2019

Една снимка казва всичко. За изминалата година, нещастна 2019-та и трижди по-нещастни ние. Загубихме финала на финалите, а собственият ни стадион тъне недостроен, занемарен, гол бетон и арматури. Изстинал от празни обещания.

Изпратихме в отвъдното и Вечното момче. Отиде да се присъедини към небесния отбор на българския футбол. Човек-епоха за нас, играе от 1959 до 1978, единствено и само в жълто и черно. Чико е от тримата великани, редом със Старика и Джогата, съзидали живота си в темелите на клуба от "Колежа". Същият по който въздишаме с любов и все въжделеем да го бъде (Все по-хубави, все по-силни - напред, жълточерни!).

Всяка приказка си има своя край. Романтичните пък често са с неочакван, понякога и с болезнено тъжен. Ние изживяхме поредното си вълшебство и след 15 май 2019 свърши. Вече нищо не е същото. Идва ред за нещо ново да ни се случва. Дано е за добро. Което не ни убива, правило ни по-силни. Времето е наше! Благодарим ти, Ники Киров, поклон пред труда ти, Бели вожде. Благодарим и тебе, Феро, че като феникс пак изправяме глава. Поне годината затваряме с успех, цели 7 победи поред. Толкова, колкото общо за десет месеца преди това.
 
16/02/19 Ботев Пловдив - Славия 1:0
19/02/19 Лудогорец - Ботев Пловдив 1:1
23/02/19 Ботев Пловдив - Верея 4:0
02/03/19 Дунав - Ботев Пловдив 1:1
10/03/19 Черно море - Ботев Пловдив 0:0
15/03/19 Ботев Пловдив - Ботев Враца 1:1
31/03/19 Левски София - Ботев Пловдив 1:1
04/04/19 НК 1/4-финал, Ботев Пловдив - Черно море 1:1, 4:2 след дузпи
07/04/19 Берое - Ботев Пловдив 1:1
13/04/19 Ботев Пловдив - Черно море 0:2
17/04/19 НК полуфинал, Ботев Пловдив - ЦСКА-София 3:2
21/04/19 Лудогорец - Ботев Пловдив 3:0
24/04/19 НК полуфинал-реванш, ЦСКА-София - Ботев Пловдив 3:3
27/04/19 Ботев Пловдив - ЦСКА-София 2:0
04/05/19 Ботев Пловдив - Левски София 1:3
11/05/19 Ботев Пловдив - Берое 0:1
15/05/19 НК-Финал, Локомотив Пловдив - Ботев Пловдив 1:0
18/05/19 Черно море - Ботев Пловдив 1:0
21/05/19 Ботев Пловдив - Лудогорец 0:2
24/05/19 ЦСКА-София - Ботев Пловдив 1:0
14/07/19 Арда - Ботев Пловдив 0:0
21/07/19 Ботев Пловдив - Дунав 3:1
29/07/19 Левски София - Ботев Пловдив 3:1
03/08/19 Етър - Ботев Пловдив 2:2
10/08/19 Ботев Пловдив - Царско село 0:2
17/08/19 Берое - Ботев Пловдив 2:0
24/08/19 Ботев Пловдив - Витоша Бистрица 2:1
31/08/19 Локомотив Пловдив - Ботев Пловдив 1:1
14/09/19 Ботев Пловдив - ЦСКА-София 0:1
20/09/19 Черно море - Ботев Пловдив 2:0
25/09/19 НК 1/16-финал, Миньоро - Ботев Пловдив 1:2
29/09/19 Ботев Пловдив - Славия 0:1
05/10/19 Ботев Враца - Ботев Пловдив 3:0
19/10/19 Ботев Пловдив - Лудогорец 0:1
30/10/19 Ботев Пловдив - Арда, 1:1
06/11/19 Дунав - Ботев Пловдив 1:2
10/11/19 Ботев Пловдив - Левски София 1:0
25/11/19 Ботев Пловдив - Етър 2:0
30/11/19 Царско село - Ботев Пловдив 0:3
03/12/19 НК 1/8-финал, Славия - Ботев Пловдив 1:2
07/12/19 Ботев Пловдив - Берое 3:1
15/12/19 Витоша Бистрица - Ботев Пловдив 0:2

Празнодумци всякакви и всенародно известни мошеници се гаврят с мечтите ни. Зли орисници ни пращат в небитието. Гарван грачи грозно, зловещо, псета и вълци вият в полята...Вехти лицемери излязоха даже открито из Пловдивград да претендират за равнопоставеност. Така е, всички държим на равнопоставеността - да се съблюдава правото на малцинството и да се дава  дължимото на мнозинството. Щото като се тегли чертата, сметката е видна - 15000 срещу 5 хиляди (и то пряко сили, с подкрепа от чужди агитки даже) в мача на столетието.

Бултра Коледа е, 19.12. на 2019-та, а сме тъжни. Изпращаме година на огромни нещастния. Няма с какво друго да се поздравим сега освен с тази снимка. Нас ни има, много сме, повече от всеки друг в Хилядолетния град. И не се предаваме, дишаме изтерзано, но няма се дадем, макар и бездомни, макар и безпътни. Битката за Колежа е битка за България. Защoто тези, които ни причиниха това нещастие са същите, които тормозят българите от десетилетия.

Защото сме Ботев Пловдив - бунт и поезия като Христо Ботйов, горди и волни като Град Пловдив. И в това царство кърваво, грешно, царство на подлост, разврат и сълзи, царство на скърби - зло безконечно, кипи борбата и със стъпки бързи върви към своят свещен конец - "Колежа или свинец"!

Decent or Dissolute

Club's rebranding, relocating or merging has a tremendous impact on fan tribes and football societies. The newly formed organisation may look excessively far from the original - may become an enhanced version, stronger and competitive or completely diminish, condescended and mocked. Or  both. The football prestige is not measured merely by achievements and sport results. Not all rebranding come off when money and ego are their major drivers. Often such projects will not pay the expected dividends to its mastermind. The Bulgarian football chronicles provide brilliant examples. 

In 2016 the legal entity PFC CSKA EAD that represented glorious CSKA from Sofia (est. 1948) went bankrupt and in the sequel two new bodies appeared with the 4-letter abbreviation, once stood for Centralen Sporten Klub na Armiata (Central Sports Club of Army).

The first one, CSKA 1948 has considered itself as an inheritor and was founded on July 19, 2016 in the Central Military Club in Sofia. The members of its constituent assembly announced a team logo similar to the old CSKA crest from the 1970s and 1980s. The newly created club started its existence from the regional amateurs’ league in the 2016-17 Season. Their motto "Fair Way to Top" refers to the manner of creation of the other heir.

Named CSKA-Sofia, it claims to be truly continuation of the original club diminishing the truism that it passed away. The Bulgarian football folklore has nicknamed this club The Dash. It was born in the summer of 2016 when a group of wealthy businessmen, headed by Grisha Ganchev, owner of top tier PFC Litex made a tricky juridical detour. Then existed Litex from the town of Lovech was acquired by the amateur FC Chavdar from Etropole and renamed to CSKA-Sofia. This club was legally registered in Sofia and the team color was turned from orange to red. Thanks to the Pro license of PFC Litex – a paper issued by the Football Union that cannot be transferred or sold – the rebranded club became eligible to participate in the First Professional League (PPL) during the 2016-17 Season.

The patrons of this new project have used a full spectrum of "hybrid" propaganda to convey to the public that it is the original CSKA. Their main arguments are that the club plays its home matches at Bulgarska Armia Stadium, dressed in red and bears the CSKA crest on its kits. In fact, this logo has been used in violation of the law from the very beginning of existence in 2016 to October 11, 2019 when the company owning CSKA-Sofia obtained the PFC CSKA EAD assets having the old CSKA brand and become its successor officially. Nevertheless, the case with the sport facilities of the bankrupted club is notorious even their use is regulated by an agreement between CSKA-Sofia and the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MMC). Both parties have refused to publish the terms of the agreement.

Such ambiguous case is not a precedent and was preceded with the stories of Beroe and Lokomotiv Plovdiv in 1999 and 2001 respectively. Facts made all the more impressive given the relatively poor football played in Bulgaria. The fans are conscious of smudgy cords these clubs had with their predecessors, but the public image has changed hypocritically over the last two decades, largely thanks to fan behaviour and media. Whether their current image is a good one or not, decent or dissolute is for you to decide.

Stanislav Tanev, a wrestler from Beroe

Present PFC Beroe was created in June 1999 when the owner of then top tier club Olympic from Teteven bought a club from Stara Zagora, intentionally formed for the purpose and named after Beroe, led by Boyan Stankov. Curiously the original club (est. 1959 as a union of all local teams) was suffering at the same time somewhere in the regional groups and soon became extinct. The new organization was named after both sides Olympic-Beroe and commenced its life immediately from First division with the quota of Olympic Teteven in the 1999-2000 Season. Next year the club depicted its present name PFC Beroe. The plain reason for relocation to Stara Zagora was that it is a birthplace of FC Olympic boss, Stanislav Tanev. Moreover he raised as a wrestler from the sport society of Beroe. 

In the summer of 2001 the second tier club of Lokomotiv from Plovdiv was bought by the notorious Georgi Iliev, allegedly mobster and chieftain of VIS-2 insurance company fronted for a number of organized crime activities such as contract killings, sale of stolen cars, racketeering and drug trafficking. That time, VIS-2 had been running for a decade another football club - Velbazhd from Kjustendil, a team with a recent strong performance and achievement of three consecutive bronz medal years and a national cup runner-up in 2001.

In the summer of 2001 Georgi Iliev made a bid for Plovdiv’s Botev initially but after a rejection he turned to the wretch local club of Lokomotiv. In previous two seasons they were in the Second division and their attendance had dropped to a low of less than 1000 per home game. The benefactor Iliev saw the move as a way to win personal glory and commercial advantage in the second biggest city in Bulgaria. Vowing to create a competitive team with a larger fan base than his hometown’s Velbazhd, he relocated the whole staff and all players from Kjustendil to Plovdiv. The contemporary Lokomotiv 1926 (presently full name: Professional Football Club Lokomotiv 1926 Plovdiv) is the formal successor of the previous Plovdiv’s club, established in 1936 with the same name. Heavily favoured and resource endowed after the merger Lokomotive has gained in strenght as obtaining achievements twice bigger than those earned for the whole history before.

Obviously football public in Lovech, Teteven and Kjustendil was distraught despite being tangibly smaller size in terms of followers. They built their teams back, installing same original names and returning to competitions but continue to fade into obscurity, while CSKA-Sofia, Beroe and Lokomotiv remain among the most supported in Bulgaria.