FK Pelister

FK Pelister

Full name	Football club Pelister Bitola
Nickname(s)	Зелено-Бели (The Green & Whites)
Founded	1945 (1945)
Ground	Stadion Tumbe Kafe
Ground Capacity	8,000
Owner	Orce Kamchev
Chairman	Blagoja Kochevski-Blashko
Manager	Naci Şensoy
League	Macedonian First League
2015–16	Macedonian Second League, 3rd (promoted)
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

FK Pelister (Macedonian: ФК Пeлистер) is a football club based in the city of Bitola, Republic of Macedonia. They currently play in the Macedonian First League. The club is named after a mountain peak Pelister and despite bad position in the Macedonian football and the lack of trophies (only trophy is a Macedonian Football Cup in the 2000–01 season) is a one of the most popular club in the Republic of Macedonia. Their club colors are green and white and the club plays at the Stadion Tumbe Kafe which has a capacity of 8,000 seats.

History

FK Pelister, was formed in 1945. In 1946 they won the Bitola regional title and that same year they merged with Rabotnik. They won the Bitola title in 1950 and 1951 again. During that time the most influential players were: Georgievski, Dimitrovski, Petrovski, Naumovski, Lazarevski, Sekerdžievski, Avramovski, Nestorov and Eftimovski.

The team played primarily in the lower divisions of the former SFR Yugoslavia and were champions of the Macedonian Republic League four times, along with winning the Macedonian Republic Cup four times in 1959, 1962, 1985 and 1991. They earned promotion to the Yugoslav Second League Group East, which included clubs from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, for the first time in 1974, which was a big success for that generation. Some of the most famous players at the time were: Grbevski, Dukovski, Cvetkovski, Taškov, Bogoevski, Gočevski, Ristevski, Tristovski, Mickovski, Dimovski, Markovski, Upalevski and the manager Stavre Eftimovski. Soon after, they were relegated but made another comeback in 1982 with Mitko Butlevski as chairman and Ivan Čabrinović as manager. The biggest success came in the 1990–91 Yugoslav Cup when they reached the 1/8 final, getting eliminated on away goals by the eventual champions Hajduk Split. Pelister played their final season in the Yugoslav league system in the 1991–92 Yugoslav First League finishing in 15th place.

Following the formation of the First Macedonian Football League, Pelister had early success consistently finishing in the Top 5.^[1] They also made it to the Macedonian Cup final the first two seasons coming up short both times. The club became rivals with Vardar Skopje which created the Eternal derby of Macedonia and continued the Pelagonia regional derby with Pobeda Prilep. In 2000, Pelister became the first team in independent Macedonia to reach the third phase of a European competition. They made it to round three of the 2000 UEFA Intertoto Cup, losing 1–5 on aggregate to one of the winners Celta de Vigo. Finally, the club earned its first major trophy in 2001 by winning the 2000–01 Macedonian Cup, after which they played in the UEFA Cup.^[2] In 2003, the team fell on hard times caused by financial problems and was relegated. A few years later, former players Mitko Stojkovski and Toni Micevski were able to save the club from collapse. After taking over the club they brought instant success with the team winning the 2005–06 Macedonian Second League title. The following year they made a successful comeback to the Macedonian First League and got to the 2006–07 Macedonian Cup semifinal. In the 2007–08 season, the club had its best season to date finishing in 3rd place.^[3] Once again, they played in the UEFA Cup where they lost 0–1 on aggregate to APOEL. Another case of financial difficulties and poor results, once again relegated them back to second division for the 2011–12 season. This time, however, relying mostly on young players from Bitola and led by captain Dragan Dimitrovski, Pelister made an immediate return to the top division, but after the 2014–15 season, the club was once again relegated. This time it happened under the managerial leadership of Gjoko Hadžievski and new owner Cermat, represented by Zoran Ristevski.^[4] Under the ownership of Cermat and municipality of Bitola, after being relegated the team has continued to languish in the second division. But, after a following season, the club was again immediately returned to the First League, despite the relegation battle in one time.

The club focuses heavily on youth players from the Bitola region with a strong talent development. Gjorgji Hristov, Dragi Kanatlarovski, Toni Micevski, Nikolče Noveski, Toni Savevski and Mitko Stojkovski are some of the famous Bitola natives to start their careers with the club. Therefore, Pelister is known as the nursery of young and talented players who have left and gone to have success on various clubs in Macedonia and abroad.^[5]

Colours and Crest

Pelister's crest evolution

The club colours have traditionally been green and white. The crest is formed in a shape of a shield, at the top left corner it has always had the number 1945 inscribed, which is the year of the club's foundation. In the latest version it includes the Cyrillic letters FK, on the right side. Shape of a mountain forms in the backdrop (to honor the mountain peak Pelister) with the name of the club in the center and a classic leather football underneath it. Early versions of the crest included the colour black, but now the entire badge uses only two colours, green and white.

Honours

Macedonian Republic League:

• Winners (7): 1949–50, 1950–51, 1956–57, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1974–75, 1981–82

Macedonian Second League:

• Winners (2): 2005–06, 2011–12

Macedonian Republic Cup:

• Winners (4): 1959, 1962, 1985, 1991

Macedonian Football Cup:

• Winners (1): 2000–01
• Runners-up (2): 1992–93, 1993–94

Recent seasons

Key

Pelister in Europe

^[6]

Results

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2000	UEFA Intertoto Cup	First round	Hobscheid	3–1	1–0	4–1
		Second round	Västra Frölunda	3–1	0–0	3–1
		Third round	Celta de Vigo	1–2	0–3	1–5
2001–02	UEFA Cup	Qualifying round	St. Gallen	0–2	3–2	3–4
2008–09	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round	APOEL	0–0	0–1	0–1

UEFA club competition record

UEFA club coefficient ranking

As of 4 June 2013, Source: http://www.uefa.com/memberassociations/uefarankings/club/index.html

Rank	Team	Points
428	Valur	1.083
429	B36 Tórshavn	1.066
430	Víkingur Gøta	1.066
431	FK Pelister	1.050
432	USV Eschen/Mauren	0.950
433	Sillamäe Kalev	0.941
434	Fola Esch	0.925

Club records in UEFA competitions

• Biggest Win in UEFA Competition: 17/06/2000, Pelister 3–1 Hobscheid, at Bitola
• Biggest Defeat in UEFA Competition: 15/07/2000, Celta 3–0 Pelister, at Vigo
• Club Appearances in UEFA Competition: 3
• Player with Most UEFA Appearances: Mile Dimov – 9 appearances
• Top Scorer in UEFA Club Competitions: Ilir Elmazovski and Igor Momirovski – 3 goals

Current squad

As of 18 July 2016.

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Goran Pashovski (captain) 12 GK Ilche Petrovski GK Darko Atanasovski 3 DF Kristijan Toshevski 5 DF Filip Mishevski 6 DF Radenko Bojović 9 DF Filip Milenkovski 14 DF Metodija Stepanovski 16 DF Martin Kovachev 17 DF Jovan Popzlatanov 77 DF Fernando Augusto 4 MF Goce Todorovski 7 MF Bobi Bozhinovski

No. Position Player 8 MF Hristijan Denkovski 10 MF Blagojche Konjarski 13 MF Milen Vasilev 20 MF Martin Mirchevski 21 MF Riste Markoski 23 MF Petar Ljamchevski 70 MF Aleksandar Anastasov 88 MF Dimitar Iliev MF Filip Petrov 18 FW Blagojche Markovski 19 FW Lucas Ferreira Cardoso 22 FW Ive Trifunovski 99 FW Antonio Bujchevski

Former managers

Supporters

Čkembari (Macedonian: Чкембари) are an Ultras group, established in 1985, who support the Macedonian sports clubs from Bitola that compete under the Pelister banner, mainly FK Pelister in football and RK Pelister in handball. The group was originally founded in 1985 when a caravan of 15 buses traveled to support RK Pelister who was playing against Partizan Bjelovar in a handball relegation play-off match. At that time they used the name BMČM – Bitolčani, Motorcyclists, Čkembari, Macedonians (Macedonian: БМЧМ – Битолчани, Мотокари, Чкембари, Македонци) later shortened to just Čkembari. Soon after, the first green and white banners were created that read: „Hell Boys“ (Macedonian: Пеколни момци) and „Green Conquerors“ (Macedonian: Зелени освојувачи) which started organized support for Pelister at every match.

Rivalries

The club's main rival is FK Vardar from Skopje, their matches are called the Eternal derby of Macedonia. Other significant rivals are FK Pobeda (Pelagonia derby), FK Rabotnički (one of the Skopje-Bitola rivalries); and other clubs with an Albanian background (mainly FK Shkëndija, FK Shkupi and FK Renova).

References

External links

• Official website (Macedonian)
• Facebook Page (Macedonian)
• FK Pelister on Twitter
  
• Club Info at MacedonianFootball (English)
• Football Federation of Macedonia (Macedonian)

Bitola
Geography	Baba Mountain Dragor River Pelagonia Pelagonia statistical region
Landmarks	Bara Tumba Bitola Zoo Saat Kula (Clock Tower) Heraclea Lyncestis Ishak Çelebi Mosque New Mosque Magnolia Square Philip II Statue Širok Sokak Veluška Tumba
Sports	FK Pelister KK Pelister RK Bitola RK Pelister Sports Hall Mladost Tumbe Kafe Stadium Čkembari
Education	St. Clement of Ohrid University Music School "Tose Proeski"
Events	Manaki Brothers Film Festival Akto Festival Si-Do Bitolino
Transportation	Logovardi Airport
People	List of people from Bitola