FK Pelister

FK Pelister was formed in 1924, first under the name "Omladina", which was later changed to "Pelister", and later to "SK Bitola".SK Bitola became champion in 1926. The club reappeared under the old name "Pelister" after the liberation in 1945, and already in 1946 it became the champion of the Bitola physical education district.Which was first part of 1945-46 Macedonian Republic League . They've finished 3 Rd in the playoffs .The same year, the club merged with "FK Rabotnik", but kept the name Pelister. The club from Bitola won the title once again in 1949–50 Macedonian Republic League and 1950–51 Macedonian Republic League. 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. Georgi Hristov, Dragi Kanatlarovski, Toni Micevski, Nikolče Noveski, Toni Savevski and Mitko Stojkovski are some of the notable Bitola natives to start their careers with the club. Therefore, Pelister is known as the nursery of young and talented players from various clubs in Macedonia and abroad.^[5]

Petar Miloševski stadium has a current capacity of 8,587 seats. The newly built north stand has 4,584 seats, while the renovated south stand has 4,003 seats. The next construction phase will have a running track installed for athletics.^[6]

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.

Čkembari (Macedonian: Чкембари) are a supporters' group, established on 25 September 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 when a caravan of 15 buses traveled to support RK Pelister who was playing against Partizan Bjelovar in a handball relegation play-off match.^[7][8][9]

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.^[10]

• Macedonian Republic League
  • Winners (8): 1926, 1950, 1951,1957, 1960, 1961, 1975 and 1982
• 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

¹The 2019–20 season was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia.^[11]

^[12]

Results

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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

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Club rankings

More information Rank, Team ...

UEFA club coefficient ranking (As of 25 September 2021)[13] 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

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