About Parva Liga
Parva Liga History, Format, Organization, Media Coverage
The Parva Liga (First League) is the top level of professional football in Bulgaria. It was created in 1924 as a knockout competition under the name “Bulgarian State Football Championship” and was reformatted in 1948 as a league under the name “A Republican Football Group”. At the start of the 21st century, the name was then changed to “Premier Professional Football League” before becoming known as the “First Professional Football League”, or Parva Liga, in 2016.
Over the decades, the format and size of the Parva Liga has fluctuated. In its current format, the Parva Liga operates on a relegation-promotion system, with a set number of teams demoted to the Vtora Liga (Second League) at the end of each season, with another set number of teams promoted from the Vtora Liga to the Parva Liga.
CSKA Sofia, Levski Sofia, and Ludogorets Razgrad are among the most successful teams in Parva Liga history. Depending on the Parva Liga’s UEFA coefficient at the end of each season, the winner of the Parva Liga has the right to participate in a specific qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League in the following season. The Parva Liga’s runners-up earns the opportunity to take part in the UEFA Europa Conference League qualifying rounds.
Various entities have held media broadcast rights to the Parva Liga in Bulgaria over the past few decades. Bulgarian National Television (BNT) had TV rights for much of the 1990s and early 2000s, before Nova Broadcasting Group acquired broadcast rights and covered matches via its various networks throughout the mid 2000s until the early part of the 2020s. BNT then reacquired TV and live-streaming rights in the early 2020s in a multi-year deal expected to run through the 2026/27 season and potentially beyond..
