B Republican Football Group The B group was established in 1950 when the league was divided in two groups -
North and
South, in each group participating 10 teams. The first champions of the
B Republican Football Group are
Torpedo (Ruse) (North) and
Spartak (Sofia) (South). In season 1951 the group is only one - B Republican Football Group with 12 teams. The regulations are - in
A Group are going the top team in the final standings from
Sofia and the top two teams from the province (teams that aren't from Sofia). In the next season 1952 the group is formed by 14 teams and from season 1953 the league is divided into five groups -
Sofia B Group,
North-West B Group,
South-West B Group,
North-East B Group and
South-East B Group.
Second Professional Football Group In the next seasons the league had many changes. In 2000 the
Bulgarian Football Union changed the name of the division. The league is formed by 18 teams, not like previous seasons - 16 teams. To reduce the teams to 16 again in the next season the last six teams that finish in the final standings in the league were directly relegated.
First Professional Football League Before the start of season 2001/2002 the league was again renamed. The championship started with 13 teams, because
Lokomotiv (Plovdiv) and
Belasitsa (Petrich) united with two teams from
A Group -
Lokomotiv with
PFC Velbazhd Kyustendil and
Belasitsa with
PFC Hebar Pazardzhik. That meant, that this was the end of professional football in the towns of
Kyustendil and
Pazardzhik.
B Professional Football Group Returning to the traditions of the B Republican Football Group was the creating of the
B Professional Football Group. 16 teams participated in the league, each playing twice against all the other, once home and once away, with no play-offs. Before the start of season
2005/2006 the
Bulgarian Football Union decided to divide B Group in two groups -
West B Group and
East B Group with 14 teams in each group. Every team plays 13 matches as home team and 13 matches as away team. The two champions of the groups were directly promoted to
A Group and the two teams that finished in second place in their group played a play-off for winning the final third place for promotion in
A Group. On May 19, 2008 the two groups were extended to 16 teams. For season
2010/2011 the two groups were reduced again with 12 teams in each. But just before the start of season
2011/2012 the number of teams in the two groups was again reduced - 10 teams in both
West B Group and
East B Group, with the winners of the groups directly promoting to
A Group. The two teams that finished in second place in their group enter in a play-off for winning a place at the final play-off for promotion/relegation with the team that finished 14th in
A Group. Further changes were made before the start of season
2012/2013. The former format of B Group with the two groups (
West and
East) was replaced by a single division, formed by fourteen teams.
Second League ==Former champions (from season 2005–06)==