Football / Soccer / Calcio / Futebol / Fußball

Referring to the announcement of the Plovdiv municipality, the Bulgarian press reports as a fact that on Monday they confirmed their previous decision and do not agree to the hosting of the Bulgaria-Hungary European Championship qualifier at the Hriszto Botev Stadium.

The fact that the Plovdiv municipality has confirmed its previous decision and will not give the Bulgarian association the use of the Hriszto Botev Stadium for Thursday's European qualifier against Hungary means that the Bulgarian association will not be able to organize the match for the time being. The Bulgarian association already announced at the weekend that there is no possibility of further relocation due to the shortness of time.

The National Sports reported on Friday that, according to our information, the Plovdiv municipality does not agree to the match arrangement, this decision became official with today's announcement. Now it is the turn of the Bulgarian association to officially cancel the match if UEFA cannot agree on another venue, although this is highly doubtful due to the shortness of time.

Earlier on Monday afternoon, the company carrying out the renovation of the Plovdiv stadium issued a statement on its Facebook page stating that due to the ongoing works - detailed in the statement - the facility cannot be handed over to the Bulgarian association by Thursday in such a condition that the physical condition of those coming to the match do not endanger your integrity.

"In a letter sent to the Bulgarian Football Association, the Plovdiv municipality confirms its decision from Friday, based on which it cannot grant the association permission to use the Hriszto Botev Stadium in the period between November 14 and 16, 2023," the municipality says in its statement on Monday, referring to the stadium to the notification of the contractor carrying out the renovation.

The Bulgarian association has not yet responded to the municipality's announcement, but in the past day, deputy executive director Hriszto Zapjanov, then executive director Borislav Popov, and then the president of the association, Borislav Mihajlov, said that if the Plovdiv municipality does not allow the match to be held, then there will be no Euro qualifiers on Thursday in Bulgaria, and Bulgarian football can expect serious sanctions at that time. In this case, it is expected that UEFA would award the match with a 3-0 goal difference in favor of the Hungarian national team, which had no fault in the match, which would ensure our participation in the European Championship next year (as is known, the Hungarian national team is one point away from participating in the European Championship).