The Bulgarian Football Union wants to acquire the "Septemvri" stadium in the capital's "Krasna Polyana" district and build a training center with four football pitches on the site. This was announced by BFU President Georgi Ivanov after a meeting of the Executive Committee.
“We want to acquire the "Septemvri" stadium in Krasna Polyana and build a center with four pitches there“, said Ivanov. According to him, the project is related to the need for more fields for children and youth football.
The President of the Bulgarian Football Union pointed out that there are 80 clubs in Sofia, and there are 380 teams for children under 14. He gave the example of the burden on club bases and stated that insufficient infrastructure hinders the development of young football players.
The "Septemvri" stadium was opened in May 1958 in the "Krasna Polyana" neighborhood and has 25,000 seats. The facility was the official stadium of "Septemvri" Sofia for nearly four decades. Its history is also connected with CSKA, which used the stadium in the early years of the club.
Due to the lack of maintenance, the stadium cannot be licensed for professional football matches. In 2015, the Bulgarian National Television described the sports complex as a facility in dire condition, over which there have been ongoing disputes between the state, the Sofia Municipality and other interested parties.
It is precisely the complex ownership that has been cited as the reason why the Bulgarian Football Union first sought to acquire the field before starting the construction of the training facility. The publicly announced information does not specify specific deadlines, the cost of the project or the procedure by which the facility could be transferred to the football union.
Georgi Ivanov also stated that 36 football fields have been built in the country since 2018. However, according to him, the existing infrastructure remains insufficient in relation to the number of clubs and children's teams. As an example, he pointed out that an artificial pitch at “Levski“ is used by 12 teams, and CSKA has until recently trained on private grounds.
If implemented, the project in “Krasna Polyana“ will be focused primarily on the training process and the preparation of juniors, and not on restoring the stadium as a facility for matches in front of an audience. The next step is to clarify whether and under what conditions the state will provide the property to the Bulgarian Football Union.