Batkov quits Levski in tears and with huge losses

todor batkov

By Alexander Krassimirov
June 26 – The on-off ownership of Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia has been resolved with Todor Batkov announcing that he is stepping down after 17 years at the helm. At an emotional press conference the lawyer said that he will transfer his shares to the Chairman of the Board of the club, Ivo Tonev, and two other businessmen, Alexander Angelov and Nikolai Ivanov.

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CSKA Sofia name and logo go up for auction

cska logo

By Alexander Krassimirov
June 25 – Humiliated by their forced relegation to Bulgaria’s amateur leagues, the country’s tax collectors have heaped further misery on the team by announcing an auction of the club’s brand assets – it’s name, logo and trademarks.

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Greeks sign up for match-fixing education, but will it reach high enough?

greece crime scene

By Paul Nicholson
June 24 – The Greeks have made an attempt to plaster over the match-fixing crisis that has rocked the game in the country and forced a stand-off between government politicians and football’s governing officials. The Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) has signed up with betting monitoring specialists Sportradar for a series of 120 match-fixing prevention workshops over three years.

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Cruyff under fire for exploiting Ajax for own business priorities

Johan Cruyff2

By Samindra Kunti
June 23 – In recent years Ajax Amsterdam has become subservient to the business interests of Johan Cruyff, according to a report in Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. Youth staff must follow a course at the Cruyff institute and Cruyff, rather than keeping the knowledge to Ajax, sells the secrets of the youth academy to foreign football clubs.

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With CSKA gone, Kiziloz focuses on buying Lokomotiv

Deniz-Kiziloz

By Alexander Krassimirov
June 23 – With the future of CSKA Sofia now sealed in the amateur leagues but under the financial stewardship of Bugaria’s richest man Vasil Bozhkov, Turkish businessman Deniz Kiziloz (pictured) who several times tried to start negotiations with the club, said he now intends to invest in another Bulgarian club – Lokomotiv Plovdiv.

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