At the editorial office ofvolleyweek.bgan address was received from Ivan Seferinov - candidate for president of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation. We publish it without editorial intervention.

To the Presidents of Volleyball Clubs in Bulgaria

To the President of BFV

To the Vice Presidents of BFV

To the members of the Management Board of BFV

To the Chairmen of the Commissions of BFV

To the regional representatives

To the employees of the BFV headquarters

To the Ministry of Youth and Sports
To the State Administration
To all media
To all advertisers and sponsors of BFV
To CEV and FIVB

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I address you as a candidate president for the upcoming elections on September 28, 2024, in Sofia. In the following lines, as I do not have the financial resources, structure, and material assets that the BFV possesses, I will present an exposition consisting of concrete facts and specific questions, from which all the above-mentioned and referred individuals can draw their own conclusions. If they value the truth and want to know the whole truth, if they are or are not in any way connected with the content of this exposition, then let them judge according to their conscience how to proceed in the future.

Let's start with statements in the media by members of the Management Board that the state does not care enough about sports and that the funding of BGN 2.85 million for 2024 is modest.

Question: Let the esteemed Ministry of Sports officially answer what funds BFV received for the period March 2020 - August 2024. Let the state institutions say how much money they paid to the international federation (FIVB) to buy championships that none of the rich federations want to host, and let BFV provide a detailed report at the upcoming meeting on how these funds were spent? I dare say that there is no other federation that has accumulated more funds from the state than BFV.

We are champions in organizing European and World Championships in all categories, and note that the state is the guarantor and finances the organization of every championship, pays the rights, and everything else.

Example: for the 2023 Men's European Championship alone, the state paid 800,000 euros.

Question: Does the state and everyone mentioned above know that, according to regulations, 25% of this amount is reimbursed to the BFV and this amount has already been transferred from CEV to the BFV?

Now another question arises - Where and how were 200,000 euros spent? We hope Mr. Ganev will present a detailed report at the upcoming meeting.

Question: Why do we continue to seek to organize events when we fail in results at every organized home forum?

Answer: For every organization of a competition of such rank, the BFV, besides asking for money from our state, receives the following from CEV or FIVB (for organizing a World Championship): 50,000 euros for each European Championship for youth and juniors, 100 euros per day for each participant for 14 days for 20 people per team: 14 x 20 x 100 = 28,000 euros per team? Multiply it by the number of participating teams and by three more organized championships for 2024 alone, and I suppose you will guess what it's about.

The question is as follows: Which hotels were chosen to service the championships and on what principle, how much was paid per meal. Which transport companies serviced the organization and at what prices. We already know about the halls (Maritsa and Levski), but what rent was paid? The fact that the BFV equipped them with new "Taraflexes" is also a fact, but the question is whether they were gifted to these two clubs or bought from the representative of Taraflex in our country - note Mr. Lyubomir Ganev (we will not talk about conflict of interest now, we will address this in the topic of equipping the National teams or not, as Mr. Ganev will say that his son is in charge there, he has nothing to do with it). For every organization of the desired championships, the International Federation donates one Taraflex for each group. For the period 2020-2024, the federation received two Taraflexes (free) for the European Men's and Women's Championships. Plus two European championships for youth and one world championship, a total of 5 groups, that's another 5 Taraflexes (perhaps two of them have not yet arrived) but we know that there is one in "Hristo Botev" hall and one in "Sofia" hall - in the Freedom Park, and we know that Mr. Ganev personally arranged one at the "lowest possible price" and it was sold to the newly formed club in Dragoman. At what price and where the money was deposited, please ask Mr. Ganev? I forgot to mention that in 2022, the BFV won another Gerflor-performance flooring worth 65,000 Swiss francs from FIVB through a project.

On average, for the last 4 years, the BFV has had material assets worth about half a million Swiss Francs.

What is the current state of these assets and who uses them is a question again for the representative of Taraflex-Gerflor in our country and president of the BFV, Mr. Lyubomir Ganev?

What happens to the well-known Mikasa ball, without which we cannot train and play Volleyball? Under the same FIVB project from 2022, the BFV received 100 Mikasa Kids balls worth 5,000 Swiss francs. For each organization of European championships, we received 400 new balls from CEV, that's 1500 balls, which at an average "friendly" price of 50 euros (not including those from FIVB for organizing the U19 World Championship, the exact number has not been checked) amounts to no small sum of 75,000 euros. But what is the exact number that has arrived so far can be told by the head of material assets of the BFV, if the president allows him.
We know that at the last meetings with clubs by regions (which was pure pre-election campaigning), old balls from the warehouse were promised as a donation.
Advice to voters - don't be misled, ask for new ones, they'll sell them to you anyway later.

Let's go back to the 2022 project, for which the BFV deserves admiration for winning at least one project. This project is worth 147 thousand Swiss francs, from which, as we said, Taraflex was received for 65,000 + balls for 5,000, Senoh equipment for 4,500, and 36,000 francs for two years for a national team coach, or a total of 72,000 Swiss francs.
There was a statement by Mr. Ganev in the media that the coach of the women's national team costs him nothing. For the years Lorenzo Micelli has been coach, he can hardly have received only 76,000 Swiss francs, and if so, let the contracts of all national team coaches for the period 2020-2024 be shown. Why should they be a secret? Let everyone see the "job well done" - for men and women, I mean the deplorable results. What remunerations did they receive and let's compare them with the coaches of the youth teams, who deserve more attention.

I will just make a digression to help you understand how much our federation is respected when we give, i.e., accept organizations of championships, and when we need to receive. We have won only one project, the one in 2022 (this is shown on the FIVB website at this moment, anyone can check it, compare the facts and draw their own conclusions).

For comparison - the Slovenian Volleyball Federation has won projects, we are talking only about coaching assistance from FIVB for the last two years - notice, over 600,000 Swiss francs. Well, that's for free! And do you remember Mr. Ganev's promise when he took office? That every club would have one coach, who would be paid by the Federation!?!

Let's pay attention to the BFV office, which for some unknown reason, or for some reason, moved from the Sports Palace on Vasil Levski Blvd., where it paid no rent, to the prestigious Iztok quarter, to an office in the building of Park Hotel Moskva, where there is no clarity as to what rent it pays and to whom it pays it for the premises it uses?

The European Confederation CEV in its financial report (Handbook) at the last reporting and electoral meeting, clearly showed year by year what the expenses for rent, office maintenance, how many permanent employees there are and what salaries they receive. We expect the BFV to clearly show in the financial report of the upcoming general meeting how much the office's maintenance costs per month by item (how much for rent, how many people are on staff, how many are on civil contracts, how much money each of them receives

,what job description do they have)? How many of these paid employees are members of the Management Board? If that's not a conflict of interest, then I don't know what is.

The first thing the general assembly should do before proceeding to the election of a president and members of the management board, or under Miscellaneous, since the procedure cannot be violated, is to unanimously vote that a paid employee cannot be a member of the Management Board. How can you bring potential sponsors into the Management Board when half of it is occupied by paid employees who, mind you, vote on their own performance. Have you seen any of the paid employees from the office of the International Federation FIVB and CEV being a board member?

Let them choose either the Board of Directors or paid employees. The office staff is already more numerous than CEV's office staff.

For comparison, CEV has 28 employees, while the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation (BVF) supposedly has around 35, as this information is not publicly available.

We come to business trips in the country and abroad, and airline tickets. This is also an expense category with many question marks. We want to see which airlines BVF has worked with, how much money has been spent on airline tickets, and what are the expenses for business trips and representation funds?

We arrive at the notorious phrase '10,000 matches per year.' There is no need to count the matches. It's enough to just look at how much money has been paid for the referee crews for these matches. At a minimum rate of BGN 200 per match (for 2 referees + technical delegate), this means that the referees have received a total sum of BGN 2,000,000 in one year. Perhaps this is why the federation has so many debts. And what are the exact debts of BVF and to whom? Why, with so much income, so many contracts with advertisers - Lidl, Efbet, etc. (which are also hidden from the public and it is unclear under what conditions they were concluded), with so many material assets, is the Federation always in debt?
We hope Mr. Ganev will explain. Firstly, there are no results, and secondly, we are sinking into debt.

Speaking of sinking, next comes the transfer policy, the national teams, contracts with national players, the bonuses they haven't received for two years now, and the transfer fees they pay to BVF every year. Here, Mr. Ganev is completely bogged down.

First, why have national players not received any bonuses for the last two or three years, despite receiving bonuses for the period 2021-2024 from the VNL alone, amounting to $459,250? If these funds have been circulating as working capital in some private company of a son or daughter, for example, for two years, Gentlemen Club Presidents, what dividends do you think they would have generated? This is still your money. Do you know where it goes, and how much are the transfer fees that hundreds of players playing abroad pay every year, and which Mr. Ganev personally controls and, to put it mildly, blackmails some of them to make donations or deposit the money in cash, refusing to issue invoices to Bulgarian individuals and legal entities to avoid paying VAT? And he claims that this is a decision of the Management Board. I think there are quite serious people on the Management Board who understand that this is a serious tax crime and would not vote for such a thing. What kind of audacity is it not to want to pay taxes, but to ask for state aid? Let the transfer commission, if there is one, because we believe the president has fully taken over its functions, show a statement of how much in transfer funds has been received by bank transfer over the last four years and how this money has been distributed. And the amounts there are not small - the fee alone for a national player under 25 years old according to the European transfer calculator is €6,370. And this is every year until the player turns 25. That is, if a player goes abroad at 20, over 5 years he will contribute 5 x 6370 = €31,850 to the federation's coffers.

You'd be surprised - this is your money again, because you create the players.
For comparison, this same player receives BGN 400 per month under a contract with the federation, which amounts to BGN 4,800 annually or BGN 24,000 over five years. And note - the money is paid by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, not by the BVF. If the player does not make it into the national team, they do not receive a salary from the Ministry, but just for being registered as a national player the previous year, they still pay €6730. Let's also mention that 20% of the administrative transfer fee is returned to the BVF. Or from €1920 x 20% = €384. At first glance, an insignificant amount, but when you multiply by approximately 100 players (and there are many more) x 4 years, it's €153,600. With just the income from transfers, the federation could significantly support clubs in Bulgaria.

There are many other topics, such as the scandals in the women's national team, which were covered up and smoothed over not without the help of former stars of the women's national team, who on the phone persuaded those who wanted to tell the truth to remain silent. Unfortunately, there were similar problems in their team back then, and they also kept silent. When you keep silent about a problem, you don't solve it, you only deepen it. Well, we've deepened it well.
The same problems occurred with the junior girls' team, and there, a former national team captain, following orders from above, suppressed the case.

Now there will be a new saga with the selection of the women's national team coach. False claims are being made in the public sphere to achieve a pre-election effect. Ivan Petkov will not accept the position of national coach, as Mr. Ganev claims, unless he leaves his current club. This sounds like either you are a member of the Board of Directors or you are a paid employee. This is how laws work in democratic states and institutions.

But these are matters concerning the style and working methods of the President of the BVF, who was left unchecked by the members of the Management Board, for which they also bear responsibility. And if they do not take responsibility and do not properly and publicly present all answers to the questions raised, this means that they are part of the pact of interconnected vessels.

An extremely important part of the BVF structure is the coaching commission. Left to its own devices. We organize seminars under CEV programs for two consecutive years, attended by 200 people from 35-40 European federations, with three invited lecturers. We cannot assess the effect of this entire organization in purely sporting, scientific, and pedagogical aspects at this stage, but after checking with CEV, it turned out that this is a joint project, for which CEV pays €45,000, and BVF participates with €20,000. Now the question is - how were these funds invoiced? And this is for two consecutive years. An excellent way to hide some leva or euros. The calculation shows that €65,000 divided by 400 person-days = €162.50 per person per day. Interestingly, how much did Hotel Vitosha receive?

Let us also ask why the contract with Genius Sport for 10 years was signed unilaterally? During this period, the funds to be received are within €177,000, while a similar project in neighboring Greece brings €200,000 per year. So, for 10 years - the Bulgarian model is €177,000, and the Greek model is €2,000,000. This is a total loss for the clubs in Bulgaria, because these are the clubs' rights, these are the clubs' money!

We also have the list that Mr. Lyubo Ganev sent to the clubs, indicating who should be elected as members of the Board of Directors.

All this information we are presenting is part of the problems within the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation. Our claims are supported by truthful documents, and we expect more such documents from international institutions.

First, we want to call on the current leadership to allow the assembly to be open to the media. We want all former presidents and general secretaries of the BVF to be invited as guests. We want to warn the media not to worry if anyone pressures them not to publish. This document has also been sent to CEV.

Whatever happens in these elections, whatever the outcome, we will initiate a financial audit unless the leadership shows the truth and a way out of the situation.

Dear club presidents, do not let yourselves be misled by trifles. You are intelligent and wise enough to make an informed decision. This is your money, which is disappearing somewhere and not coming to you. You are the ones who deserve it. You are the ones who build the foundation of the pyramid. Do not fall for unrealistic promises, do not sell yourselves for balls, business trips, and dinners. Demand answers from the leaders and protect your rights and interests. We hope you understand why the funds are not reaching you. And for anything that is unclear to you, you can ask questions at the General Assembly.

Note: The facts presented are on the FIVB and CEV websites, and in BFV documents.

Candidate for president

Ivan Seferinov