CSKA Sofia, Bulgaria's defending football champions, sacked manager Dimitar Penev after the Bulgarian Cup quarterfinal loss to Pirin Blagoevgrad on March 4, confirming the appointment of Lyuboslav Penev as the new manager a day later.

Lyuboslav Penev, the nephew of the sacked coach, started his footballing career as a CSKA trainee, playing 123 games and scoring 88 goals for the club. He was briefly president of the club in 1999/2000.

The news was confirmed by Ventsislav Zhivkov, the executive director appointed by Titan AS, the company in talks to buy CSKA from its current owner, Indian steel tycoon Pramod Mittal.

CSKA's board of directors and supervisory board agreed unanimously to terminate Dimitar Penev's contract as manager, but he would stay with the club in his capacity as member of the supervisory board, Zhivkov said in a statement published on the CSKA website.

Zhivkov did not spare the players, some of whom recently went on record to say they were unhappy with the uncertainty created by the protracted transfer of ownership.

"Statements by players and coaches that CSKA had two managements are incorrect. There is one management," Zhivkov said. "The deal is a complicated one and requires a dual management structure with two executive directors."

He rubbished reports that no wages have been paid at CSKA for the past two months. Playing staff would be fined for the poor performance in the match with Pirin, which ended in a 1-1 draw and CSKA out of the cup after the penalty shoot-out.

Lyuboslav Penev, who was last an assistant coach to national manager Plamen Markov until Markov was sacked with his staff in December 2009, does not have the required Pro licence to manage a top-tier club, Dnevnik daily reported. Bulgarian Football Union (BFU), however, was prepared to give him special dispensation because he was already enrolled in a Pro licence course, the newspaper said.

Lyuboslav Penev was one of the stars of the CSKA team in the second half of the 1980s, moving to Spain in 1989, spending five seasons at Valencia before moving to Atletico Madrid, where his 22 goals helped the club win the league and cup double in 1996.

Although he missed the 1994 World Cup in the US because of testicular cancer, he is considered to be a member of the "golden generation" team that reached the World Cup semi-final.