A FIERCE war between football managers broke out in the first days of the New Year. The man with a licence to sell footballers abroad, Lachezar Tanev, accused AC 23's Emil Danchev of having manouvred himself into a position of control over the under-21 national team.

Tanev said that 11 players from the squad had contracts with Danchev to represent them in their dealings with the clubs. At the same time Tanev had signed only four.

Danchev hit back, accusing Tanev of having manouevred himself into command of the Bulgarian first team where he represents 12 players, while Danchev represents only two, Dimiter Berbatov and Emil Gargorov.

Tanev exploded when the new player for CSKA, Kostadin Hazurov, refused his services and signed with AC 23.

Tanev said that the coach of the team, Petar Miladinov, previously worked for Danchev's agency as its chief executive.

Tanev said he suspected that Miladinov would call up to the team only players from AC 23 and that he would attract young footballers to this agency with the lure that on Tanev's side were the other two managers with FIFA licences - Emil Kostadinov and Bobby Bojinov.

Miladinov hit back immediately, saying that the attacks against him were taking place because he had not agreed to call up to the team footballers who had been suggested by Tanev.

"Obviously before I was appointed as coach of the team, Tanev had been the real coach, not my predecessor Stoyan Kotsev. I stopped this false practice and now they attack me. I'd like though to inform Mr Tanev that I will not be frightened by his attacks," Miladinov said yesterday.

"The fact that I had worked for AC 23 has nothing to do with my current job. I cannot do anything about the fact that players who have contracts with this agency play well in their teams. I'd like to remind everyone as well that since I have been appointed as coach, the team has not lost even a single game. This fact shows that I've done a good job up to now," Miladinov said.

Rumours in football circles say that Tanev and Emil Kostadinov have recruited to their side Ivan Vutsov, recently appointed by Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) as the chief of all national teams.

Vutsov has no liking for Petar Miladinov because Miladinov was appointed personally by BFU president Ivan Slavkov, who did not consult Vutsov about the appointment, although he is believed to have approached other senior officials on the matter. The trio will try anything but to remove Miladinov from his job. For now, Slavkov is keeping silent on the issue.