News and Articles related to City of Sofia
Current date: 2009-11-22 08:17

Sport facilities in Sofia

Even though Bulgaria is s small country, it has gained world reputation as the native place of many a successful sportsmen and sportswomen, who have won many medals from European, world championships, Universiads, as well as Olympic games. Back in 1988 Bulgaria scored the biggest success in its sports history by winning a total of ten gold medals from the Seoul Summer Olympics, when it was ranked the sixth leading sports nation in the world. 

Present-day reality, however, has nothing to do with the glorious past of Bulgarian sport. Unlike the communist regime times prior to 1989, when the state used to finance many sports and develop sport schools, where young talents were given the chance to grow professionally and gain high quality training on their road to success, things have now worsened a lot. The technical and material base of the sports facilities nationwide, with very few exceptions, is in a most miserable condition. Many of the facilities, including football stadiums, sports halls, etc, have practically fallen in private hands because the state is no more able to provide financial resources for their maintenance. These sports sites, which used to be the venue of major events on a national, European and world scale, have been now converted into shopping, hotel and recreational complexes. Curiously enough, there are presently only 4 sports halls on the territory of the capital Sofia and one football stadium only, which is licensed to hold international matches.

A meeting was recently held between the chairperson of the State Agency for Youth and Sports Vesela Lecheva and the mayor of Sofia Boyko Borisov, at which certain projects aimed at developing and improving the condition of sports infrastructure were brought to discussion. The construction of a modern sports hall, in close proximity to the national stadium Vasil Levski, will be, hopefully, started in the foreseeable future, and another hall for the same purpose will be erected in one of the southern suburban living quarters. In another development, which is expected to provide some sources of optimism for sport fans, the chairperson of the State Agency for Youth and Sports and the President of the Bulgarian Football Union Borislav Mihailov were received by the PM Sergey Stanishev, at which the building of a new sports facility to serve the needs of the Bulgarian national football squad was in the focus of discussion. Curiously enough, against the background of 44 professional football clubs in Bulgaria only 5 have their own stadiums. Stanishev gave assurances that a team of experts will be compiled to investigate opportunities for giving stadiums to football clubs on long-term lease. These projects, however, will not be launched earlier than two or three months’ time.

To cut the long story short, unless urgent measures are taken the level of Bulgarian sports and sport activities – both on a local and national level, as well as the international recognition of Bulgarian sports successes will undoubtedly run the risk of being relegated to an unprecedented shameful and inferior position.