FC Vereya

FC Vereya

Full name	Professional Football Club Vereya-Stara Zagora
Nickname(s)	The Lions
Founded	July 15, 2001; 23 years ago (2001-07-15)
Ground	Trace Arena, Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
Capacity	3,500
Head coach	Kolyo Kolev
League	A RFG Stara Zagora
2022–23	Southeast Third League, 20th (relegated)
Website	http://fcvereya.bg/
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Vereya (Bulgarian: Верея) is a Bulgarian association football club based in Stara Zagora, which currently competes in the Southeast Third League, the third tier of Bulgarian football.

Vereya was founded in 2001. The team made a remarkable rise through the levels of the Bulgarian football system, and by 2016, the club reached the top level of Bulgarian football, the First League, for the first time. In 2019, after three seasons in the First League, they were expelled from it for reported match fixing.

The club was founded in 2001 by a founding board led by Hristiyan Parvanov, Galin Mihaylov, Slavcho Tanev, Tonko Totev and Dimo Hristov. Until the 2005/06 season it was playing in Regional groups before the promotion to the V AFG under the name FC Vereya-Arsenal after a merger with Arsenal Kazanlak, but after the season 2006/07 Vereya-Arsenal became Arsenal Kazanlak and the 2nd team Vereya Bulsatkom moved to Stara Zagora again and was registered as FC Vereya. They won the A RFG 3 times in the next 5 seasons, getting the promotion during the 2011–12 season.

In 2012, Bulgarian construction company Trace Group started investing in the club and a new stadium project Trace Arena was presented. On May 21, 2014, the club won the Cup of Bulgarian Amateur Football League after defeating Minyor Pernik 2–0 in the final.^[1] During the same season Vereya finished 3rd in the V Group and secured promotion to the higher-ranked professional football league, the B Group.

In 2016, the club submitted an application for the newly restructured Bulgarian First League. On June 1, 2016, one of the new signings of the club for the upcoming season, the Brazilian Elias Alves da Silva, announced that he joined the club, as it would compete in the top league of Bulgaria, long before an official statement was given by the BFU officials on the number of the teams competing in the new league, thus sparking controversy.^[2]

On June 7, 2016, Vereya, alongside five other B Group outfits, were approved by the Bulgarian Football Union and were promoted to compete in the upcoming 2016-17 Bulgarian First League. Vereya was one of the clubs with the necessary financial and infrastructural requirements for the new first tier.

In its first ever season in the top level (2016–17), Vereya managed to secure a 7th-place finish, thus remaining part of the elite for next season.

In its second season in the top level (2017–18), Vereya surprised many, by finishing in the top 6 in the regular season.

The third season in the elite was not that successful, however. It was marked by financial problems. On 7 May 2019, Vereya were disqualified from the league for match fixing. All results from played matches involving Vereya were retained with the Bulgarian Football Union awarding Septemvri Sofia two wins by 3–0 from their scheduled relegation play-off matches with Vereya and the loser from the relegation play-off match between Dunav Ruse and Vitosha Bistritsa (the latter) directly faced the second-placed team from the Second League (Montana).^[3][4][5] Vereya was then disqualified from the Second League, due to financial issues, following which they were also disqualified from the third tier, which meant that the team will start the 2019–20 season from the fourth division of Bulgarian football, in this case the Stara Zagora regional league.

• Seasons in First League: 3
• Seasons in B Group (now Second League): 2
• Seasons in V Group ( now Third League): 5
• Seasons in A Regional Group: 13

Vereya main colors are blue and white.

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt partner
2006–2012	Unknown	Bulsatcom / Trace Group
2012–2014	Tomy Sport	Trace Group
2014–2016	Nike
2016–2018	Erreà
2018–2019	Uhlsport	Efbet

• First League:
  • 6th: 2017–18
• Bulgarian Cup:
  • Semifinals: 2016–17
• Second League:
  • 8th 2015–16
• Third League:
  • 3rd: 2013–14
• A RFG Stara Zagora:
  • Winners (4): 2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2011–12
• Cup of Bulgarian Amateur Football League:
  • Winners (1): 2013–14

As of 1 August 2020

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  BUL Radostin Yordanov 4 DF  BUL Yordan Dobrev 5 MF  BUL Isus Angelov 6 DF  BUL Ivan Ivanov 7 DF  BUL Milen Stoyanov 8 MF  BUL Galin Penev 9 MF  BUL Kristian Petrov 10 MF  BUL Ventsislav Ivanov 11 MF  BUL Mihael Lalev

No. Pos. Nation Player 14 DF  BUL Georgi Koychev 16 MF  BUL Steliyan Kolev 17 DF  BUL Stanimir Petrov 18 MF  BUL Denislav Zapryanov 20 MF  BUL Kiril Atanasov 21 FW  BUL Petar Milkov 22 GK  BUL Ventsislav Yankov 26 DF  BUL Vladimir Zafirov (captain) 77 DF  BUL Zhivko Monev 23 DF  GRE Konstantinos Laios

Had international caps for their respective countries, or held any club record. Players whose name is listed in bold represented their countries while playing for Vereya or at some other point in their careers.

Dates	Name	Honours
2001–11	Unknown
2011–13	Kolyo Hristov
2013–14	Petar Kostadinov	99991 Amateur Cup title 1 Promotion to B Group
2014	Krasimir Manolov
2014	Gospodin Mirchev
2014–15	Radostin Kishishev
2015–16	Zhivko Zhelev Vladislav Yanush
2016–2017	Aleksandar Tomash
2017	Ilian Iliev
2018	Blagomir Mitrev
2018	Ivan Kolev
2018	Nebojša Miličić
2018	Lyudmil Kirov
2018–2019	Nebojša Miličić
2019	Oleksandr Sevidov
2019	Ivan Vutov
2020–	Kolyo Kolev

• Official website
• Club page at bgclubs.eu
• Club page at Sportal.bg (Archived February 6, 2021, at the Wayback Machine)