Football champions Levski defended their crown and scored a double by winning the Bulgarian Cup as well.
The biggest prize, however, came from France. Toulouse FC earned their first ever spot in the UEFA Champions League (CL) qualifiers by securing a highly unlikely third place finish in Ligue 1, which sent Levski among the seeded teams for the draw for the third qualifying round of the Europe’s top club competition. If Levski goes through to the second qualifying round - which is highly expected - the team will face comfortable opposition on the road to group stage.
The Bulgarian football stage is not much of a challenge for Levski as they have dominated the past three seasons, despite making occasional blunders. In 2005 Levski lost the title race in a stupid way, in 2006 they overcame a seven-point deficit to dethrone CSKA and then became the first Bulgarian team to reach the CL group stage. This also led to strong financial domination on domestic front. On May 29, at the shareholder meeting, Levski revealed impressive finances for 2006. Levski has paid more then 2.1 million leva in taxes. The club’s finances are fully transparent. Its income totalled 15 million leva last year; with a net profit of four million leva, of which more than three million leva will be reinvested in the club’s sports base. “We received the most money from the Championship League, naturally,” financial officer Konstantin Bazhdekov said. “We got three million leva from broadcasting rights for international games in 2006, but only 93 000 leva for 10 games in Bulgaria. Our merchandising is highly successful – with an income from it of 402 000 leva. We also have many expenses, with 19 per cent of the budget dedicated to salaries. We spent 1.5 million leva on trips abroad and 450 000 leva on security. We have paid more than 450 000 leva in penalties to UEFA and the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU).”
PFC Levski is developing a modern youth academy and wants to expand its sports facilities, pressing state authorities for a long-term concession rights on the Rakovski venue in downtown Sofia. Next week club boss Todor Batkov and Bazhdekov will present detailed plans for a 22 000 – 25 000 seater-stadium and 100 million euro in future investement, which is already secured. They are offering to build a multifunctional hall for other sports with 8000 seats, undertaking the subsequent engagements of the State Youth and Sports Agency (SYSA), Sofia municipality and the Government.
Last month SYSA said there was no way Levski’s demands could be met. The main reason is that Rakovski is open to the public, which would no longer be the case if the concession rights were given away. “Levski is an excellent manager and is perfectly capable of sustaining its material base, which we have proven over the years. We want concession rights to Rakovski for a term of 30-35 years at least. What we are proposing to build there will make everyone happy,” Bazhdekov said.
Levski has a club policy of developing homegrown talent and prefers not to buy expensive players for the first team. With eight Bulgarian internationals in the squad, the highest salary of a team member is 10 000 euro a month. Coach Stanimir Stoilov and technical director Nasko Sirakov indicated that Levski is facing a strong competition in order to buy a quality foreign players to strengthen the team ahead of the CL qualification rounds, because many of the players they target decline to move from the top European championships to Bulgaria.
