Short name Vidima-Rakovski Chairman Yaroslav Donchev Manager Anton Velkov Founded 29 December 1922 | Ground Capacity 8,816 2013–14 North-West V AFG, 8th Ground Rakovski Stadium | |
 | ||
Full name Професионален футболен клуб Видима-Раковски
(Professional football club Vidima-Rakovski) Dissolved January 29, 2015; 2 years ago (2015-01-29)
Vidima-Rakovski League First Professional Football League | ||
PFC Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo (Bulgarian: ПФК Видима-Раковски Севлиево) was a Bulgarian football club based in Sevlievo, which lastly competed in the North-West V AFG, the third level of Bulgarian football.
Contents
The club was established on September 2, 1997 as Vidima-Rakovski, but it was named as a predecessor of SC Rakovski, which was founded on December 19, 1922. Vidima-Rakovski have spent most of their history playing in the lower divisions of the Bulgarian football league system, until 2003, when the club earned promotion to the top division. The club's home ground is the Rakovski Stadium in Sevlievo, which has a capacity of 8,816 people.
Honours
Bulgarian A PFG:
Bulgarian B Group
Bulgarian Cup:
History
Vidima-Rakovski was founded on December 29, 1922, as Rakovski football club, by group of football enthusiasts of the Аssociation for tourism Rositsa. Upon its formation, Ivan Tsochev became president, Boris Popivanov secretary and Serafim Ganushev steward. Brothers Sokerovi, who played in the team, chose to name it Rakovski in honor of the Bulgarian national hero Georgi Sava Rakovski. They played their first game against Viktoria F.C. from Veliko Tarnovo, 1:1 draw.
After the reorganization in some of the sports associations in Bulgaria, in Sevlievo arose some voluntary sports organizations. The most popular was DSO Red Flag (Bulgarian: ДСО Червено знаме). In 1957 everyone voluntarys sports organizations union in VSO Rakovski. A two years later Rakovski was admitted into the Bulgarian Third Division. In 1968 the club were promoted for the first time to B PFG, the second division of Bulgarian football.
In 1980 the club was renamed F.C. Rositsa. The team finally became known as PFC Vidima-Rakovski in 1997, after union between F.C. Rakovski and F.C. Vidima, a little club of the Vidima Standart Ideal works. In the next 1998-99 season, the team won the Cup of Amateur Bulgarian league.
In 2002-03 season, with Plamen Markov as head coach, saw the first A PFG promotion ever of Vidima-Rakovski. Gerasim Zakov scored the club’s first top league goal in a 3-3 draw against Lokomotiv Sofia. The 2003-04 campaign, remembered as the first A PFG season in the club's history, ended in a good 12th place. In same season Vidima-Rakovski had their best Bulgarian Cup run in the history, beating Kameno and Belasitsa Petrich before losing to Lokomotiv Sofia in the quarter-finals. In the next campaign Vidima won just nine games and were relegated.
In 2006-07 season Vidima-Rakovski finished 2nd in B PFG, and managed to participate in the play-off for promotion in the A PFG. On June 2, 2007, Vidima surprisingly won the play-off against PFC Naftex Burgas with a result of 1:0 and finally qualified for the first division for second time in the club's history. However, the next year they were relegated again.
In 2009-10 season Vidima won a third promotion to the top division by winning the Western B PFG. They finished at 14th place in A PFG in the next season and secure their top division status via relegation play-off against Sportist Svoge, which they win in penalty shoot-out.
In 2011-12 season they finished 14th in the league, winning only 3 of their 30 matches in the league. In result of that Vidima will compete in B PFG in the next season.
In 2015, the club was dissolved, but new club was found in Sevlievo called FC Sevlievo.
Stadium
The club's home ground was the Rakovski Stadium in Sevlievo. The stadium has an exact seating capacity of 8,816 spectators and it was opened in 1958. Since then it has been renovated once, in 2001, when plastic seats and a new scoreboard were installed.
Last squad
As of 1 August 2014 Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.