March 27 – The Sofia Regional Administration has terminated a public procurement procedure for the renovation of Lokomotiv Stadium in the Bulgarian capital.
The decision was made by Regional Governor Vyara Todeva.
The contract had an estimated value of €1,053,360, with funding secured under an agreement with the Ministry of Youth and Sports signed in November 2025.
The termination was prompted by what has been described as “serious irregularities” identified early in the procedure. According to the administration, some of the tender conditions were found to be restrictive and contrary to the principle of free competition, casting doubt on the legality of the process.
A further complication concerns unclear intellectual property rights over the project. A copy of a contract was discovered in the administration’s files – signed with a party other than the original designer – through which a working design and technical specifications were provided. At the same time, no documents confirming the transfer of copyright were found.
A number of other administrative discrepancies were also identified: the donation agreement was not registered in the document management system, contained no stated monetary value, and did not appear in the accounting records.
Additional concerns related to contract terms that create legal uncertainty and fail to adequately protect the public interest. These include provisions for interim payments of up to 90% of the contract value without clearly defined acceptance stages for construction works, as well as a performance guarantee set at just 1% – well below the legally permissible ceiling of 10% – significantly reducing the contracting authority’s protection.
The regional administration said that the procedure will be re-launched once the tender conditions have been revised and refined. The goal remains to complete the project within the originally envisaged deadline of the end of June 2027.
Lokomotiv Stadium is one of the most heavily used stadiums in the Bulgarian capital. Despite its dilapidated condition, in addition to hosting Lokomotiv’s home matches, the stadium until recently also served as the home ground of Septemvri Sofia.
Contact the writer of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at [email protected]