Bulgarian Football Union

Bulgarian Football Union is the governing body of association football in Bulgaria, and a member of UEFA since 1954. It organizes a football league, Bulgarian Parva Liga, and fields its Bulgaria national football team in UEFA and FIFA-authorised competitions.

WWW Official Site

History

A legal entity that it claims descent from was founded in 1923 as the football department of the Bulgarian National Sports Federation, which existed until the Soviet invasion of 1944. The football governing body was then known as the Central Football Committee until 1948, the Republican Section for Football from 1948 until 1962 and the Bulgarian Football Federation from 1962 until 1985. On 27 June 1985, the organization was renamed the Bulgarian Football Union, the name that it carries today.

Resentment against Mihaylov (2015–2024)

Borislav Mihaylov became president of the union in 2004. The results of the national team and leading clubs in the country gradually started to decline in the following years, particularly after UEFA Euro 2004 and fans wanted Mihaylov to leave. On 15 October 2019, after long resentments because of the bad results of the national team and lowering of club level football, coupled with a scandal with the national team in the match against England, which involved racist chants from a group of Bulgarian fans aimed at English players. Following this incident, the sports minister announced that they will not work with the BFU until Mihaylov is in charge. After the England game, Mihaylov resigned. Mihail Kasabov become an interim president, but due to the Covid 19 pandemic, there was not a regular vote for Mihaylov to resign.
In 2021, to the surprise of many, Mihaylov announced he withdraws his resignation and will be joining the elections for a 5th mandate in 2021. At this point Dimitar Berbatov become a huge opposition of Mihaylov and also joined the elections. On 12 October 2021, Mihaylov won the elections despite the fact few voting violations were noted. In March 2023 the city count dropped lawsuits against Congressional decisions and Mihaylov was confirmed as the president, despite the fact that a few football clubs were kicked out from the vote, because they showed support for Berbatov.
In October 2023, football fans started a stronger resentment, having banners against Mihaylov on every match. As an answer, BFU started to punish clubs almost every match. The football fans announced they will have a big resentment, uniting ultras from every big football club in the country for the match against Hungary on 16 November 2023. In response to that, BFU and UEFA announced on 6 November that the match will be moved from National stadium to Hristo Botev Stadium in Plovdiv and will be behind closed doors. This decision was taken even harder, as for the first time, a football union didn't want their own fans on the stadium. The resentment was foreseen to move in Plovdiv outside the stadium. The Hungarians were also not happy with the decision for playing under closed doors and the fans announced they will still go for the match and join the protest against BFU.
On March 17th 2024 Georgi Ivanov was elected president. The election was held amid a lot of controversy in regards to the legitimacy of the outcome.

Presidents

President	Years in power
Pavel Grozdanov	1923–1933
Tsvetan Genov	1933–1934
Ivan Batandzhiev	1934–1939
Lyubomir Sokerov	1940–1942
Docho Hristov	1942–1944
Georgi Stoyanov	1946–1948
Isaac Catalan	1948
Ivan Nikolov	1948–1949
Mladen Nikolov	1949–1951
Petar Kolarov	1951–1952
Stefan Petrov	1952–1959
Lachezar Avramov	1959–1961
Kiril Nesterov	1961–1962
Nedyalko Donski	1962–1970
Danail Nikolov	1970–1975
Ivan Nikolov	1975–1979
Krum Vasilchev	1979–1982
Dimitar Nikolov	1982–1984
Ivan Shpatov	1984–1986
Andon Traykov	1986–1990
Slavcho Tapavicharov	1990–1991
Dimitar Largov	1991–1993
Valentin Mihov	1993–1994
Hristo Danov	1994–1995
Ivan Slavkov	1995–2005
Borislav Mihaylov	2005–2019
Mihail Kasabov	2019–2021
Borislav Mihaylov	2021–2023
Mihail Kasabov	2023–2024
Emil Kostadinov	2024
Georgi Ivanov	2024–

Competitions

It organizes the following competitions:
;Men's football:

;Youth football:

Elite League; First league for academy sides, with three age categories, Under 17s, Under 16s and Under 15s sides

;Women's football:

Bulgarian Women's League ; First Women's Division
Bulgarian Women's Cup

National teams

The Bulgarian Football Union also organizes national football teams representing Bulgaria at all age levels: