the second leg 2-0 at the San Siro stadium, eliminating Akademik. During this successful period in the club’s history, two players from Akademik were selected to play for the Bulgarian national squad at a FIFA World Cup: Ivan Dimitrov for 1970 and Mladen Vasilev in 1974. The glorious period for the Students ended when the club was relegated at the end of the 1978–79 season. Akademik won just six games in the campaign and this put them in last place. In the next season, the team won promotion back to the top division, scoring 100 goals in the B Group campaign. In 1981, the Students qualified for second time for the UEFA Cup, where they lost 1–3 on aggregate in the first round against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. In the same 1981–82 season, Akademik did not perform well in the league and was relegated once more. From 1982 to 2010, Akademik spent their longest ever period out of the top division. After 28 years in the lowers divisions of Bulgarian football, in 2009–10 Akademik finished 2nd in B Group and the club managed to participate in the play-off for promotion in the A PFG. On May 23, 2010, Akademik managed to win the play-off against Nesebar with a result of 2:1 and finally qualified again for the top division. During the summer of 2010, Akademik announced that the team would play their home games at the Slavia Stadium, home of Slavia Sofia, instead of their usual stadium, Akademik Stadium. This was because Akademik Stadium did not obtain approval from the BFU. The return to the elite proved to be difficult for the Students. Akademik won only 5 games, and drew 5 more, out of 30 games in total. This only earned the team 20 points, which was 5 points below PFC Vidima-Rakovski Sevlievo, who qualified for the relegation playoffs. Despite the bad results, Akademik was above the relegation zone up until round 25 of the season. The biggest highlight for Akademik was probably when the team managed to draw 1-1 against CSKA, the most decorated team in Bulgarian football. However, Akademik was eventually relegated from the A Group at the end of the season after finishing in 15th place. The team finished 7th in the 2011–12 B Group, meaning they were relegated to the V AFG. However, the team decided not to play the following season, citing financial problems as the