By Alexander Krassimirov
February 3 – Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia has announced debts amounting to BGN 1.7 million. (€ 850,000) to December 31, 2014. The amount must to be cleared by March this year, to allow the club to acquire a license for next season and compete in European competition.
After a two-day meeting, the Chairman of the Board of the club Ivo Tonev (pictured far right with owner Todor Batkov, left, and Sports Director Georgi Ivanov, centre) expressed serious concerns about the renewal of the club license, but added that they will do everything possible to reschedule their obligations and receive license.
“The first serious problem for Levski is obtaining a license for European club tournaments. Levski has debts around BGN 1.7 million (€850,000). These duties are owed to December 31, 2014. The first task for us is to pay them. We have until March 20 to pay this amount. We will have talks with all those who we owe money. It will be very difficult or almost impossible because some of the obligations have been already rescheduled once or twice. We will try to do what we can,” Tonev said.
Tonev added that the club has prepared a draft budget for the first six months of the year, according to which Levski needs BGN 4.4 million (€ 2.2 million) for normal operations.
“Our spending for the first six months of the year are minimised. The amount necessary for the normal existence of the club until June is BGN 4.4 million (€2.2 million),” Tonev said.
As a first step in fundraising, Levski will increase ticket prices for home games of the club. The new prices have been almost doubled and will now cost between BGN10 and BGN 15 (€5 and €7.5).
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