Bulgarian football star Dimitar Berbatov announced Friday his bid for president of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU). The former striker of Manchester United, Tottenham and the Bulgarian national team will run for President at an extraordinary BFU congress on March 15. At a BTA-hosted news conference, he presented his programme and team.
Berbatov called on the rest of the candidates to make public their agenda and their teams. "All of us who are running [for president], three, four or five candidates, should strive for a transparent congress. I make it clear that none of us, no one from our team, will speak ill of any presidential candidate. I will be happy to see the programmes and ideas of the other contenders," Berbatov said.
He also said that he intends to initiate a dialogue with the government. "A meeting with Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, Mariya Gabriel, and Sports Minister Dimitar Iliev, of course. We will outline our vision. This will be the goal in the upcoming months," Berbatov further said.
Berbatov is running for the BFU presidency on a platform that will seek to limit the presidential tenure to no more than three terms, or 12 years, to keep club presidents out of the BFU Executive Committee, to set in place a new organizational structure of the national teams and a new championships format, building of stadiums and a new national stadium. "We also want to limit [the number of] foreign players and introduce an incentive system for the promotion of Bulgarian players at all levels," he said.
Berbatov ran for president of the BFU back in October 2021 but was controversially defeated by Borislav Mihaylov.
Mihaylov resigned in late November under pressure from fans, opponents and the wider public, who hold the Union and himself responsible of the dire condition of Bulgarian football.
Berbatov is the first candidate for the top position at the BFU to announce his bid.
/LN/
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