By Alexander Krassimirov
August 28 – The owner of Ludogorets Razgrad, Kiril Domuschiev, has said he will do everything in his power to get permission to hold Ludogorets’ Champions League home games at the National Stadium Vasil Levski in Sofia. The Bulgarians dramatically qualified for the group stages after a penalty shoot out last night with Steaua Bucharest.
The penalty shoot-out was notable for the performance of Ludogorets defender Cosmin Moti. With the Bulgarians having scored to level the tie over two legs at 1-1, extra time was played out goalless but saw Ludogorets goalkeeper Vladislav Stoyanov sent off in the 119th mnute.
Up stepped Moti, first to score the first penalty and then to put on the keeper’s gloves and save twice from Bucharest.
Ludogorets progress to the main group draw today, though where they will play their home games is uncertain.
Yesterday it became clear that the Vasil Levski stadium would not qualify to host Champions League group games as it is classified as a UEFA Category 3 stadium rather than the required Category 4. Ludogorets’ owners have said they will make improvements to the facility, to avoid having to play in either Romania and Macedonia.
“If UEFA allow to us, we will play in Sofia, otherwise (we will play) in Romania or Macedonia,” said Domuschiev.
“Hopefully we will play here because the stadium will be full. I and my colleagues will deal with it. We need to make some improvements to the stadium, there is no way to wait for money from the state. We will try with our means to achieve it, we will make a donation to the stadium to play here.
“The tickets in the Champions League will be more expensive because we have huge costs in this tournament. For children and the poor, however, will have a special tickets and will support them.”
Domuschiev said that each of his players will receive a bonus of €100,000. He also joked that one of the stands in the club’s stadium in Razgrad will be renamed after Moti.
“Of course, Moti will receive a special bonus. Now we build a new stadium in Razgrad, so one of the stands will baptize of Moti. He is a hero not only for Ludogorets but for in Bulgaria too,” added Domuschiev.
Ludogorets is only the second Bulgarian team to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League. The first one was Levski Sofia in 2006.
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