PFK CSKA SofiaPFC CSKA Sofia is the most decorated club in Bulgarian football history, with a record 31 national championships and 22 Bulgarian Cups. Officially founded on 5 May 1948 as a sports institution of the Bulgarian army, the club's roots trace back to an officers' sports club established in 1923. Playing under a succession of military-linked names, including CDNA and CSKA Cherveno Zname, the club dominated Bulgarian football through the second half of the twentieth century, winning nine consecutive league titles between 1954 and 1962 alone.
On the European stage, CSKA reached the semi-finals of the European Cup on two occasions, in 1966/67 against Inter Milan and in 1981/82 against Bayern Munich, as well as the semi-finals of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1988/89, where they were eliminated by Barcelona. Along the way, CSKA recorded some of the most celebrated results in Bulgarian football history, including victories over Juventus in 1960/61, Ajax in 1973/74, Nottingham Forest in 1980/81 and Liverpool in 1981/82.
The club's fortunes changed dramatically in the 2010s. Mounting debts led to relegation to the third tier in 2015, and although CSKA won the Bulgarian Cup that same season as a third-division side, the original legal entity was declared bankrupt in September 2016. In the aftermath, businessman Grisha Ganchev, who had taken over the club a year earlier, restructured its operations around PFC Litex Lovech, a club he had long owned in the town of Lovech. The Litex company was renamed PFC CSKA-Sofia and used its existing top-flight licence to enter the First League directly, while the historic CSKA brand and honours were formally attached to the new entity.
The reorganisation divided the club's supporters. A group of fans rejected the process and, in July 2016, founded a separate club, FC CSKA 1948, which began life in the lowest tiers of Bulgarian football before working its way back up to the First League. The dispute over which club represents CSKA's true legacy remains a sensitive subject in Bulgarian football to this day, although UEFA and the Bulgarian Football Union recognise the reorganised PFC CSKA Sofia as the historical club's continuation.
Known to their supporters as Armeytsite ("The Army Men"), CSKA play in red and white and remain one of the best-supported clubs in the country. Their traditional home, the Bulgarian Army Stadium, built in 1967, is closely tied to the club's identity, even as CSKA have at times had to play elsewhere while the venue has undergone reconstruction.
