The AFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the American Football Conference and one of the two semi-final playoff games of the National Football League, the largest professional American football league in the United States. The game is played on the penultimate Sunday in January by the two remaining playoff teams, following the AFC postseason's first two rounds; the AFC champion advances to face the winner of the National Football Conference Championship Game in the Super Bowl. The game was established as part of the 1970 merger between the NFL and the American Football League, with the merged league realigning into two conferences. Since 1984, each winner of the AFC Championship Game has received the Lamar Hunt Trophy, named after the founder of both the AFL and the Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar Hunt; the first AFC Championship Game was played following the 1970 regular season after the merger between the NFL and the American Football League. The game is considered the successor to the former AFL Championship, its game results are listed with that of its predecessor in the annual NFL Record and Fact Book.

Since the pre-merger NFL consisted of six more teams than the AFL, a realignment was required as part of the merger to create two conferences with an equal number of teams: The NFL's Baltimore Colts, the Cleveland Browns, the Pittsburgh Steelers joined the ten former AFL teams to form the AFC. Every current AFC team except the Houston Texans has played in an AFC Championship Game at least once; the Seattle Seahawks, who have been members in both the AFC and the NFC, hold the distinction of appearing in both conference title games, a loss in the AFC conference title game to the Los Angeles Raiders for Super Bowl XVIII and, in their first appearance in a NFC conference title game, a win over the Carolina Panthers for Super Bowl XL. The Pittsburgh Steelers have the most appearances in the AFC Championship Game at 16, with 11 of those games being in Pittsburgh, the most for either conference; the New England Patriots have won the most AFC Championships at 11, have played in a record eight straight AFC title games.

Between Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, at least one of the three quarterbacks has been in every championship game between the 2003 and the 2018 seasons. At the end of each regular season, a series of playoff games involving the top six teams in the AFC are conducted. In the current NFL playoff structure, this consists of the four division champions and two wild card teams; the two teams remaining following the Wild Card round and the divisional round play in the AFC Championship game. The site of the game was determined on a rotating basis. Since the 1975–76 season, the site of the AFC Championship has been based on playoff seeding based on the regular season won-loss record, with the highest surviving seed hosting the game. A wild card team can only host the game if both participants are wild cards, in which case the fifth seed would host the sixth seed; such an instance has never occurred in the NFL. Beginning with the 1984–85 NFL playoffs, the winner of the AFC Championship Game has received the Lamar Hunt Trophy, named after the founder of the AFL.

The original trophy consisted of a wooden base with a sculpted AFC logo in the front and a sculpture of various football players in the back. For the 2010–11 NFL playoffs, the Lamar Hunt Trophy and the George Halas Trophy, awarded to the NFC Champion, were redesigned by Tiffany & Co. at the request of the NFL, in an attempt to make both awards more significant. The trophies are now a new, silver design with the outline of a hollow football positioned on a small base to more resemble the Vince Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Super Bowl. In recent years Conference championship rings are awarded to members of the team who wins the AFC or NFC championship since they are the winners of the conference though they may not follow it up with a win in the Super Bowl. Numbers in parentheses in the table are AFC Championships. Bold indicates. Numbers in parentheses in the city and stadium column is the number of times that metropolitan area and stadium has hosted an AFC Championship, respectively.^ a: Overtime ^ b: The Seahawks were members of the NFC in 1976 and members of the AFC from 1977 to 2001, before rejoining the NFC in 2002.

Including their appearances in the NFC Championship Game, they hold a combined 3–1 record between both Conference Championship Games.^ c: The Buccaneers were members of the AFC in 1976 before moving to the NFC in 1977.^ d: Includes appearances during their first tenure in Oakland, where they went 2–5 in AFC Championship Games. Since moving to Indianapolis in 1984, the Colts are 2–3 in AFC Championship Games^ f: Includes appearances as the Houston Oilers, where they went 0–2 in AFC Championship Games. Since moving to Tennessee in 1997, they are 1–1 in AFC Championship Games. Most victories: 11**.

East Kilbride is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's 6th largest settlement. It was designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947; the area lies on a raised plateau to the south of the Cathkin Braes, about 8 miles southeast of Glasgow and close to the boundary with East Renfrewshire. East Kilbride is twinned with the Danish city Ballerup; the town is enclosed by the White Cart Water to the west and the Rotten Calder Water to the east, the latter flowing northwards adjacent to Blantyre, before joining the River Clyde opposite Daldowie near Cambuslang. This area was the site of the small village of East Kilbride, prior to its post-war development into a New Town; the old village still is integrated with the town close to its town centre. The earliest known evidence of occupation in the area dates as far back as the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, as archaeological investigation has demonstrated that burial cairns in the district began as ceremonial or ritual sites of burial during the Neolithic, with the use of cup-marked, other inscribed stones at key elevated sites, only to be built upon with earth and re-used for burial into the Bronze Age.

These findings have found further support through ongoing research indicating that many East Kilbride Cairns first noticed by the Reverend David Ure in his History of Rutherglen and East Kilbride 1793, are embedded, alongside other monuments, into a ritual landscape related to ancestor cults and relationships with key topographical features and annual solar events. A flint arrow head was discovered by Allan Forrest, a child resident whilst groundworks were taking place in his family's garden at Glen Bervie, St Leonards in 1970, identified as dating to 1500 BC. Ancient graves have been found near the Kype Water to the south of the town near Strathaven, Roman coins and footwear have been found in the area. East Kilbride traditionally takes its name from an Irish saint named St Bride, alleged to have founded a monastery for nuns and monks in Kildare in Leinster, Ireland, in the 6th century. Dál Riatan monks afterwards introduced her order to Scotland; the anglicisation Kil takes its root from the early Celtic monastics that St. Brigit is representative of: the Culdees or Céli Dé.

The Céile Dé were'the clients or companions of God'. In modern Gaelic, Cille Bhrìghde translates as'the clients or companions of Brigit', can be interpreted as the'church of Bride' or'burial place dedicated to Bride'. Alternatively the dedication may commemorate the Scottish St Bryde, born in 451 AD and dying at Abernethy 74 years later. Culdee type Christian settlements were essential to the spread of the Celtic church in Scotland, with small pagan sites being converted and chapels or cells forming little more than crude shelters, or timber and turf buildings with crude circular enclosures; the evidence of Culdee type small-scale habitation is supported by the number of early stone cross sites around East Kilbride, their associated holy fonts and both with pre-canonisation saintly dedications. The original parish church was located on what is believed to be the site of a pre-Christian sacred area, the origin of the association with St. Brigit, since the site may be dedicated to the Celtic goddess Brigid, whose traditions have been continued through the reverence of St. Brigit brought on by the Celtic Church.

Many sites in mainland Britain associated with Saint Bridget involve early dedications to sacred wells, the number of which in East Kilbride may indicate that the chosen site for the early Christian settlement centered around a sacred spring, although such a feature has not yet been identified close to the church. East Kilbride grew from a small village of around 900 inhabitants in 1930 to become a large burgh; the rapid industrialisation of the twentieth century underpins this growth and left much of the working population throughout Scotland's Central Belt, from Glasgow to Edinburgh, living in the housing stock built at the end of the previous century. The Great War postponed any housing improvements, as did the Treaty of Versailles and the period of post-war settlement it created. In turn, this was followed by the Great Depression. After the Second World War, Glasgow suffering from chronic housing shortages, incurred bomb damage from the war. From this unlikely backdrop a new dawn emerged which would bring East Kilbride to its unlikely success.

In 1946, the Clyde Valley Regional Plan allocated sites where overspill satellite "new towns" could be constructed to help alleviate the housing shortage. Glasgow would undertake the development of its peripheral housing estates. East Kilbride was the first of six new towns in Scotland to be designated, in 1947, followed by Glenrothes, Livingston and Stonehouse, although Stonehouse new town was never built; the town has been subdivided into residential precincts, each with its own local shops, primary schools and community facilities. The housing precincts surround the shopping centre, bound by a ring road. Industrial estates are concentrated on the outskirts of the town, in northern and southern directions; the Calderglen gorge bordering the eastern fringe of East Kilbride, was celebrated in a high number of printed works as a picturesque forest and'magnificent in its grouping of craggy heights, sprinkled with trees and the richly wooded and festooned valley', with'delightful cascades', described as indescribable, or as'the GRAND, the ROMANTIC, BEAUTIFUL' - the latter being the only part of David Ure's book where he emphasised the descriptive character

Ludogorets II or Ludogorets 2 is a Bulgarian professional football team based in Razgrad. Founded in 2015, it is the reserve team of PFC Ludogorets Razgrad, plays in Second League, the second level of Bulgarian football. Obliged to play one level below their main side, Ludogorets II is ineligible for promotion to First League and can not compete in the Bulgarian Cup. In the beginning of 2015, the Bulgarian Football Union discussed the idea to add the reserve sides of several A Group clubs in the B Group or in the lower regional divisions. Ludogorets Razgrad, Litex Lovech, Levski Sofia, CSKA Sofia, Cherno More Varna and Botev Plovdiv expressed such interest to have a team in the B Group. At the beginning of June 2015, the BFU announced that only Litex and Ludogorets have sent such applications. Ludogorets II and Litex II were added to the 2015-16 B Group; the team finished on 7th position in their first season. The team started the 2016–17 season precariously and finished in the religation zone on the half season.

That's why on 12 January 2017 the team announced Radoslav Zdravkov, a Bulgarian football legend and frequent assistant coach in the Bulgarian national team in recent age. 2 days from Ludogorets announced that in order to get better results from second team, they would apply big changes. Radoslav Zdravkov was announced as a head coach with Galin Ivanov and Marcelo Chagas for assistants and one other Bulgarian legend, Spas Dzhevizov, was announced as a selectionist, will look after for youth talents from Ludogorets Academy and other academies to join the team. On 29 March 2017 the new youth stadium, Eagles' Nest was finished and the second team would play on it; the stadium have 2,000 seats. From the 2017–18 season Ludogorets change the politic about the second team by taking the decision to play with only youth players of the club in the Bulgarian Second League; the team started the season against Lokomotiv Sofia and beat them with 2:1 result with a team average age being 19 years. As of 30 June 2019Note: Flags indicate national team.

Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. For recent transfers, see Transfers summer 2019. For first team players, see Ludogorets Razgrad; as of 23 July 2019Players in bold are still playing for Ludogorets. As of 13 May 2018Players in bold are still playing for Ludogorets. Official website