SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Prosecutor’s Office of Bulgaria has launched an investigation against the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) President Borislav Mihaylov.
A statement by government officials said that the probe relates to a number of media publications where it is alleged that Mihaylov has been directly involved in manipulating the outcome of football matches, as well as dealing with unlicensed foreign operators – a practice known as “black lottery” in Bulgaria.
“The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating in connection with numerous publications in the media containing information about committed violations and/or crimes of a different nature (expenditure of public resources, “black lottery”, etc.),” the statement read.
This comes shortly after a mass protest in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia during the country’s Euro qualifier against Hungary, where football fans flooded the city streets to voice their disapproval against Mihaylov’s decades-long reign as a President of the BFU.
Many have said that they’ve seen little to no improvement in Bulgarian football for the 18 years since Mihaylov took the reigns as BFU’s top man.
For such an expansive career, there has been no shortage of allegations that accuse the BFU boss of illegal dealings. In 2017 Mihaylov was accused by the media of conflict of interest regarding a luxury bar located on the premises of the BFU’s national football base Boyana – with some reports linking the bar’s ownership to Mihaylov’s son.
A more recent report came from Bulgarian investigative outlet Bird.bg, which in 2022 published an article with a picture attached where Mihaylov can be seen celebrating New Year’s Eve in 2011 with alleged Singaporean match-fixing kingpin Tan Seet Eng (Dan Tan).
Mihaylov then commented that this was a coordinated attack against him led by his main opponent for the BFU’s presidency seat – former Manchester United legend Dimitar Berbatov.
