Levski Owner Accuses Bulgaria Anti-Mafia Cop in 'Kazan Affair'

Batkov stated that the GDBOP officer from Pernik helped an Armenian citizen, who is linked to to a Russian criminal group in St. Petersburg, to leave the country. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

Todor Batkov, the owner of Bulgarian champions FC Levski Sofia, has accussed an officer from the Main Directorate for Fighting Organized Crime (GDBOP) of helping an Armenian criminal to leave the country.

Batkov, speaking after a meeting of football Presidents with the Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on Combating Corruption, stated that the GDBOP officer from Pernik helped an Armenian citizen, who is linked to to a Russian criminal group in St. Petersburg, to leave the country.

He added that the man is involved in criminal activities including manipulating the results of sporting events for illegal betting purposes. Batkov continued that “this guy has also cheated Russian clubs... such as Terek Grozny and Rubin Kazan."

 Batkov was interrogated by the Main Directorate for Fighting Organized Crime (GDBOP) in October.

The reason for the questioning remains unknown but it is presumed it relates to the so-called “Kazan Affair.”

The affair, in which Batkov was tricked into believing the Russian team Rubin Kazan wanted to buy four of Levski’s stars for a total of EUR 5 M, happened in September, shortly before the club was supposed to face their biggest rivals, FC CSKA Sofia.

Without the four players Zhivko Milanov, Ze Soares, Darko Tasevski, and Usef Rabeh, who were traveling to Moscow at the time of the derby, Levski lost to CSKA 0:2.

After the scandal broke, Batkov told Bulgarian media that he received threatening phone calls from Russia asking him to stop digging in the story. He later accused the management of the CSKA FC of masterminding the entire scheme.

The prosecutors have started an investigation for document crime since Levski’s owner received a fake fax expressing interest in the transfers of the four players, and in order to start the transfer procedure Batkov deposited EUR 200 000.

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