Football was played in
Stara Zagora as early as 1916, however with no organized championship in
Bulgaria until the late 1920s, numerous clubs enjoyed regional success in those early years for the game in both the city and
Bulgaria itself. Beroe can trace its roots back to 4 May 1924, when it was founded as Beroya, after the merger of two other clubs – Borislav and Rekord. The club withstood the almost constant chaos and strife of the times, often caused by numerous shifts in the political regimes of
Bulgaria, and despite many mergers and name changes throughout the first four decades of its history, it is constantly among the top 3 clubs in the city. It has also often been the platform for attempts to unite all the clubs in
Stara Zagora, which foreshadowed its role and meaning for the city in the years to come. The establishment of an organized league to determine the champion of
Bulgaria in the late 40s coincided with the consolidation of football in
Stara Zagora, the city finally seeing a one single strong club emerge to represent it at the highest level of
Bulgarian football. That club was Beroe, at first bearing the names of Udarnik and Botev, before finally restoring its old name in 1959.
Successful years 1968–1980 1968 marked the beginning of Beroe's golden age. During the summer transfer period, the forward
Petko Petkov joined the club. In the next 12 years he scored 144 goals for the club in
A Group. Beroe became all-powerful, winning the
Balkans Cup in 1968 (beating in the final
Spartak Sofia with a 6–4 on aggregate) and 1969 (beating
Dinamo Tirana with a 4–0 on aggregate). However in 1970 the team was relegated after being excluded from the championship after 18 rounds due to crowd trouble in the match with Levski. Bouncing back after a year, season 1971–72 in the domestic league was very successful for the team, which finished 3rd, and qualified for the
UEFA Cup. The club's first participation in
UEFA Cup was also promising, with Beroe eliminating the Austrian
Austria Wien (7–0 and 3–1) and the Hungarian
Honvéd (3–0 and 0–1) respectively and reaching the third round (but being knocked out by the Yugoslav
OFK Beograd). In season 1973–74 Beroe reach the quarter-finals of the
Cup Winners' Cup: after eliminating the Luxembourg
Fola Esch and the Basques of
Athletic Bilbao, they were stopped in DDR by
1. FC Magdeburg (2–0 and 1–1). Beroe have had some success in Europe, such as the 1–0 win over
Juventus in a
Cup Winners' Cup first-leg in 1979 and a 3–0 win over
Athletic Bilbao in 1973. Moreover, Beroe is one of the two
Bulgarian football clubs that has a positive record of the matches played in European club competitions.
Champions 1980–1995 In 1982 and 1984 Beroe won the
Balkans Cup for the third and fourth times. In
1986, the team led by the coach
Evgeni Yanchovski won the
Bulgarian title, the first in the club's history. Beroe finished the season with 43 points (after 20 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses). Beroe played in the
1986–87 UEFA European Champions Cup where they were eliminated in the first round to
Dynamo Kyiv of the
Soviet Union after 1–1 at
Beroe Stadium and 0–2 loss in
Kyiv. The 1990s would see a gradual decline as Beroe were relegated to
B Group in season
1994–95, finishing in last place with twelve points.
Downfall of the mid 90s, ups and downs again 1995–2008 The advent of democracy in
Bulgaria ushered a new period of chaos and economical hardship for the country, and that didn't pass by Beroe. Nevertheless, despite several seasons of crisis the club again withstood the test of time, and despite needing a helpful merger with another team – Olimpik (Teteven) – remained a key player on the
Bulgarian football scene. The first two seasons back in top division saw Beroe fight relegation, with safety being achieved by second-half runs. In 2001–02 season the team again relegated. In the autumn of 2007 the actual majority shareholder of Professional Football Club Beroe JSCo Nikolay Banev gave up the financial support of the team. In spite of that, the team demonstrated good football in most of the games. On 10 January 2008 23 players and 3 coaches terminated their contracts with the club after a planned sale of the shares had failed. Beroe got out of trouble on 3 February 2008, when the Beroe veterans’ club and the national fanclub, assisted by lawyer Damian Georgiev initiated, through related firms, insolvency proceedings in respect of the club in the Regional Court of
Stara Zagora. The appointed administrator Elka Petrova transferred all the assets and liabilities of the club to a newly established joint-stock company Professional Football Club Beroe Stara Zagora JSCo. The new entity succeeded Professional Football Club Beroe JSCo as regard of the license, the membership in the
Bulgarian Football Union and the running of the football team itself. In the summer of 2009 due to the world economic crisis most of the shareholders left the club due to financial problems. The club's main sponsor Brikel JSCo transferred its shares to Beroe veterans’ club and the national fanclub, who appointed a new board of directors. It consists of Damyan Georgiev – Chairman, Genyo Petrov – Executive Director and Tsvetelin Zhoevski.
Winning the Cup 2009–10 and 2012–13 In the 2007–08 season Beroe lost their place in
A Group, due to a controversial match between
Belasitsa Petrich and
Marek Dupnitsa in the last round of the season. In the very next season, however, Beroe won first place in
B Group and returned to the top flight. At that time
Ilian Iliev had already been manager of the club for the last 2 years. In the year to follow, Beroe achieved its best season in over 20 years, beating all of the main competitors for the
Bulgarian Cup. Beroe eliminated
CSKA Sofia in the quarter-finals, which paved the way for them to obtain the trophy, winning against second-division
Chernomorets Pomorie 1–0 in the final at
Lovech Stadium. The winning goal was scored dramatically in the last seconds of the added time by Beroe's former youth player
Doncho Atanasov, who also went on to become top goalscorer of the tournament with 4 goals. Beroe became one of the only two Bulgarian teams that have won the
cup without succeeding any goals. This success led to
Ilian Iliev being awarded with the Coach of the Season award, as well as
Ivo Ivanov (defender) being proclaimed best defender in
A Group for 2009. Besides him other players that played a main role throughout the season were
Iskren Pisarov,
Georgi Andonov,
Zdravko Iliev,
Slavi Zhekov,
Dian Genchev. One of the players with most matches in
A Group for all times
Kostadin Vidolov ended up his career mid-season with Beroe and went on to become a coach for Beroe's second team. Beroe started 2010–11 season with the debut of the team in the
UEFA Europa League. Beroe entered the competition in the third qualifying round and faced the Austrian side
Rapid Wien. The game in Bulgaria ended in a 1–1 draw.
Rapid Wien won the rematch with 3–0 putting an end to the international campaign of the Bulgarian team. Beroe started 2012–13 season in
Bulgarian Cup eliminating
Akademik Svishtov in the second round. In the quarter-finals Beroe eliminated
Lokomotiv (Mezdra) with aggregate result of 8–1, and then
Pirin (Gotse Delchev) in the quarter-finals and
Slavia Sofia in the semi-finals. In the final match at
Lovech Stadium in
Lovech against
Levski Sofia, the result after 90 minutes was 3–3. After Beroe had taken the lead with 3–1 in the 80th minute,
Levski Sofia with 10 men restored the tie, after
Hristo Yovov received a second yellow card in the end of the first half. At the penalty shoot-out
Levski Sofia scored just 1 from 4 penalties and Beroe, 3 of 5 which meant that Beroe had won the
cup for the second time in the club's history.
CRD Sport takeover In the summer of 2023, American player agency CRD Sport is the new owner of Bulgarian top tier club Beroe Stara Zagora. CRD has acquired 100% of the club’s shares. This came after several years of financial problems at the club.
Argentinian Gustavo Aragolaza was announced as the new coach for the
2023–24 season. ==Shirt sponsors and manufacturers==