the official CSKA fan club, brought a CSKA scarf to Prime
Minister Sergei Stanishev on June 11 when the two met to
talk about CSKA’s problems. Stanishev told him and CSKA president
Emil Kostadinov that the Government was going to help
the club find its owner.
Photo: GEORGI KOZHUHAROV
The drama of CSKA Sofia football club turned into a comedy on June 11 when club president Emil Kostadinov [no relation] was quoted as saying that he did not know who owned the club. He had talks with Indian tycoon Promod Mittal to try to clarify who owns “the reds” but in the end came away none the wiser. “I talked to him about it, but I could not understand a thing and frankly I don’t know who owns CSKA,” Kostadinov was quoted by Bulgaria's Focus news agency as saying.
Hours before Kostadinov made the statement, he met Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, who promised to help throw some light on the issue. Stanishev asked the State Agency for National Security and the National Revenue Agency to check the ownership and finances of the club, but it seems they will have to do so without relying on the current club’s management to give them details about where their salaries come from.
The issue of salaries was never a problem for Alexander Tomov, former president of the club. Tomov resigned following the news that Uefa decided to leave CSKA out of its Champions League tournament next season because of CSKA's debts.
On June 11, Tomov sent an open letter to the media saying he had not got any kind of payment as club president for the past three years. He claimed that the minute he took the post in 2005, he decided not to collect his salary. He did not comment on where the money for the rest of the management, staff and players came from.
In 2005, Mittal was presented as CSKA's owner, part of his deal to buy Kremikovtzi, Bulgaria's largest steel plant. The football club was seen as Mittal’s way to boost his image in the country. The problem came when Mittal stopped the funding for the club. The first signs were evident this past winter when CSKA players arrived at a training session with their pockets inside-out, a clear demonstration that they were empty. For the first time Tomov publicly acknowledged that Mittal had cut the funding of the club and it was Tomov, with the help of concerned friends [businessmen] who had secured CSKA's financial stability.
Despite the lack of Mittal’s support, Tomov continued to act as though CSKA was able to afford Christiano Ronaldo or even Dimitur Berbatov.
