Standart News

FC Levski owner, Mr, Todor Batkov, gave an exclusive interview for the Bulgarian issue of the prestigious Maxim magazine, in which he disclosed some little known facts about the Blue team.

- Mow many cigarettes do you smoke during a football game?
- About ten, I think.
- That is one cigarette every nine minutes. It’s not very healthy, is it?
- No, it’s not. Sometimes I come to ask myself whether there is any sense in what I do. The Bible says that no good deed remains unpunished.
- Some time ago you said that being an owner of a football club in Bulgaria requires some masochistic traits.
- If twenty years ago football was mostly a sport, now it has become a billion-euro business. Since the establishment of the Champions League, UEFA has been working more like a corporation than a football federation. At the same time, billions are poured in Europe’s biggest football clubs every year. So as to catch up with the latest trends in Europe, we have drastically increased the monthly pay of the footballers. Thus, the players of FC Levski have become the best paid hired professionals in the country. The support of the team has become a real financial burden, especially under the conditions of economic crisis – we have 55 players and 31 of them are in the A-team. Their salaries cost me about 370,000 levs per month, which makes about 12,000 levs per capita after taxation. You can see this is a lot of money, not to mention that the so-called “stars” earn a lot more than that.
- Don't you think that the Bulgarian footballers are a little bit spoilt and over-satisfied, bearing in mind that their performances are poor and at the same time they get big money and quite often they are spotted in discotheques and night clubs?
- Maybe. Not only CSKA footballers visit such places. Not long ago I had the same situation with some of my players and I was ready to dismiss the guilty ones. Five and a half years ago when I took over Levski under dramatic and emotional circumstances, I imposed restrictions. The remunerations were divided into three items - fixed salary, additional bonuses for certain matches and bonuses for success during the year. Yes, but when Levski made a breakthrough in Europe, our transfer goals supposed that Levski had a lot of money. Thus, slowly and gradually I gave up my principles. This could have been compensated with another international breakthrough but then came the disgraceful and unlucky games vs BATE Borisov and Debreceni. If I take an ironic look at the protests of Levski fans, they may seem right. Maybe, I have bad luck now, but how come some time ago I hadn’t? I was the good luck to the team. The calculations are simple - Levski's budget is 6-7 million euro. So to say, the incomes in the club should be 600,000 euro a month. The incomes are clear: 65,000 euro from the general sponsor of the club, some 25,000 euro from TV right and another 25,000 from tickets and club's cards, some 15,000 euro from Levski items and small advertisers... A total of 130,000 euro. The rest of the money has to be provided from the one who blamed and accused of Levski's current condition!
- When do we have to expect to see Levski successful again?
- When my footballers show punch and stamina on the field. If we had another player like Cedric Bardon in the match vs Salzburg, the score would have definitely been different.
- But in order to be successful, Levski players have to score goals...
- We are looking for a striker, for a player who scores goals.