Early years On 3 March 1913, Galata Sports Association was established in the first male high school in Varna, with association football being one of its departments. Later in 1913,
Karel Škorpil, one of the founding members of the sports society and a prominent
Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist, who settled in Varna at that time, suggested the association to be renamed to Reka Ticha, in homage of the old name of the
Kamchiya river. On May 24, 1914, Sportist Sports Club, which was formed by
Stefan Tonchev and a group of boys in 1909, joined Reka Ticha. It was written by the sports functionary and Reka Ticha's member Stefan Tonchev. On January 21, 1919, SC Reka Ticha shortened its name to Sports Club Ticha, and the kit colours were chosen to be red and white. In the same year, the Bulgarian musician Nikola Nitsov wrote the official anthem of the club. In 1921 Sports Club Granit left the collective membership with SK Ticha due to financial disputes, becoming
SC Vladislav after Polish king
Władysław of Varna. Their emblem was the four-leaf clover and the kit colours were green and white which are still today the official colours of successor Cherno More. SC Vladislav was to become the first team to win the Tsar's Cup in
1925 rendering them the first champions of the
Kingdom of Bulgaria. The captain,
Egon Terzetta is revered by the Cherno More fans as the scorer in the final match, winning the cup for the green-white team. Later, in 1945 they will rejoin SK Ticha in a merger and the club will be known as Ticha-Vladislav. In 1925 SK Ticha won the București Cup, after two straight wins against Tricolor (to become later
Unirea Tricolor) and
Sportul Studentesc both from
Bucharest. SC Primoretz practised basketball, tennis, athletics and swimming and did not have a football team. Chairman of the club was the long time SC Vladislav sportsman Aleksi Aleksiev who now became the chairman of TVP. In
1948–49, under the name Botev, the club took part in the highest level of the first post-war league to be known as
Bulgarian A Football Group or "A" RFG. Botev Varna finished 6th in a group of 10 teams with centre forward
Nedko Nedev ending up as a joint top scorer of the competition with 11 goals, as many as Dimitar Milanov had scored for CDNV Sofia . Some more reorganisation, in accordance with the Soviet principles, took place in the next season. The town of Varna was renamed
Stalin in honour of the Soviet dictator and stayed that way until 1956. A departmental system was applied, placing most clubs under the umbrella of two major departments, The Ministry of Defence and The Ministry of Interior. Botev Stalin went under military command and was ordered to play in the Third division (group "V") to make place for the newly formed People's Army team (ONV, later
CSKA) from Sofia which started in "A" RFG straight after being founded. with goals from
Zdravko Mitev (2) and
Stefan Bogomilov. The 19 year old
Johan Cruyff scored for Ajax. In August 1966 the team from Varna visited England and played three matches. The most memorable was the 1–0 win against
Nottingham Forest on
City Ground. Nottingham fielded a strong side with
Peter Grummitt,
Bob McKinlay,
Alan Hinton,
Henry Newton,
Joe Baker,
Terry Hennessey,
Jeff Whitefoot in the starting 11. The match was decided with a long range shot from defender
Dimitar Bosnov in the first half. Nottingham Forest was to end the
1966-67 season as runners-up in the
Football League First Division. The other two matches ended in a 1–1 draw against
Coventry City after
Stefan Yanev had opened the score, and a 1–2 defeat to
Sheffield Wednesday F.C. After 16 years in the top flight, Cherno More was relegated in 1976 and won promotion the following season. A new generation of players was emerging. Defenders
Todor Marev and Ivan Ivanov, midfielders Todor Atanasov and Ivan Andreev, forwards Rafi Rafiev and
Nikola Spasov left many good memories in the late 70s and the 80s. In the 1981–82 season, the team finished 4th and therefore qualified for the
Intertoto Cup. Cherno More won twice 2–0 at home against
Standard Liège and the Danes from
Hvidovre IF and drew 1–1 against
Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Away, they drew 1–1 in
Denmark and lost 1-3 and 0–3 in
Liège and
Leverkusen respectively. Later in the 80s, Cherno More was relegated twice and played 3 seasons in
"B" RFG. The team reached the final of
The Soviet Army Cup and were runners-up twice in 1985 and 1988.
The 90s struggle The fall of socialism in Bulgaria in 1989 and the establishment of democracy brought new hardships for Bulgarian football clubs. The transition from state backed organisations to privately owned entities saw many traditional football clubs disappear entirely, while others were forced to declare bankruptcy, only to return later by obtaining licences from smaller clubs. Cherno More avoided any administrative changes and kept its name and history, but spent six consecutive seasons in the league's
second tier. Relegated in season 1989-90 and again in 1993-94 and facing immense financial difficulties, at one time during the 1998–99 season, the club came close to relegation to the 3rd division of Bulgarian football. Despite being in the
"B"RFG, Cherno More sold their best player and own product
Ilian Iliev to Levski Sofia for a then Bulgarian record of 2 million leva (£60 000) in 1991. Things started to get better in 1998 with new chairman
Krasen Kralev who turned the club into a joint-stock company.
New millennium The new millennium saw the club establishing itself in the country's top flight. The Sailors spent the majority of the 90s in Bulgaria's second tier before securing promotion at the end of the 1999–2000 season, ending a six consecutive season spell in the
B Group. Cherno More survived minor relegation scares in their first two seasons back in the
A Group and then went on to become a regular feature in the league's top half. In 2002, Kralev convinced businessman
Ilia Pavlov to buy the club. Pavlov had ideas about developing the club and turning it into one of the leaders in Bulgarian football. He appointed the young and ambitious coach
Velislav Vutsov and signed many experienced players such as National team goalkeeper
Zdravko Zdravkov, defenders
Adalbert Zafirov and Georgi Ginchev. Some foreign players such as
Lúcio Wagner,
Darko Spalević and Maltese international
Daniel Bogdanović also made their way to Varna. The results were quick to follow. Victories against champions CSKA in Sofia and Litex in
Lovech saw the team soaring up in the table. The success story came to an abrupt end with the murder of Ilia Pavlov on 7 March 2003. Months of uncertainties followed and at some point, the very existence of the club was at stake until Bulgarian holding company
Chimimport acquired the club in 2004. In the 2007–08 season, the Sailors finished 5th in A Group and qualified for the last season of the
UEFA Cup due to licence problems of
CSKA Sofia. Led by captain
Alex they had a very successful run - they defeated
UE Sant Julia of
Andora in the first qualifying round (9–0 on aggregate) and
Maccabi Netanya from
Israel in the second qualifying round (3–1 on aggregate). Cherno More than challenged German side
VfB Stuttgart in the 1st round and were eliminated after a 1–2 loss at home and a surprising 2–2 draw in
Stuttgart after having a 2–0 lead up until the 85th minute of the game. During the same season the team was successful finishing 3rd in A Group, and qualified for the newly created European football competition, the
Europa League. In the 2009–10 season, Cherno More started their
UEFA Europa League campaign by defeating Iskra-Stal from
Moldova in the second qualifying round (4–0 on aggregate). Subsequently, they were drawn to play against
Dutch powerhouse
PSV Eindhoven in the third qualifying round. The team from Varna was eliminated after a 0-1 loss at
Eindhoven and another 0-1 loss at the
Lazur Stadium in
Burgas. After finishing third in 2008–09, the club failed to impress in the domestic league in the follow-up years, but saw a successful run in the Bulgarian Cup during the 2014–15 season. The Sailors defeated
Sozopol,
Slavia Sofia,
Lokomotiv Gorna Oryahovitsa, and
Lokomotiv Plovdiv on the road to the final against
Levski Sofia at the Lazur Stadium in Burgas. Despite being down to ten men since the 39th minute and trailing 0–1, the team managed to equalize in added time through
Bacari's volley and went on to win the Cup after
Mathias Coureur's stunning strike in the 118th minute, winning the club's first post-
World War II trophy. In 2018,
Ilian Iliev returned to the club as head coach for the first time since his departure in 2006. Under Iliev, the team managed to stabilize its performances and frequently finished in the top six of the league in the upcoming years. In 2024, Cherno More finished second in the league, the team’s highest league position in the history of the Bulgarian league since its founding in 1948. The Sailors drew
Hapoel Be'er Sheva in the second qualifying round of UEFA Conference League. The following season the Sailors again qualified for
UEFA Conference League by finishing third in the league. This marked the first time Cherno More finished in the top 3 of the league in successive seasons. In the
Conference League in the second round they drew
İstanbul Başakşehir. In the first leg Cherno More lost 0–1 in
Razgrad, but in the second leg they lost 4–0 in Istanbul losing 5–0 on
aggregate. ==Honours==