Bulgaria's Oldest Football Derby Celebrates Centenary

Bulgaria's oldest still surviving football derby between the teams of Slavia and Levski celebrated its centenary on Wednesday.

The two clubs from the capital played for the first time against each other on 1 April 1915 in Sofia, daily Dnevnik reports.

The match took place at the pitch of Slavia, which was then located near the Russian Monument (Ruski Pametnik), and was won by the hosts with 1:0 after a goal scored by Todor Vladimirov early in the second half.

The match was described in detail in the memoirs of one of Slavia's founders Georgi Grigorov-Furlanata, part of which are published in the book “Slavia Chronicles” by Nikolay Krastev.

Grigorov, who was also the first Bulgarian international referee, had proposed the club uniting the former teams of Botev and Razvitie, to bear the name Slavia.

Grigorov, who participated in the historical match, revealed curious details of the game, such as the arrangement for each of the clubs to be represented by a referee.

Due to the close relationship between the teams at the time, a representative of Slavia refereed the first half of the game, while Levski was provided with this opportunity in the second half.

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