FC Arda Kardzhali

Arda Kardzhali
Full nameПрофесионален Футболен Клуб Арда 1924 Кърджали (Professional Football Club Arda 1924 Kardzhali)
Nickname(s)Сините от Кърджали (The blue ones from Kardzhali)
Господарите на Родопите (The Lords of the Rhodopes)[1]
Short nameАрда (Arda)
FoundedAugust 10, 1924; 100 years ago (1924-08-10) (as Rodopski Sokol)
GroundArena Arda, Kardzhali
Capacity12,000
Head coachAleksandar Tunchev
LeagueFirst League
2023–24First League, 8th of 16
WebsiteClub website
Current season

FC Arda 1924 Kardzhali (Bulgarian: ПФК Арда Кърджали) is a Bulgarian professional football club based in Kardzhali that competes in First League, the top tier of the Bulgarian football league system.

It was founded on 13 October 1924, as an association football branch of a larger sports society in the town. The club was reestablished in 2015, after its former entity was dissolved.

Named after the Arda river, a tributary of the Maritsa, Arda's home ground is the Arena Arda in Kardzhali, which has a capacity of 15,000 spectators. For the majority of its existence, the club regularly participated in the Second League, with its highest-ever ranking a second-place finish during the 1955–56 Bulgarian Second League. In the Bulgarian Cup, Arda have reached the finals once, in 2021, losing to CSKA Sofia.

In 2018–19, Arda won the Second League promotion play-off against Septemvri Sofia, resulting in the club's first-ever appearance in the Bulgarian top division.

  1. ^ "Феновете в Кърджали: Ние сме Арда - господари на Родопите" (in Bulgarian). 30 October 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2024.