Levski Sofia venue work new lease on life

Article posted by Coliseum, February 8^th, 2024

Image: Georgi Asparuhov Stadium, Bjoertvedt, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Bulgarian professional association football club PFC Levski Sofia have created a new company to restart the half-built work of the club’s new Georgi Asparuhov Stadium in Sofia, Bulgaria, which they aim to build on the site of the old stadium which will be eventually leveled. Though reconstruction work started few years back but it had to be stopped halfway due to change in the club’s ownership and since then the project has been hanging fire.

‘INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL’ stated that the above announcement by Levski comes amidst pecuniary woes and the huge debt tax owed by the club to the State.

The PFC Levski Sofia is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia (Bulgaria), which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system.

The 29,200-capacity Georgi Asparuhov Stadium, also known as Vivacom Arena Georgi Asparuhov, is a multipurpose stadium in Sofia, Bulgaria. The stadium is located in the Suhata reka neighborhood in the Eastern outskirts of Sofia in the Poduyane District. It serves as the home of the PFC Levski Sofia.

‘INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL’ further stated that Levski began reconstructing its new home a few years ago, but managed to build only one of the stands. That reconstruction project was stopped due to a change in the club ownership.

In 2017, Levski signed a naming rights sponsorship contract for the stadium with one of Bulgaria’s leading mobile operators – Vivacom. Since then, the stadium has been officially known as the VIVACOM – Georgi Asparuhov.

Vivacom is the largest telecommunications company in Bulgaria and a former State-owned incumbent operator. The company is headquartered in the capital City Sofia and employs around 5,900 people, owning a mature distribution network with around 230 branded retail outlets and alternative sale points. Vivacom is a fully integrated operator, providing mobile, fixed voice, fixed broadband and pay-TV (both DTH and IPTV) services on a nationwide scale to both residential and business customers.

The club sent out a statement which read, “In a decision taken by the Management Board of Levski Sofia on January 31^st, 2024, the company ‘Stadion Georgi Asparuhov’ EAD, 100 percent owned by PFC Levski AD, was established. The purpose of the newly- established organization is to work actively to improve the overall infrastructure of the club, including the realization of the most important goal related to the reconstruction of the Levski home which is hanging in balance and thus building a state-of-the-art soccer stadium on the site in which the present home of Levski stands which will offer ‘The Blues’ fans the most advanced facilities.”

The first priority for the new stadium company is to ensure the club has long-term and unencumbered legal rights to invest in, manage and develop the stadium.

The statement concluded, “Currently, our team is working proactively to create the proper environment to bring to fruition our goal of building a brand-new stadium for the top-notch club at the earliest.”

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