THE coach of the Bulgarian football team, Hristo Stoichkov, decided to leave Valeri Bozhinov out of the team that will play in the World Cup qualification games against Sweden and Iceland.

The 19-year-old ACF Fiorentina forward has been out of form recently, so the coach made the decision not to include him in the squad for the visit to Sweden on September 3 September and Iceland September 7.

"I made this decision because Valery has not been playing well recently. I cannot take the risk of relying on a player who has not displayed anything essential during the pre-season fixtures and the championship games in his club. Still, I will keep an eye on his progress. The door of the national football team is not closed to him," Stoichkov said.

The coach of the Bulgarian Under-21 team, Petar Miladinov, quickly took advantage of the situation and called Bozhinov to his squad, so the striker will eventually travel to Stockholm and Reykjavik.

Brazilian-born left-back Tiago Silva, who recently obtained dual nationality and made his debut in the friendly game against Turkey (3:1), was given a place in the senior team squad list. He will replace Ilian Stoyanov, who took part in the previous qualification matches.

"We are good friends with Ilian and I hope he can understand my decision. I believe that Tiago Silva would perform better against these opponents and I also want to try new options in our defensive formation," said Stoichkov.

However, Stoyanov's reaction was very sharp.

"It is clear to everyone that I am not in the squad list because my personal manager is not Bulgarian. I expected this from Stoichkov. By this decision, he has proved only that he is a Muppet in the hands of several people that have interests of selling their players abroad. The same happened with goalkeeper Zdravko Zdravkov last year. I fully support his decision to retire from the national team," Stoyanov said.

"I do not regret anything. I will not play anymore for Stoichkov in the national team. He always blames the defence when the team is not doing well. I read that he will consider calling me for the next fixtures. He had better start looking for another player to fill this position, because my decision is final," Stoyanov added.

"Maybe I am a bad player because I am Bulgarian. Stoichkov should call three Nigerians, four people from the Congo, and two Zimbabweans, so that the team defence works much better," he said.

The national team started its pre-game training on Monday August 29, but only 15 of the selected 20 players featured. Stoichkov chose the Lokomotiv stadium in Sofia as the venue for the practice.

On Tuesday, the remaining five players joined the squad - Martin Petrov, Stilian Petrov, Dimitar Berbatov, Dimitar Ivankov and Radostin Kishishev. They arrived later, because they took part in last weekend's championship games of their clubs.

Bulgarian squad list

Goalkeepers: Dimitar Ivankov (Kayserispor), Georgi Petkov (PFC Levski Sofia).
Defenders: Tiago Silva (PFC CSKA Sofia), Valentin Iliev (PFC CSKA Sofia), Elin Topuzakov (PFC Levski Sofia), Ivailo Petkov (FC Kuban Krasnodar), Radostin Kishishev (Charlton Athletic FC), Asen Karaslavov (PFC Slavia Sofia).
Midfielders: Blagoy Georgiev (PFC Slavia Sofia), Stilian Petrov (Celtic FC), Chavdar Yankov (Hannover 96), Emil Gargorov (PFC CSKA Sofia), Georgi Iliev (PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv), Milan Koprivarov (PFC Levski Sofia).
Strikers: Dimitar Berbatov (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Martin Petrov (Club Atletico de Madrid), Zdravko Lazarov (Gaziantepspor), Georgi Ivanov (Samsunspor), Tsvetan Genkov (PFC Lokomotiv Sofia), Martin Kamburov (PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv).