FK Pelister

FK Pelister
ФК Пeлистер
Full name	Fudbalski klub Pelister (Фудбалски клуб Пелистер)
Nickname(s)	Чкембари (The Green-Whites)
Short name	Pelister, PEL, FKP
Founded	1945; 79 years ago
Ground	Petar Miloševski Stadium
Capacity	10,000
Owner	Municipality of Bitola
Chairman	Mitko Stojkovski
Head coach	Vlatko Kostov
League	Macedonian First League
2023–24	Macedonian Second League, 2nd (promoted)
Website	Club website
Home colours	Away colours

FK Pelister (Macedonian: ФК Пелистер) is a professional football club based in the city of Bitola, North Macedonia. They are currently competing in the Macedonian First League.

History

FK Pelister was originally formed in 1945. In 1946, they won the Bitola regional title and that same year they merged with Rabotnik. The club won the Bitola title once again in 1950 and 1951. 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 Yugoslavia and were champions of the Macedonian Republic League on four occasions, 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 (that 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 club played 350 matches and had an overall record of 143 wins, 69 draws and 138 losses in the Yugoslav Second League. 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 champion 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 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 the following season, the club won the 2016–17 Macedonian Cup for the second time and ended up playing in the Europa League, which was the first participation in a European competition since 2008. Unfortunately, this was not an end to the turbulent period for the club, since they were relegated for the fourth time the following season. The problems went deeper as players and board left the club, while facing more financial problems. Despite all that, they still made the final of the 2017–18 Macedonian Football Cup.

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 at various clubs in Macedonia and abroad.^[5]

Colours and crest

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.

Prior to the 2016 season, Australian club Pascoe Vale FC (Formerly Pascoe Vale Pelister) announced they would adopt a new logo, inspired by that of FK Pelister, to tie back to their original namesake and immigrant origins.

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 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. The other significant rival are FK Pobeda in what is known as the Pelagonia derby. It’s a derby between the two best clubs from two cities with fierce rivalry, Bitola and Prilep, both located in the ancient Macedonian province of Pelagonia.^[6]

Honours

Mitko Stojkovski with the 2001 Macedonian Cup

Macedonian Republic League
- Winners (7): 1949–50, 1950–51, 1956–57, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1974–75 and 1981–82
Macedonian Second League
- Winners (2): 2005–06 and 2011–12
Macedonian Republic Cup
- Winners (4): 1958–59, 1961–62, 1984–85 and 1990–91
Macedonian Football Cup
- Winners (2): 2000–01 and 2016–17
- Runners-up (3): 1992–93, 1993–94 and 2017–18

Recent seasons

Season	League									Cup	European competitions		Top goalscorer
Season	Division	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Pos	Cup	European competitions		Player	Goals
1992–93	1. MFL	34	14	8	12	47	36	36	4th	RU
1993–94	1. MFL	30	14	8	8	49	31	36	4th	RU
1994–95	1. MFL	30	15	6	9	57	40	51	5th
1995–96	1. MFL	28	13	4	11	51	40	43	5th	SF
1996–97	1. MFL	26	9	6	11	36	35	33	9th	R2			Vancho Micevski	12
1997–98	1. MFL	25	10	7	8	31	24	37	6th				Fernando Jefferson	10
1998–99	1. MFL	26	7	8	11	30	50	29	10th	R2
1999–00	1. MFL	26	14	5	7	48	30	47	4th	SF			Toni Micevski	11
2000–01	1. MFL	26	10	4	12	41	38	34	8th	W	Intertoto Cup	R3	Vancho Micevski	12
2001–02	1. MFL	20	8	3	9	37	35	27	10th	R2	UEFA Cup	QR	Vancho Micevski	19
2002–03	1. MFL	33	7	7	19	30	60	28	11th ↓	R2			Igor Momirovski	8
2003–04	2. MFL	32	16	4	12	48	42	52	6th	R2
2004–05	2. MFL	33	12	7	14	40	43	43	6th	PR
2005–06	2. MFL	33	19	4	7	52	22	61	1st ↑	PR
2006–07	1. MFL	33	14	3	16	37	32	45	6th	SF			Blagojche Glavevski	7
2007–08	1. MFL	32	17	7	9	42	27	58	3rd	R2			Blagojche Glavevski	8
2008–09	1. MFL	30	7	7	16	25	42	28	10th	QF	UEFA Cup	QR1	Dragan Dimitrovski	9
2009–10	1. MFL	26	11	6	9	28	27	39	4th	SF			Dragan Dimitrovski	9
2010–11	1. MFL	33	5	3	25	25	82	18	12th ↓	R2			Igor Talevski	5
2011–12	2. MFL	30	19	4	7	42	23	61	1st ↑	R2
2012–13	1. MFL	33	9	10	14	27	36	37	10th	QF			Blagojche Glavevski	6
2013–14	1. MFL	33	14	10	9	40	40	52	6th	QF			Dimitar Vodenicharov	10
2014–15	1. MFL	33	7	9	17	21	35	30	9th ↓	R2			Boško Stupić	6
2015–16	2. MFL	27	9	12	6	33	32	39	3rd ↑	R2			Blagojche Glavevski	6
2016–17	1. MFL	36	14	10	12	44	35	52	4th	W			Lucas Cardoso	11
2017–18	1. MFL	36	8	10	18	37	68	34	10th ↓	RU	Europa League	QR1	Ive Trifunovski	7
2018–19	2. MFL	27	11	8	8	27	20	41	3rd	R2			Blagojche Glavevski	10
2019–20¹	2. MFL West	16	10	3	3	32	14	33	1st ↑	N/A			Blagojche Glavevski	6
2020–21	1. MFL	33	12	9	12	38	48	45	6th	R2			Borche Manevski	7
2021–22	1. MFL	33	2	8	23	16	54	14	12th ↓	SF			Petar Ljamchevski	3
2022–23	2. MFL	30	17	7	6	64	26	58	4th	R2			Borche Manevski	15
2023–24	2. MFL	30	22	4	4	57	17	70	2nd ↑	R2			Simeon Hristov Bojan Spirkoski	12

¹The 2019–20 season was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia.^[7]

Pelister in Europe

^[8]

Results

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2000	UEFA Intertoto Cup	R1	Hobscheid	3–1	1–0	4–1
		R2	Västra Frölunda	3–1	0–0	3–1
		R3	Celta de Vigo	1–2	0–3	1–5
2001–02	UEFA Cup	QR	St. Gallen	0–2	3–2	3–4
2008–09	UEFA Cup	QR1	APOEL	0–0	0–1	0–1
2017–18	UEFA Europa League	QR1	Lech Poznań	0–3	0–4	0–7

UEFA club competition record

Competition	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
UEFA Champions League	0	0	0	0	0	0
UEFA Europa League	2	0	0	2	0	7
UEFA Cup	4	1	1	2	3	5
UEFA Intertoto Cup	6	3	1	2	8	7
Total	12	4	2	6	11	19

Club rankings

UEFA club coefficient ranking

(As of 25 September 2021)^[9]

Rank	Team	Points
412	Mosta FC	1.000
412	FC Dila Gori	1.000
416	Sirens FC	1.000
417	FK Makedonija	1.000
417	Akademija Pandev	1.000
419	FK Pelister	0.250

Club records in UEFA competitions

Biggest Win in UEFA Competition: 17/06/2000, Pelister 3–1 Hobscheid, at Bitola
Biggest Defeat in UEFA Competition: 30/06/2017, Lech Poznań 4–0 Pelister, at Poznań
Club Appearances in UEFA Competition: 4
Player with Most UEFA Appearances: Mile Dimov – 9 appearances
Top Scorer in UEFA Club Competitions: Ilir Elmazovski and Martin Georgievski – 3 goals

Players

Current squad

As of 11 July 2024

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
1	GK	MKD	Andrej Jovchevski
2	DF	MKD	Stefan Ivanovski
4	MF	MKD	Gabriel Krstevski
5	DF	MKD	Stefan Kostov
6	DF	MKD	Hristijan Grozdanoski
7	DF	MKD	Blagoja Ljamchevski
11	FW	MKD	Boban Zdravevski
12	GK	MKD	Ilche Petrovski
13	MF	MKD	Andrej Siljanoski
18	DF	MKD	Hristijan Stojanovski
19	FW	MKD	Mihail Talevski
20	MF	MKD	Jovancho Trajkovski


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
21	MF	MKD	Vildan Kerim
24	MF	MKD	Jordancho Naumoski
34	DF	MKD	Filip Milenkovski
35	FW	MKD	David Josheski
44	FW	MKD	Mirko Ivanovski
90	GK	MKD	Nataniel Dimovski
—	DF	MKD	Daniel Karcheski
—	DF	MKD	Aleksandar Ristevski
—	MF	MKD	Viktor Serafimovski
—	MF	MKD	Filip Todoroski
—	FW	MKD	Damjan Masevski

Club officials

As of 10 August 2023^[10]

Position	Staff
President	Mitko Stojkovski
Sporting Director	Vančo Micevski
General Secretary	Bruno Presilski
Executive Director	Blagica Talevska
Econom	Goce Stavrevski
Head Coach	Vlatko Kostov
Assistant Coach	Vangel Altiparmakovski
Conditioning Coach	Saše Veljanvoski
Goalkeeping Coach	Goran Pašovski