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.
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]
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 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.
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]
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Macedonian Republic League
Macedonian Second League Macedonian Republic Cup Macedonian Football Cup1The 2019–20 season was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in North Macedonia.[7]
[8]
Mile Dimov – 9 appearances Ilir Elmazovski and Martin Georgievski – 3 goalsAs of 28 August 2024
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
As of 10 August 2023[10]
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Stavre Eftimovski Ivan Čabrinović Gjoko Hadjievski (1988 – 1990) Tome Dimitrovski (1990 – 1992).svg/1280px-Flag_of_Macedonia_(1992%E2%80%931995).svg.png){kind=small}
Kire Gruevski (1992 – 1993) Zoran Smileski Ilija Dimoski Dushan Kechan (1995 – 1996) Nexhat Husein (1999) Kiril Dojchinovski (2000).svg/1280px-Flag_of_Serbia_and_Montenegro_(1992%E2%80%932006).svg.png){kind=small}
Branko Božić (2000) Spase Ristevski (2001) Blagoja Kitanovski (2001 – 2002) Perica Gruevski (2003) Marjan Sekulovski (2004 – 2007) Nexhat Husein (2007 – Nov 2008) Zlatko Cvetanovski (interim) (16 Nov 2008 - Feb 2009) Alekso Mackov (1 Mar 2009 - Sep 2009) Gjoko Ilievski (29 Sep 2009 - Oct 2009) Naum Ljamchevski (6 Oct 2009 - Sep 2010) Nexhat Husein (24 Sep 2010 – Jun 2011) Marjan Sekulovski (2011 – 2012) Mile Dimov (interim) (2012) Gorazd Mihajlov (Jul 2012 - Dec 2012) Gordan Zdravkov (11 Jan 2013 - May 2013) Mile Dimov (interim) (6 May 2013 – Jun 2013) Dragan Bocheski (Jul 2013 – Jun 2014) Marjan Sekulovski (Jul 2014 - Nov 2014) Dimitar Kapinkovski (interim) (24 Nov 2014 - Dec 2014) Gjoko Hadžievski (4 Dec 2014 – 2015) Naum Ljamchevski (Jul 2015 - Oct 2016)
Naci Şensoy (Oct 2016 – Jul 2017) Srgjan Zaharievski (19 Jul 2017 – 26 Oct 2017) Spase Ristevski (interim) (Nov 2017 – 31 Dec 2017) Marjan Sekulovski (Jan 2018 – Apr 2018) Nexhat Husein (2018) Tome Trajanovski (2018) Darko Krsteski (2018 – 2019) Zoran Shterjovski (2019-2020) Dimitar Kapinkovski (2021) Marjan Sekulovski (2022) Boban Babunski (2023) Vlatko Kostov (2023 –)