The Ministry of Youth and Sports will invest 32 million leva in modernization and construction of new infrastructure. This was stated in a special interview with bTV by Minister Ivan Peshev. The ministry's budget has been increased by a record 40 million leva, earmarked for the development of high sports achievements and for Olympic preparation. The ministry's plan envisages the construction and renovation of over 60 sports facilities in the country within the mandate, writes "Tema Sport".
This money is under programs from 2024 of the municipalities, 3 universities and several sports clubs. We are talking about the athletics track at the “Lokomotiv“ stadium “Maritsa“ in Plovdiv, a multifunctional hall in Elin Pelin, “Arena Sozopol“ and more sites.
An inspection of the Cherveno Zname complex and finding a site for a new national stadium is pending.
„With colleagues from the regional ministry and the capital municipality, we have currently created a working group to find a suitable site that is in a good location. „Cherveno Zname“ is another large site, perhaps by the end of the year we can start an inspection so that we can make an assessment with the federations whether it should be demolished or funds should be sought for the construction of completely new facilities“, Minister Ivan Peshev told bTV.
30 inspections within 6 months have identified 4 federations with particularly large debts to the sports department.
„The Weightlifting Federation was the first, but we managed to reschedule these debts as quickly as possible and the Sofia City Court accepted the repayment plan. The Tennis Federation also rescheduled the obligation, the Wrestling Federation has obligations, as well as the Karate Federation. The other checked federations have significantly smaller funds for recovery and they are repaying them“, the Minister further specified.
“At the moment, the good example I can give – with my colleagues from the cabinet, we allocated 2 million leva to “Serdika Sports Properties“ for the reconstruction of part of the facilities of “Karo“, so that the children from the CSKA sports school do not have to travel to the National Academy or the “Dianabad“ complex, but can have the relevant infrastructure very close to the school“, said Peshev.