Contested by 16 teams, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Second Professional Football League.

Additionally, two UEFA Europa Conference League spots are allocated to the second team in the final standings and the winner of the European playoffs.

A total of 75 clubs have competed in the Bulgarian top-tier since its establishment, with FC Krumovgrad being the newest member of the top tier, after promotion in 2023.

The six inaugural teams were Vladislav Varna, Orel Vratsa, Levski Sofia, Krakra Pernik, Pobeda Plovdiv and Chernomorets Burgas, each having won and representing its regional sports federation, called sportna federatsiya.

The championship was abandoned, because of a dispute between Vladislav and Levski over the replay of the final game.

The ten teams participating in the league were Levski, Septemvri, Lokomotiv, Slavia and Spartak from the capital city Sofia, and Botev Varna, Botev Burgas, Slavia Plovdiv, Marek Stanke Dimitrov, Benkovski in a spring-autumn cycle like in the Soviet Union.

Despite the fact that the teams had played just 1 match, CDNA was crowned as the champion of Bulgaria.

[citation needed] The frequent changes in the number of teams in A Group continued in the 1960s.

The most-famous are between CSKA Red Flag and Septemvri Sofia in CSKA September Flag, the capital teams Levski and Spartak in Levski-Spartak, Lokomotiv and Slavia in Slavia, the Plovdiv teams Botev, Spartak and Academic in Trakiya.

The Premier Professional Football League, created in the autumn of 2000, had 14 teams participating in it.

In the following season Levski Sofia won their last A Group title, finishing one point ahead of CSKA.

The Bulgarian Football Union made some changes in the format of A Group prior to season 2013–14 with the reduction of the number of the teams participating in the top league from 16 to 14 and the reintroduction of the two phase league with a regular season and a playoff/play out phase.

Both teams had accumulated debts and did not have the financial resources to pay them, so the BFU decided to take away their professional licenses.

[citation needed] For the 2015–16 season, the BFU decided to further decrease the number of teams competing, this time to just 10, with a quadruple round robin format introduced, a format used in the Croatian First Football League and Albanian Kategoria Superiore.

The winner of the top group is declared as Champions of Bulgaria and is awarded with the title.

Three matches are played in every fixture of the top six, with the results and points after the regular season also included.

The team that ranks second is awarded with a place in the UEFA Europa League qualifying rounds.

Note: If the Bulgarian Cup winner has secured its qualification for the European tournaments for the next season through results from Parva Liga, then the place in the UEFA Europa League play-off is awarded to the fourth ranked team in the final standings.

Notes: The all-time Parva Liga table[7] is an overall record of all match results, points and goals for each team that has participated in the league since its inception in 1948.

[update] In order to put the teams on equal terms, 3 points are awarded for a win and 1 for a tie, although the regulation of the various championships was different.

Canceled matches, as well as playoffs for promotion/remaining or participation in European tournaments, are not taken into account and are not included in the assets of the clubs.

Finally after the first set of fixtures, the satellite broadcaster Bulsatcom with its channel TV+ bought the rights, along with BNT.

The following is a table of all current Parva Liga head coaches and managers, and the time they've spent working with their respective clubs.