Ludogorets, the name of the Bulgarian champions, is an anagram of ‘good result’.
It is fitting for a club who have won 14 successive league titles — a record for a men’s professional football club, and just one shy of the sport’s longest successive run of national titles (set by Tafea from the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu in 2009).
Ludogorets have won the Bulgarian First League in each season since their promotion to the top tier in 2011. The club’s 2025 title surpassed the runs of Norway’s Rosenborg, BATE Borisov of Belarus and Al-Faisaly SC of Jordan, equalling the European records of Skonto, a Latvian club who were dissolved in 2016, and Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar.
This season, however, is likely to bring an end to world football’s longest domestic hegemony. Ludogorets are 12 points behind leaders Levski Sofia, with 13 league matches remaining. The two sides play each other on Thursday.
Who are Ludogorets?
Ludogorets players celebrate winning the Bulgarian Cup in 2025 (Daniel Yovkov/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Ludogorets are from the Bulgarian city of Razgrad in the Ludogorie region. With a population under 34,000, it is not among the Eastern European country’s 30 largest towns. By contrast, the capital Sofia — 220 miles to the west (350km) — has more than 35 times that number of residents.
Historically, Bulgarian football has been dominated by its capital, with 69 titles between Sofia’s clubs. Levski are aiming for their 27th title and a first since 2009. Named after Vasil Levski — leader of the Bulgarian independence movement from Ottoman rule — they became the club of Bulgaria’s police during the nation’s membership of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc for much of the 20th century.
CSKA Sofia, formed in 1948, are Bulgaria’s most successful club. However, the most recent of their 31 league titles came in 2008. As with their Russian namesake CSKA Moscow, they represented the nation’s army during the Cold War period (CSKA is an abbreviation for Central Sports Club of the Army).
CSKA, who reached the European Cup semi-finals (the predecessor of the Champions League) in 1967 and 1982, were declared bankrupt in 2016. Consequently, two clubs emerged who both laid claim to being their true successors: Professional Football Club CSKA Sofia, who bought the CSKA Sofia brand rights in 2018, and a splinter club, CSKA 1948. At the time of publication, both CSKAs are in the top four of the Bulgarian league table.
The rise of Ludogorets coincided with the club’s purchase by industrialist Kiril Domuschiev. He and his brother Georgi are the only Bulgarians included on the Forbes rich list for 2025, with a real-time net worth of $2.9billion (£2.16bn).
Domuschiev, with a background in pharmaceuticals, funded the club’s 10,000-capacity Huvepharma Arena and new training complex. The club, previously known as Antibiotic-Ludogorets due to the prominent pharmaceutical manufacturer based in Razgrad, are debt-free and enjoy facilities and modernity unmatched in Bulgarian football.
However, the average Ludogorets attendance hovers around 900 — less than half of the league’s 2,000-per-game average, according to Transfermarkt. Levski Sofia’s recorded average of 8,400 is the highest in the division.
What do fans think?
“We are the most hated club in Bulgaria,” Ludogorets goalkeeper Sergio Padt said in December 2024 before his side’s 2-2 draw against AZ of the Netherlands in the Europa League. It is common in sport for success to breed contempt, but has this been the case in Bulgarian football?
“At the start, Ludogorets was perceived as a breath of fresh air,” says journalist and Bulgarian football author Teodor Borisov. “Now, a significant number of fans want that dominance to end.” Feelings in Bulgaria are, however, conflicted. “CSKA fans are not so enthusiastic,” Borisov adds.
Fellow Bulgarian journalist Kai E Iliev compares the perception of Ludogorets with that of RB Leipzig in Germany. “Many fans view Ludogorets as a commercialised version of football that they do not like or accept. The club does not have many fans, or an ultras group like CSKA and Levski. For this reason, there is a lack of strong emotions from other clubs.”
Borisov believes Ludogorets’ small level of support means there is less noise around the club. “There is less pressure because of this.”
For Ludogorets fan Emil Popov, the club have put Razgrad on the map. “Not just in Europe, but for many Bulgarians,” he says. “Ludogorets is run the right way. We are sustainable financially, we have invested in areas that other clubs do not. There is jealousy of what Ludogorets has achieved.”
Ludogorets twice reached the Champions League group stage under the competition’s former format, most recently in 2016, when they drew 2-2 at Paris Saint-Germain and went two goals up at home against Arsenal before losing 3-2. This season, they finished 22nd in the 36-team Europa League table then were eliminated in the knockout phase play-off round last month by Hungarian club Ferencvaros, losing 3-2 on aggregate after a 2-1 home win in the first leg.
“Most Bulgarian clubs live month-to-month financially and have no long-term strategy,” football historian Borisov says. “Ludogorets invest wisely, but European money is also very important. At the start, the club played their European matches (at the 43,000-capacity national stadium) in Sofia and there was a lot of goodwill for a Bulgarian team. Now, it is not the same, especially now it plays its games in Razgrad.”
Iliev says that due to their domestic dominance, Ludogorets have increasingly prioritised European progress. “Their strategy in recent years has revolved around European success,” he adds. “Fans of other teams are conflicted, and many are indifferent. In part, Ludogorets’ successes reinforce their domestic dominance, but it also works in the interest of other clubs.”
Ludogorets’ success in Europe not only increases the coefficient for the Bulgarian league (a higher coefficient can lead to more places for the country’s teams in the three continental competitions), but also solidarity payments from UEFA, the European game’s governing body, are distributed to domestic clubs proportionate to the success of its top sides.
“Ludogorets have earned revenue through Europe that is life-changing for a Bulgarian club,” explains Eric Iskrenov, editor with Bulgaria’s Nova Broadcasting Group. “In 2016-17, Ludogorets earned around €8million (£7m, $9.3m) solely through participating. This is a greater amount than the entire squad value of all Bulgarian clubs, bar CSKA and Levski.”
Have Ludogorets been good or bad for Bulgarian football?
Bulgarian football has not been thriving in recent decades. The national team have reached seven World Cups, including a semi-final appearance in 1994, but have not been part of a major finals since the 2004 European Championship, despite the Euros being expanded from 16 to 24 nations for the 2016 edition and the World Cup going up from 32 to 48 for this year’s tournament.
Football’s popularity in Bulgaria was historically significant. In 1971, after Levski and Bulgaria team-mates Georgi Asparuhov and Nikola Kotkov died in a car crash, a reported 550,000 attended the funeral in Sofia.
Bulgaria’s team in the 1990s were led by Barcelona forward Hristo Stoichkov, and subsequent squads had multiple top-level players, notably Dimitar Berbatov, Martin Petrov and Stiliyan Petrov. Fewer elite players have emerged in recent years, with Ilia Gruev of Leeds United the highest-profile of this generation.
Hristo Stoichkov was one of the stars of the 1994 World Cup in the United States (Bob Daemmrich/AFP via Getty Images)
Bulgaria’s decline is evident in FIFA’s world rankings. In June 1995, they were eighth. They are now 87th, having finished bottom of a World Cup qualifying group that also contained Spain, Turkey and Georgia; while winning only one of their six games (2-1 at home against Georgia) and ending with a -16 goal difference.
“Most Bulgarians believe the Ludogorets dominance has been critically bad for the development of the nation’s football, but it is more complicated,” Iskrenov says. “They sign many non-Bulgarians, who play a season or two and leave. They do not contribute to the league’s quality. These players are too good for the domestic league, but not good enough for true European success.
“But this ignores the basic points of the lack of money and infrastructure, and the issue of competency at other clubs.”
Will Ludogorets re-establish their dominance?
Skonto won all 14 Latvian league titles between 1991 and 2004, but the Riga-based club won just one more, in 2010, before being declared bankrupt in 2016. In Belarus, Borisov’s BATE have not won the league since their 13th successive title in 2018. That year was also the most recent Norwegian championship for Rosenborg, who had previously also won 13 in a row.
In Gibraltar, however, Europa FC’s title in 2017 has been the only completed season since 2003 that Lincoln Red Imps did not lift the trophy.
“Ludogorets are sustainable, even if Domuschiev pulls the plug on his investment,” says Iskrenov. “It is set for at least another five years. Besides, it is highly unlikely the owner will walk away. He has his own image to think about, and how this may impact his pharmaceutical empire.”
Ludogorets’ struggles this season have stemmed from injuries and individual form — Ivaylo Chochev is the only player to feature in at least 22 league games (23) and score more than six goals (12) — while Levski have thrived under Spanish coach Julio Velazquez.
For Ludogorets fan Popov, the titles “never stop being enjoyable”. He is, however, coming to terms with missing a world-record 15th successive crown: “What I have experienced this century, I would never have believed. One title would have been incredible, but 14? If we miss out this year, it will restore our hunger for more. The record can wait.”