CSKA Sofia football club will be confronted with an arduous trip to London on December 3 for the Uefa Europa League group stage match against Fulham, and CSKA’s outing will be further complicated by the troubles facing head coach Lyuboslav Penev.

Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry has put a travel ban on Penev, preventing him from leading his team to England. Penev is to face a court hearing on December 1, just two days before the Fulham encounter, for failing to settle a debt owed to Corporate Investment Bank.

The issue surfaced after, on November 20, a court in the Black Sea city of Bourgas issued an order freezing Penev’s property and company assets worth more than 2.3 million leva.

Allegedly, Penev failed to pay his debt to Corporate Investment Bank. The Bourgas court ordered his capital, property and assets of his personal company Lyuboslav Penev Ltd frozen until the matter is resolved.

In July 1999, Penev became owner of CSKA only to sell his shares to Vassil Bozhkov in December the same year. Penev remained CSKA president until 2001 when he was succeeded by Bozhkov who withdrew from the club in 2006.

According to information in the State Gazette in 1999, Lyuboslav Penev Ltd was registered as a single-person business enterprise. Later, however, partners in Penev’s business enterprise included Bozhkov, and Stoyan Manolov, manager of the club under Bozhov’s presidency.

Documentation and the Commercial Register showed that Bozkov became involved by purchasing 52 per cent of the shares in the company. In 2003, Bozkov and Manolov withdrew from the enterprise, and the company reverted to being a one-man operation, with no further changes in the register.

According to the Commercial Register, the court injunction pertains to Lyuboslav Penev Ltd and three supplementary firms, Global Check Systems Ltd, Pro Limit and Land Consult 3 Ltd, all of which were facing sanctions for a similar indebtedness to Corporate Investment Bank.

Penev lodged an appeal against the Bourgas’ administrative court ruling and against the banning order subsequently imposed by the Interior Ministry, but by November 25 it seemed that Penev would have to take part in the court proceedings on December 1.

Penev has insisted the problem is based on a misunderstanding, not on the outstanding debt. On November 23, he told Bulgarian National Television that "the misinterpretation will be resolved by December 1 and I will be with the team in England".

CSKA Sofia will play at Fulham’s Craven Cottage ground with no prospect of qualifying for the knock-out stage of the competition.
Switzerland’s FC Basel are three points in the clear at the top of the group, with nine points from four matches, followed by Roma and Fulham with seven and five points, respectively. The Bulgarian side has only one point from four matches.