One of the most traditional volleyball clubs in Bulgaria – "Cherno More" (Varna), will not participate in the WINBET Super Volley championship in the 2026/27 season. The news was announced by the National Volleyball League after the club officially informed the championship management of its decision. Thus, the elite remains with 11 teams, and the opponents of the Varna team will have a bye in the respective round of the regular season.
According to NVL Operations Director Hristo Apostolov, the schedule will be revised and sent to the clubs next week. The first round of the championship is scheduled for October 23-26, and the Varna team was supposed to host newcomer "Dunav" (Ruse).
"There are many motives for the decision, but it is correct for the club to comment on them. The schedule will be adjusted and will be available to the WINBET Super Volley clubs within the next week," said Hristo Apostolov.
The decision raises serious questions, as "Cherno More" continues to have one of the best-functioning academies in the country. Last season, the club participated in all national championships for juniors, which shows that its youth structure is functioning normally. The representative team finished ninth in the final Super Volley standings.
In recent months, significant personnel changes have also occurred in Varna. Head coach Dani Milushev and former national team captain Viktor Yosifov left the club to develop their own volleyball project.

One of the most promising young players of "Cherno More" – youth national team member and middle blocker Tomislav Rusev, has already moved to the elite newcomer "Metalurg" (Pernik).
A check by VolleyWeek showed that, at present, publicly confirmed new clubs for the remaining volleyball players from the last squad are practically non-existent. Exceptions are Tomislav Rusev and Canadian outside hitter Michael Donovan, who will continue his career in the Czech Benátky nad Jizerou. For the other players, no officially announced transfers for the 2026/27 season have been found, which means that a large part of the squad is still without a publicly known new destination.
VolleyWeek attempted to contact club president Krasimir Iliev to get an official comment on the reasons for the withdrawal from participation, but he did not answer his phone calls until the material was published.
According to unconfirmed information, the reason for "Cherno More"'s withdrawal is not related to financial difficulties.

photos: Nikolay Varadinov