The members of the Managing Board of the Association of Bulgarian Sports Federations (ABSF) held meetings yesterday with representatives of the parliamentary groups of "Democracy, Rights and Freedoms - DPS" (DPS-DPS) and "There Is Such a People" (ITN) in the National Assembly.
The meetings are organized on the eve of the adoption of the state budget and aim to inform political parties that, despite the successes at the last Olympic Games, medals from world championships and world cups, Bulgarian sports remain severely underfunded, negligible funds are allocated for sports infrastructure, children and young people do not have access to mass sports, and most specialists - coaches, doctors, rehabilitators - work on a minimum wage. Representatives of ABSF have already held meetings with the parliamentary groups of BSP-OL and PP-DB, as well as with the new Minister of Youth and Sports Ivan Peshev. Meetings with other parliamentary groups are pending. The sports federations, members of the Association, also insist on a meeting with the Minister of Finance Temenuzha Petkova. Before the MPs, Ivan Tsenov, Vesela Lecheva, Todor Gergov, Ivan Kolev, Georgi Bobev, and Rumen Stoilov presented the Association's demands. These are addressed to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Youth and Sports and will also be presented to the relevant parliamentary committees.The Association insists on a twofold increase in the budgetary framework for funding sports federations – under the "High Achievement Sports" heading (Olympic preparation), including subsections for athlete preparation and recovery, implementation of a state sports calendar, participation in an international sports calendar, material and technical provision, and funding of sports clubs.A twofold increase in funds for the "Sport for All" and "Sport for Students" programs is also necessary, as these are also extremely insufficient. The extremely poor condition of the training sports infrastructure in the country requires that a minimum of 50 million BGN be allocated annually through the central budget of the Republic of Bulgaria for the next five years. These funds will be needed for the construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of facilities that comply with modern standards. The ABSF emphasizes that this refers to modern training complexes that are accessible to both professional athletes and citizens who want to practice sports.

At the same time, at the last Managing Board meeting of the BFV, the question of whether volleyball should join the newly formed association of sports federations was discussed, but this will not happen at this stage. At one of his meetings with the media, President Lyubo Ganev expressed doubt about the effectiveness of such an association, emphasizing that in case of a problem, he is "a phone call away from the leading figures in the state."