Bulgaria Saga Continues: Rival CSKA Behind Levski Embarrassment

Levski Sofia chairman Todor Baktov

A couple of weeks ago we got a bit of a disturbed chuckle out of Levski Sofia pulling four of their best players from their derby with the Bulgarian CSKA. The idea: Russian champions Rubin was interested in the players.

Of course, this all happened outside a transfer window, and when Levski sourced called Rubin to confirm their interest, Rubin had no knowledge of the dealings. Too bad the four players were already in Moscow, in the middle of a fake meeting with a supposed Rubin representative.

Levski went on to lose that match, a result that compounded their mid-week Europa League start and a beginning to their league season that saw the defending champs stuck in the middle of the Bulgarian table.

Now it comes out that CSKA Sofia bosses may have been behind the plot, if Todor Batkov is to be believed.

Batkov is the owner of Sofia and also a lawyer. He has taken to the media to make his accusations, say the bosses of his rivals teamed with Russian mafia who, eager to make money off betting, helped execute the plot. Batkov alleges CSKA bosses Dimitar Yossifov Borissov and Ivo Dimitrov Ivanov worked with mafia sources, presumedly supplying industry knowledge to help the fraud.

Batkov has filed criminal complaints in Bulgaria:

“I am doing all necessary that all proofs be submitted there they should be – in the Bulgarian special services and the prosecutor’s office. I declare that most of the proofs have already been collected. Everything is clear to me. The doers of the fraud are clear, the contractors and their motives are clear, too.”

In addition to the transfer fraud, Batkov alleges CSKA manipulated the score of the match for benefit of the betting.

Batkov’s claims are being described as sensational, so who knows how much merit there is to them, but in one of the stranger football stories we have ever heard, is there any way for new news to be anything but sensational?