev	30	(0)
Venelin Sivriev	27	(1)
Petko Tenev	20	(0)
Kancho Kasherov	29	(0)
Stoyko Stoykov	23	(0)
Hristo Belchev	8	(0)

Midfielders
Yordan Mitev	25	(7)
Plamen Lipenski	17	(0)
Stefan Dinev	21	(2)
Tanko Tanev	19	(2)
Stoyan Bonchev	27	(7)

Forwards
Myumyun Kashmer	29	(23)
Petko Marokov	10	(1)
Radko Kalaydzhiev	4	(1)
Vasil Dragolov	22	(7)

Manager
	Evgeni Yanchovski

Top scorers

Rank	Scorer	Club	Goals
1	Atanas Pashev	Trakia Plovdiv	30
2	Myumyun Kashmer	Beroe Stara Zagora	23
3	Mitko Argirov	Etar Veliko Tarnovo	20
4	Petar Aleksandrov	Slavia Sofia	18
4	Plamen Getov	Spartak Pleven	18
6	Mihail Valchev	Levski Sofia	16
7	Stoycho Mladenov	CSKA Sofia	15

Attendances

#	Club	Average
1	Beroe	17,667
2	Levski	14,600
3	Trakia	12,800
4	Lokomotiv Plovdiv	12,267
5	Sliven	9,667
6	Pleven	9,167
7	CSKA Sofia	9,000
8	Pirin	8,533
9	Slavia Sofia	8,429
10	Varna	7,900
11	Dunav	7,846
12	Svishtov	7,400
13	Etar	6,200
14	Botev	5,380
15	Cherno More	5,313
16	Lokomotiv Sofia	5,200

Source:^[1]

References

↑ "Historical attendances". www.european-football-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-08-01.

Bulgaria - List of final tables (RSSSF)

[table_note_CSK0.083735354749363-1] CSKA won the 1985–86 Cup of the Soviet Army and thus qualified for the 1986–87 UEFA Cup first round.

[2] "Historical attendances". www.european-football-statistics.co.uk. Retrieved 2026-08-01.

[a]

[1]

v t e Bulgarian football championship seasons
State Championship (National Football Division)	1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1941 1942 1943 1944
Republic Championship	1945 1946 1947 1948
A Group	1948–49 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16
First League	2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25 2025–26 2026–27

v t e 1985–86 in Bulgarian football
Domestic leagues	A Group B Group V Group
Domestic cups	Bulgarian Cup (Final) Cup of the Soviet Army (Final)
European competitions	European Cup UEFA Cup Cup Winners' Cup Balkans Cup
Related to national team	1986 FIFA World Cup (Qualification Group 4, Group A) Ivan Vutsov
List of transfers

v t e 1985–86 in European football (UEFA)
Domestic leagues	Albania Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czechoslovakia Denmark '85 '86 England Finland '85 '86 France East Germany West Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '85 '86 Italy Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '85 '86 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Scotland Soviet Union '85 '86 Spain Sweden '85 '86 Switzerland Turkey Yugoslavia
Domestic cups	Albania Austria Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czechoslovakia Denmark England Finland '85 '86 France East Germany West Germany Greece Hungary Iceland '85 '86 Italy Luxembourg Malta Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway '85 '86 Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Scotland Soviet Union Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Wales Yugoslavia
League cups	England Republic of Ireland Scotland Soviet Union Spain
UEFA competitions	European Cup (Final) Cup Winners' Cup (Final) UEFA Cup (Final)
Non-UEFA competitions	Intertoto Cup Balkans Cup