Ex Interior Minister: Bulgaria Has Never Been So Close to F1

Bulgaria's former Interior Minister, and now Member of the Parliament from the Socialist Party, Rumen Petkov, insists an influential businessman from Abu Dhabi will finance the F1 race track in Bulgaria. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's former Interior Minister, and now Member of the Parliament from the Socialist Party, Rumen Petkov, declared Friday the plans to build a Formula 1 racetrack near Sofia with financing from Abu Dhabi are real.

Petkov said that Bulgaria had never been this close to realize the project, but someone made the mistake of misrepresenting the company and its owner. (The MP declined offering the name of the individual at fault.)

The former Minister spoke in an interview for the TV channel bTV, hours after the news broke that the Abu Dhabi company Emirates Associated Business Group (EABG) refuted statements of Bulgarian authorities the group will invest in the project to build a Formula 1 racetrack.

"A very influential person in Abu Dhabi, owner of 67 companies is involved and we have all chances to secure financing and realize such great for Bulgaria project," Petkov said, adding the project is in advanced stage, all research has been done and a company representative is arriving Saturday to follow up on the negotiations.

The MP further informed the talks between the Abu Dhabi representatives and representatives of the Bulgarian Ministry of Economy and Energy lasted over a month and a half, and in addition to the Formula 1 track involved navigation and aviation businesses.

"The never ending desire of us Bulgarians to tell on each other is once again obvious and not a surprise to anyone. I hope, it won't blow up the project," Petkov concluded.

Earlier Friday, the Bulgarian daily "Sega" (Now) published a letter from EABG rebutting the information they would finance the F1 track and saying that after they have been misrepresented as a State-owned company and their owner as a Sheik, they would not invest in Bulgaria at all and would warn all their partners to not do it either.