This Thursday, Bulgaria is supposed to host the Euro 2024 qualification game against Hungary. A vital one for Hungary, as they have still not solidified their spot in the euros, and a first test for new Bulgarian coach Ilian Iliev. It was originally supposed to take place in Sofia, however it is as of now entirely uncertain where the match will take place, or whether it will take place at all. Entirely at fault here is the Bulgarian football union (BFS) in their reaction to a situation, developed mosty over the past month (though a result of horrible mismanagement over the past 18 years). In this post, I will do my best to summarize what happened leading up to this scandal.
14th Oct 2023:
Bulgaria - Lithuania is plyed in Sofia. After a 1-1 draw in the away fixture, Bulgaria are heavy favorites at home. After Levski captain Adrian Kraev is sent off at the end of the first half, Lithuania defeats Bulgaria 0-2. This sparks outrage in the stadium and online, as this is seen by pretty much everyone, myself included, as possibly the lowest low Bulgarian football has reached (yet!). After some quite frankly embarassing interviews by the (now ex) head coach, and (current) technical director Georgi Ivanov (Levski legend), stating that things are more or less fine, discussions of the BFS's incompetence and corruption gained a lot of traction.
18th Oct 2023:
As he sees a golden opportunity, current frontrunner for new head of the BFS, (firmly against the current administration) Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United legend) arranges an interview discussionwith Darik - a very popular Bulgarian national radio and media site. As a direct response, BFS vice president Yordan Lechkov also organizes the same, immediately after Berbatov's one. He insists on a live debate with Berbatov, but Berbatov declines. Berbatov's interview is the generic (and in this case very reasonable) "the BFS is an awful and corrupt organization and we need to uproot it". More interestingly, in Lechkov's interview, he deflects all blame on behalf of the BFS, instead opting to blame everyone else, from the state, to Bulgarian football clubs for playing foreigners over Bulgarians, to the NT players, even specifically pointing to Andrian Kraev as the reason for the loss to Lithuania. He also uttered a now very infamous phrase, roughly translating to
"Who wants us to resign?".
The question speead like wildfire throughout wildfire throughout media sites and social media.
19th Oct 2023:
Retired footballer Boyko Velichkov came out with a post on social media, suggesting that fans in every club stadium chant "resignation" at minute 18. Minute 18 is decided on, as that is how many years the BFS has been in power for.
Later in October:
Velichkov's idea is implementing, as nearly every first dicision game in Bulgaria has the chants in the 18th minute. From more populated stadiums like those of Botev Plovdiv, CAKA-Sofia and especially Levski, to the less visited ones like those in Vratsa and Pazarzhik.
An organization starts to take shape, where fans of every big club are to come together for Bulgaria - Hungary (said to take place in Sofia), sit in a specific, organized fashion to prevent violence between supporters of different teams, and explicitly tell the BFS and UEFA exactly what they think about the horrendous massacre of Bulgarian football at the hands of the BFS. The protest is specifically intended to be a peaceful one.
6th Nov 2023
The BFS announces that, due to a recommendation by UEFA, the game will be moved from the national stadium in Sofia to Hristo Botev stadium in Plovdiv and that THERE WILL BE NO HOME FANS ALLOWED. The UEFA recommendation was later confirmed to be based on an undisclosed report of the BFS with safety concerns raised. Clearly, BFS president Boby Mihailov used his very much existing power within UEFA to cause the move. Fans are very obviously outraged, but I will stop mentioning that as it is assumed from this point on.
10th Nov 2023:
The mayor of Plovdiv says that the match cannot be played in Plovdiv. Main reason for which being that the stadium is not fully built, with heavy construction being planned for the international break, as Botev Plovdiv do not play there for 3 weeks.
11th Nov 2023:
The owner of the construction firm that builds the stadium, Iliyan Filipov is interviewed by Darik, where he states that multiple people from BFS have demanded that he send a letter, claiming thag the stadium is safe to use, threatening him that failure to comply, could make it so that the BFS revokes the licences of both Plovdiv clubs. The BFS denies the allegations and "leaks" a taped phone call between their representative and Filipov, where a letter is requested, and where a revocation of the stadium's license is heavily implied.
13th Nov 2023 (today):
The municipality of Plovdiv officially comes out with a statement that the match can and will not be played in Plovdiv, due to the ingoing construction work. There is growing speculatiom, as to whether or not the game can be played at all. Boby Mihailov states that if Bulgaria ends up unable to host the game, we could get banned from all European competitions. Meanwhile, no word on moving it back to Sofia.
Darik reports on rumors of the game being moved to Karzhali (3+ hour drive from Sofia, where the Hungarian NT will land). Darik interviews the Mayor of Pazardzhik, who says that "it is 99% certain", among a bunch of obvious lies peddled to him by the BFS (the man is clearly not very knowledgable on the matter). Hungarians, who follow the situation are very unhappy about what their team would need to be put through.
As of yet, nothing is official, and the situation is developing very quickly. Even if Pazardhik is decided on to host the match, UEFA still needs to approve the decision. I will make sure to update this post with the latest unformation for those interested.
Sources: Dsport.bg and my own personal speculation, which I have attempted to make obvious when present.
If you've managed to get to the end of this post, thank you very much for the interest in the situation and our general crisis. Sadly, I do not anticipate this post getting much traction.
Just an observation/story. I attended Bulgaria v Ireland in Sofia in maybe 2006. I'm Irish. We loved Sofia and found people very welcoming. In fact I stayed there for a week and had a great time.
On the night of the game we were told to take a specific route to the stadium and escorted by police as the fans of the two Sofia clubs were basically beating the shit out of each other at the other side of the stadium. Then they stopped fighting and there was no trouble at the game.