The question about the future of CSKA football club is turning into a real drama, and not simply because the team is one of the two most successful football clubs in Bulgaria.

All around the world, sport and business go hand by hand and Bulgaria is no exception. So the minute the Bulgarian-language media started publishing articles about the sale of the Kremikovtzi steel plant, all eyes turned to CSKA.

When Kremikovtzi was bought by Indian businessman Pramod Mittal in 2005, he bought CSKA as a sign of his deep and serious business involvement in the country. In the year when CSKA won its record 30th title, fans finally had something to look forward to since Mittal was considered as the answer to all of the team’s financial worries.   

Indeed, as opposed to their rivals Levski, CSKA has always had problems keeping its budget in order. Over the years there have been plenty of money-related “riots” organised by players and coaches, and subsequent court cases.

In 2005 it all looked promising for CSKA. Club president and former politician Alexander Tomov made great promises such as the one million leva bonus for the players in exchange for winning the title. The team finally managed to attract a main sponsor, the third mobile operator Vivatel, hoping to replicate Levski’s successful experience with the market leader M-tel. It did not stop here.

CSKA spent quite a lot of money on the market buying little-known foreign players, mainly from South America. Tomov said the spending was needed because of CSKA’s plans for a successful performance in European club tournaments.

Despite the expensive spending spree,  the team failed to win the title in either of the past two seasons and Tomov and Mittal were spared having to pay out the million bonus. The team’s performance in UEFA tournaments was no different.

That the team failed to achieve anything substantial and the early end of CSKA’s European campaign was the first sign that all was not well. The club had spent hundreds of thousands of leva for effectively nothing and the logical question was whether the team would be able to support its stars, worth millions of leva. The signals coming from Kremikovtzi about Mittal lagging behind on the investment programme and the numerous strikes organised by Kremikovtzi’s staff for unpaid salaries added to the feeling that CSKA will soon face a financial crisis in a time when it is at the top of the table, 10 points ahead of their nearest rivals.

And if the situation with Kremikovtzi was not worrying enough for CSKA’s fans, the players themselves added to the general feeling that CSKA was on a downward spiral once again despite the title seemingly being in their grasp. On January 22 the players appeared at CSKA’s training ground in Pancherevo neighbourhood with their pockets inside out, clearly stating that they were empty. The demonstration was welcomed by the media but was not taken well by the club’s management and coaches. Head coach Stoicho Mladenov called the stunt a “misunderstanding” and “something that is now behind us”.

Mladenov, however, admitted that the payment of salaries was being delayed by the management but saw no problem in that.

Despite the players’ demonstration, Tomov continued to claim that there was nothing wrong with CSKA’s finances and although there was some delay, all players would receive their money. CSKA’s player Alexander Tounchev found it hard to believe. “We want everything to be straight forward between us and the team’s management. When we won against Levski last year Tomov promised us 10 000 leva each but nothing was paid,” Tounchev told reporters on January 23. 

The news that Kremikovtzi had indeed been put up for a sale made the situation around CSKA a frenetic one. 

Speculations about Tomov going from door to door around Europe and offering CSKA to potential buyers filled the Bulgarian-language media. The most common rumour was that CSKA was offered to Avram Glazer, son of US businessman Malcolm Glazer – the owner of Manchester United and the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Another speculation making the rounds was that CSKA had already been bought by the US insurance company American International Group (AIG), owner of club sponsor Vivatel. Some, like Bulgarian-language Focus news agency hurried to announce the news that AIG had bought 51 per cent of CSKA and the rest had been bought by the potential new owner of Kremikovtzi Ukrainian tycoon Konstantin Zhevago.

In attempt to end all speculation, Tomov held a news conference on January 29: “The information that AIG was buying CSKA was complete nonsense and the club has no debts.” He did admit that Mittal was no longer financially backing CSKA. “I have gathered 60 to 70 businessmen who will finance CSKA,” he said. “Furthermore I have my own business which is gaining speed, step-by-step, and most of all it is a legitimate one,” Tomov said.

Whatever the truth, CSKA seems to be very close to repeating the scenario from two years ago when it was seven points ahead of Levski but then went on to lose the title. Back then the management of the team also claimed that nothing was wrong with the club.