CSKA Sofia's Shares Distrained over Debt to Ukrainian Tycoon

Pictured: Emil Dimitrov, Bulgarian MP and personal friend of Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov. Photo by BGNES

A destraint has been levied on 100% of the shares of the CSKA Sofia football club, one of Bulgaria's top teams, over an old debt to Ukrainian tycoon Konstantin Zhevago.

The distraint does not allow the change of the ownership of CSKA Sofia that has been announced recently, with owner "Titan" planning to sell the indebted club to a group of companies owned by Emil Dimitrov, a MP from Bulgaria's ruling party GERB, and a close friend of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

The talks for the sale of CSKA Sofia between Emil Dimitrov and the owners from Titan, a Bulgarian company, are ongoing, Mediapool reported Monday.

Ukrainian tycoon Konstantin Zhevago intended to buy CSKA Sofia several years ago together with the intended purchase of Bulgaria's former largest steel plant, Kremikovtzi, a deal that failed.

Back in 2008, Zhevago even made a first installment of EUR 500 000 for the purchase of CSKA Sofia but the money was never paid back to him once the deal failed, Sportal.bg reported.

The talks on the ownership of CSKA Sofia are conducted with the involvement of Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov who has been highly active in the affairs of Bulgarian sports clubs regardless of the fact that those are privately owned.

Borisov recently announced he was going to get Russian energy giant to become a sponsor of CSKA Sofia as part of Bulgaria's participation in the South Stream gas transit pipeline.

Back then Boyko Borisov even said he talked to businessman Dimitar Borisov, one of the owners of Titan, and told him "not to be dealing with too many things."

However, in the meantime the Sofia District Court has levied a distraint on the 6.5 million shares of CSKA Sofia, 100% of club's shares, owned by Titan, at the request of Pepaz Trading Corporation, which is connected to Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Zhevago, and is based in Belize.

The crisis in CSKA has been exacerbated by the possibility that UEFA might remove the club from the European tournaments for a period of 3 years over a debt that CSKA owes to the Bulgarian club Chernomorets.

Once, and if, the group of companies linked to MP Emil Dimitrov takes over CSKA Sofia, the club is expected to have legendary Bulgarian striker Hristo Stoichkov as its new President.

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