Bulgaria harboured high aspirations to stage a Formula One race and permanently put the country on the international racing map. The concept is noble in principle, ambitious, and if executed properly, potentially lucrative.

But, for the moment, it appears that Bulgarian racing fans will have to reinforce their patience before the  F1 arrives in the country, after Bogdan Nikolov from the Bulgarian Motorcycling Federation (BMF) dropped the bombshell that due to financial constraints, the body was left with no choice but suspend operations, Dnevnik daily reported on November 11.

Money is hard to come by indeed; Sports Minister Svilen Neikov said that until a multi-functional sports hall in Sofia is completed in 2011, there would be no funds even for the badly-needed new football ground, which would meet Uefa standards.

"The only state participation in the potential construction of a racing track for MotoGP and/or Formula 1 in Bulgaria will be through providing the land for construction", Neikov told Dnevnik daily on November 10 2009.

"Regarding the Dobroslavtsi track, the state will only help with the plot. It is then up to Bernie Ecclestone to find a company that will sponsor the construction and manage the site with 50 per cent of the earnings," he said.

Nikolov, for his part, blamed the lack of state support for the decision to suspend BMF’s operations.
"At the end of what was possibly our most successful season ever, we have to suspend all activities and shut down the federation," Nikolov said. "This federation cannot be sustained by the personal loans that I myself provide. I have to pay off debts and loans from banks, I even sold some of my own personal property to keep operations going."

"To date we have received no assistance this year from the State Agency for Youth and Sports, nor the Sports Ministry, and there is no sign that we will in the future," he said.
According to the ministry, however, BMF were allocated about two million leva in 2009 to cover fees and other expenses for the organisation of international events, such as European and world racing championship events.

Should the federation freeze all activity, however, it will jeopardise the events that Bulgaria is set to host in 2010. "We are set to stage around 10 different international tournaments in this country," Nikolov told Dnevnik. "To accomplish this, we need money to organise the events and we need funds to pay for our own drivers," Nikolov said.

According to Nikolov, the average amount needed for the organisation of a single event was 140 000 leva and the budget that BMF needed for 2010 would have to be no less than three million leva.

In 2007, BMF received a highly controversial financial injection of four million leva from state Budget surplus, equaling the total amount allocated to all other federations for their Olympic preparation ahead of the Beijing games in 2008. The federation has since signed a preliminary contract for the staging of a MotoGP race in 2011, but is yet to begin construction of a race track.

"We have a comprehensive plan, which will be presented to Minister Neikov. Everything in that plan is calculated to the penny. He has to decide if we are to receive any funds for next year," Nikolov said.