May 1 – Joint majority owners of Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia and the club’s principle funding source, the Ganchev family, are stepping away from the club at the end of the season.
Businessman Grisha Ganchev and his son Danail are donating their shares free of charge to the National Fund for Sports, Culture, Art and Science foundation. The foundation had previously held 40% of the club’s shares.
After the transfer of the Ganchev shares, the foundation will have 80% of the club’s ownership. Bulgarian legend Hristo Stoichkov holds 20%.
The Ganchevs took over management of CSKA in 2015, but in the past eight years, CSKA has not been able to break the dominance of Ludogorets, who have been champions of Bulgaria for the past 12 years and are just one win away from a 13th consecutive title.
CSKA announced that next week they will hold a press conference to detail the change in ownership.
Executive directors Stoyan Ormandzhiev and Filip Filipov will manage the club though it is still not clear where the club’s funding will come from going forward, especially during a period in which the club is reconstructiing its Bulgarian Army stadium.
“After eight years at the helm of the most successful football club in Bulgaria, Mr. Grisha Ganchev and Mr. Danail Ganchev are stepping down from the management of CSKA. The shares owned by them were transferred free of charge to the ‘National Fund for Sports, Culture, Art and Science’ foundation,” said a club statement.
“After taking over and saving the club at the most difficult moment in its history, they brought the CSKA logo back to the Bulgarian Army Stadium. In those eight years, the team qualified to the group stages of European club tournaments twice and recorded memorable victories over rivals such as Roma, Basel and Viktoria Pilsen and managed to reverse the negative statistics in the Eternal Derby (against Levski). CSKA’s training facility in Pancharevo was modernized, and it and the Bulgarian Army Stadium became the property of the club. The most important personal victory of Mr. Grisha Ganchev and Mr. Danail Ganchev remains the obtaining of a permit for the construction of a new, modern, multifunctional Bulgarian Army stadium…
“From now on, CSKA’s goals remain the same, and work on all projects such as the construction of a new stadium and the modernization of the base in Pancharevo, which was started years ago, continues as planned and on schedule. As before, the operational management of the club will be carried out by the two executive directors of the team, Filip Filipov and Stoyan Ormandzhiev. Given the expected interest in the news, on 07.05. from 10:00 a.m. at the Vasil Levski National Stadium, a press conference will be organized, at which Filipov and Ormandzhiev will answer all questions,” concluded the CSKA Sofia statement.
Contact the writer of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at moc.l1716343001labto1716343001ofdlr1716343001owedi1716343001sni@o1716343001fni1716343001