Bulgaria

Bankrupt Bulgarian football club CSKA Sofia is reportedly close to being taken over by business group Red Champions.

The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) has announced that national top-flight club Botev Plovdiv will replace debt-ridden CSKA Sofia in this year’s UEFA Europa League, after receiving an official confirmation from the European governing body.

Bulgarian fallen giant CSKA Sofia is seeking a merger with another top-flight football team after declaring bankruptcy.

The Bulgarian Black Sea resort of Thracian Cliffs has been announced as the venue of the 2013 World Match Play Championship as part of a new hosting concept for the leading golf tournament, introduced by title sponsor Volvo.

Manchester United has furthered its recent trend of agreeing sponsorship deals with overseas telecommunications companies by agreeing its first deal with a European operator.

Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) president Bobby Mihaylov has stated his “desire” to enter a joint bid with Romania for UEFA Euro 2020.

Michel Platini, president of UEFA, yesterday reiterated the zero-tolerance approach of European football’s governing body towards match-fixing, warning players that they will never play again if implicated in any wrongdoing.

Bulgaria will bid to host a Formula One race in the near future, according to the Bulgarian Motorcycling Federation (BMF).

The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) has extended their longstanding television and perimeter rights cooperation with international sports agency Sportfive for the next three qualification stages until 2014.

Bulgarian businessman, Grisha Ganchev, has acquired a 50 per cent stake in the Plovdiv-based cable television channel Evrokom and aims to transform it into a sports-based channel.

Sochi (Russia), Salzburg (Austria) and PyeongChang (Republic of Korea) were today accepted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board in Lausanne as Candidate Cities to host the XXII Olympic Winter Games in 2014. The cities were accepted unanimously from a total of seven Applicant Cities, which also included Jaca (Spain), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Borjomi (Georgia).

The IOC will confirm the final short-list of cities in the running to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games on Thursday.

Turkey is the latest country to sign up sports TV network ESPN Classic, following a carriage deal inked with Turkey’s leading digital platform, Digiturk.

Sochi’s bid for the 2014 Olympics has moved up in the latest Bids Power Index, with Salzburg still the leading candidate.

Anton Schutti is the new managing director for the Salzburg 2014 bid.

Apace Media plc (AIM: APA), the intellectual property and branded content company, is set to acquire a stake in MM Televizia OOD, the integrated media group.