The turf at Vassil Levski national stadium in Sofia was facing extinction. The amusing, yet shocking revelation, came from Danail Dimov, head of the state-owned company that manages the stadium, who said that the grass will wither because of the construction of the Sofia metro.

Construction works on the nearby Yunak metro station have drained the two underground wells which irrigate the pitch of the football ground, Trud daily quoted Dimov as saying.

According to Dimov, the only reason why the pitch was currently in adequate condition is because of good weather. The wells are 30 metres underground and are the only source of water for the pitch, because water with chlorine cannot be used.

"The construction of Yunak metro station by the Taisei Corporation has damaged or destroyed the drainage network, and as a consequence the wells have dried up. We asked the Japanese to restore the wells or build new ones. They suggested they could build an illegal water source without any sort of legitimate project or appropriate documentation, basically a hole in the ground. The thing is, the entire construction operation in this particular area is on our territory and as such, its absolutely illegal. If we have to chose between withered grass and no metro, we can do without the metro," Dimov said.

Dimov has requested an official meeting with Sofia mayor Boiko Borisov to resolve the problem.

Stoyan Bratoev, head of Metropoliten, the company overseeing metro construction said it was not the construction company's fault. "The construction order has come from the municipal director, as the territory belongs to the state and not the football stadium. They can oppose the order as much as they like," Bratoev said.

"After we completed the construction works, the level of underground water has been restored to pre-construction levels. Danail Dimov can only blame himself. Their so called wells are polluted and this is most likely why they are clogged and no water is seeping through. We don't even know where their wells are located. We tried cooperating and Taisei Corporation offered that a new well be installed but they said it would be illegitimate. What does that mean? Are we supposed to legitimise it for them or what?"

Bratoev finally has said he was willing to meet Dimov and discuss the problem.