Bulgarian Volleyball Federation FAILURES - info

Here is the thread that we, Bulgarian users, will post all the scandals and strange things that happen with volleyball in our country. These scandals are dictated by the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation and mainly by the man in the picture - Dancho Lazarov, also known as the Engineer.

The thread's purpose is not to complain about something and it can't take Lazarov off power. You can consider its purpose more as for entertainment and pure information. We will tend to be 100% objective to get you to know the facts and to be closer to the truth. I can't write about all of the scandals because I'm not competent about all of them. But when some of the Bulgarian users describes one event, I will copy it in this first post. The scandals that first come into my mind are:

- the affair with Nikolay Ivanov and his unwillingness to play for NT
- the scandals about Matey Kaziyski's transfers from Slavia and from Dinamo Moscow.
- 2008 Olympics and Plamen Konstantinov's doping scandal.
- Dragutin Baltic's sex sms-es.
- 2012 women's national championships semifinals.
- 2012 men's national championship finals.
- Equipment scandals about Errea and Asics
- Radostin Stoychev's dismissal
- not keeping players like Hristo Zlatanov, Ventseslav Simeonov and Todor Baev play for Bulgarian NT
- the dismissal of Silvano Prandi after WCH 2010 in Italy
- the affair with the slavery contracts signed between the federation and the players who always need to go to court to break the contract and go abroad, for example.
- the annual scandals in the junior/youth club teams during national championships; quite often teams from Sofia (not only though) get more advantages than some others.
- not registering Kaziyski for ECH 2003 in Germany which resulted in a 3:0 loss vs. Serbia and Montenegro
- the money from the World League don't reach the players
- the relationship between Dancho Lazarov and his mistress - the NT player Lyubka Deburlieva - and the scandals surrounding her

There are probably more to add but I can't think of them right now. Feel free to add anything that you know about.

I'll start with this:

Volleyball isn't a religion.

Bulgarian women's volleyball national championship. Semifinal. The series is between CSKA Volley and Levski Sikonko. The series is tied 1-1 and on Sunday, 11 March 2012 the third decisive match is to be played in the Sikonko Hall.

The Volleyball Federation announces earlier in the day that the decisive match is postponed and will be played on Tuesday, 13 March, because there has been a religious meeting at the exact time and place when and where the third match had to be played on schedule. It wasn't understood why the Federation found out so late about this religious meeting of the Jehovah's Witnesses and hadn't changed the schedule earlier. It was unknown why the Jehovah's Witnesses had advantage to use the hall over the volleyball federation and the teams.

Levski's starting setter Petya Barakova was injured and couldn't play the decisive game on Sunday, 11 March. She could recover until Tuesday and could play on 13 March. She played in the first match in which Levski won. She didn't play in the second match in which Levski lost.

A reporter from the television channel BTV Petar Bakurdzhiev went to Levski Sikonko's hall on Sunday, 11 March at 17:40 when the Jehovah's Witnesses were expected to have a meeting. The match between Levski and CSKA had to start by the earlier schedule at 18:00. What Bakurdzhiev saw and showed through the cameras of BTV to all the viewers was that there was no meeting by the Jehovah's Witnesses. Instead, the male volleyball team of Levski had a practice session. So the hall was free and there was no problem to play the third decisive match between the women's teams of CSKA and Levski. Eventually, the setter Barakova did not recover from injury and Levski did not appear on Tuesday, 13 March . CSKA advanced to the finals automatically.

The owner of Levski Volley is the President of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation Dancho Lazarov.

Yes, we have to describe all of this like I described the Women's Final issue, because otherwise it will be threated as simple accusations of an ordinary fan When I have more time, I will try to dig some info about the rest of the scandals. Thank you for reminding me about the Nikolay Ivanov affair.

All added But the more important job is to write info about them because they now seem as proofless accusations. Tomorrow I'll try to find all the info about Baltic's case.

Yavor, can I somehow post links for the information, because the first post will eventually become enormous and it wouldn't be convenient. One solution is to post every single info on a separate thread and to paste the links of those threads here in the first post but in this way I'll flood the General Section. Maybe if I post every info in the Archives section. Can I do that?

Dragutin Baltic's sex messages


September 2011. Coach of the volleyball national team of Bulgaria for women is Dragutin Baltic. He has a wife and three kids.

In 5 of April, 2011 Bulgarian NT for women is having a new head coach. His name is Dragutin Baltic and who, among all other successes in volleyball, has a master's degree in Economics from the University of Sarajevo. Things look promising for the team, who lost his long-standing previous coach Dragan Nesic. Baltic's target was a medal at the following European Championships.

But soon after his appointment, Baltic started to amaze the specialists and the wide public with his moves. He didn't include some of the best players in the starting lineup and on 4 August, 2011, Baltic excluded the stars Eva Yaneva, Strashimira Filipova and Dobriana Rabadzhieva from the team. His motive was that they hadn't been at the NT camp in Pravec, thus abandoning the national team and Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Volleybal Federation not only didn't pardon the players, but it suspended the captain Eva Yaneva not to play volleyball for the national team for 2 years. There has been rumours for protests amongst the girls inside the team and during the scandals Bulgaria was losing all of the matches the country played. Diana Nenova and Maria Filipova were also left out. The assistant-coach Petur Dochev resigned, too, after the failure at ECH 2011.

The weak games continued but the scandals subsided. Or that was before 06 September 2011. On the early hours of that day, Hristina Ruseva received numerous text messages from the telephone of Dragutin Baltic. He asked Ruseva to come to his hotel room at 2 a.m. In one of the messages it was written: "Knock 3 times to know it is you and be discreet...". Apparently, simillar messages were written to another player, supposedly that was Tsvetelina Zarkova. Ruseva handed the messages to the Federation.

The assistant-coach Dimo Tonev and the new captain Lyubka Deburlieva said that they aren't sure it was Baltic who wrote those messages. "There are some talks in the dressing room but I can't mess with the privacy of other people", Deburlieva commented. Tonev added: "I'm not a police officer. Baltic didn't send such sms messages."

Eventually Baltic was fired as head coach and replaced temporarily by Tonev. The Slovenian born coach sued BVF. There is no verdict considering the process to this date. It was also revealed that his master's degree diploma was fake.

The BFV Charge
or the feodals of 21st century.

The amount of money which volleyball federations get from every transfer of a domestic player:

France: 120 euro
Spain: 100 euro
Serbia(the highest after Bulgaria): 900 euro
Bulgaria: 1500 euro
other countries: not more than 500 euro

It is called an "administrative tax" by the head of BFV(Bulgarian Federation of Volleyball) Dancho Lazarov who also says, quoting a decision by the Supreme Court of Bulgaira, that this tax is absolutely legal. That decision by the court, however, states something completely different. It says that the Federation has no right to get involved in the players' transfers. Lazarov also mentioned that a tax of 1500 euro is one of the smallest taxes in the world. The list above proves otherwise. What is more, players often give up to 40% of the money they earn to their home clubs, with which they have long-term contracts. And all those money eventually go to the volleyball federation and to Dancho Lazarov himself.

How does the scheme work?
When some 12-13 year-old boys are noticed by the clubs, the clubs coax their parents to sign a 10 year contract. Their representatives lure the kid and his/her parents that it has incredible talent, it can become a national player and this club will take care of him and his future as a volleyball star will be ensured if the parents sign "the contract". What the parents don't know is that they say those words to hundreds of little kids and their families and many of them don't even manage to get to the A team of the club. But if they really become good players and can go abroad, because of this "contract" they become also a living treasury box or an exchequer for those clubs and the volleybal federation. Moreover, these contracts are not completely legal because by the laws of the Republic of Bulgaria an underaged individual cannot be a part of a contract. These 10-year or more contracts obliges the players to pay part of their salary regularly to the clubs and gives the clubs the power to decide where can these players go. In other words, if one player wants to move from one club to another, he has to ask for permission from the domestic club with which he has this "contract".

Who are enslaved by the contract?
99% of the volleybal players in Bulgaria have such contracts. The only players which don't have them are Matey Kazyiski, Antonina Zetova and two other female volleyball players with double citizenship. They all had to fight to liberate themselves from these contracts. There will be a entirely new thread here for Matey Kaziyski's case.
Another case is the one with Venci Trifonov. He also tried to liberate himself from the contract but didn't succeed. He and his father opened a law suit against Victoria Volley because he was 12-13 years old and he as an underaged person couldn't sign a contract. They won the case on first instance but on the second instance the decision was overruled and finally he remained a player of Victoria Volley. Now he thinks of giving up with volleybal, aggrieved and disappointed. Only thanks to Nikolay Zhelyazkov, he was allowed to be part of the Junior NT in 2010 when Bulgaria won the silver medals and later to be part of Levski Volley for 1 year when the coach was the same Zhelyazkov. He hasn't played volleyball for more than 1 year already.
All NT players except Kaziyski are bound to these contracts but nobody thinks of breaking away from the contracts in fear that they might follow Venci Trifonov. Vladimir Nikolov, Teodor Salparov, Andrey Zhekov, Tsvetan Sokolov, Todor Aleksiev, Valentin and Georgi Bratoev, Nikolay Nikolov, Victor Yosifov, Teodor Todorov and hundreds of others are bound by these contracts. Part of the money all of them earn go to Dancho Lazarov and BFV which is also sponsored by the Ministry of Sport. And BFV continues to say that they don't have enough money to build halls, pay salaries, build a better internal competition(the National Superleague).

LDVolley, you mean the Balkan story? I didn't get what you said. And by the way, you can comment all this in the other topic, To Engineer the volleyball in Bulgaria. This topic here is just for information

I will use the info from volleywood.net, posted by nadejda in the other thread about Radostin Stoychev's dismissal and later comeback as a head coach. This case has yet to be concluded and it will be frequently updated.

From an outcast to most desirable man for 3 days. Part I.

Or the scandals in the Stoychev-Lazarov axis

15th May 2011

On day 1 of the qualification at around lunch time Zhekov got injured & banned to play by the doctors. Bratoev had almost never set for our main players previous to that even at trainings (huge mistake). The federation was expecting the team to stumble in the very first match in these circumstances. The pressure was on the faces of the players & mainly on Rado’s one, who looked terrible in all matches, I must admit. Somehow managed to overcome their fears & insecurities, not only in the first match, but also in the 2nd and 3rd.

Then came the match with Germany, which you all saw. Straightaway after the match, our beloved federation had a meeting & announced there will be a new change of the coach – Prandi back, Stoychev – out. That happened about 00.00 after the match with Germany.

On the day of the final at official press-conference Lubo Ganev & Danco Lazarov announced, that Stoychev is let go without disclosing their motives. A reporter asked them, did they give a chance to Rado to explain himself. Lubo said: “Why should we listen to him? We watched him how he conducted the match yesterday. It was all Rado’s fault why we lost.” At this press-conference was Sandro Filipinni (deputy editor of Gazzetta dello Sport), who by some coincidence is married to Tsvetana Bozhurina (bronze medallist from 1980 Olympics & European champion from 1981). Filippini asked Ganev & Lazarov in perfect Bulgarian: “How do you think you can win against Germany with Bratoev? He does not have the relevant experience.” Then there was an interview with Bozhurina & she said Plamen Konstantinov (who was sitting next to her at most matches) told her 1 week before the qualification started, he got a phone call from the federation & was asked, if he will agree to take over the NT, if Rado will not manage to qualify the team for London at the European qualification in Sofia. I’m not going to go into details what kind of damn stupid comments Vlado Nikolov gave on the same day. The best part was that Rado does not sleep enough, that he is an extreme workaholic & it’s difficult to work with him, because he requires a lot of daily sacrifices from the players (like they were sunbathing & partying all day long with Prandi before).

Matey was asked, if he will remain in the team: He was pissed off big time & did not want to talk. Just said: “I’ll make up my mind by Wednesday.” The most amusing part was, that Stoychev found out he is fired, 30 min after the media, when he arrived in the venue to watch the final. The speaker announced to the audience in the hall before the beginning of the final, that Rado Stoychev is fired. The hall started clapping & shouting his name. This repeated on few more occasions during the match (before the 5th set most obvious). Then it was announced that the new coach will be Prandi. I cant believe our disgraceful federation misled this honourable man second time by telling him the players don’t want Stoychev & that’s why he accepted the offer verbally at the initial stage. However, the audience was very rude and hostile, booing Prandi, suspecting he is an accessory of the corrupted federation. I’m really sorry about that! He did not deserve such a public humiliation either! The poor man left from the back entrance after the end of the match…. I feel terribly ashamed from all this ugly & scornful actions of this federation from hell, that puts to shame the whole country and still they have not written their resignations.

16th May 2012

Today senior Prandi officially announced, that he is rejecting the offer & wishes the best of luck to the BG NT. He gained my respect back! Complimenti senior! I honestly was blaming him for the way Plamen Konstantinov was kicked out from the team after 17 yrs, but now I know Prandi had no idea, that he was used in the most malicious way by V. Nikolov & the federation to get rid of the rebel Konstantinov, who never was convenient for them. Same as Stoychev, who is not afraid of this federation. The moment Matey’s patience finished, he became a black sheep as well….

Lubo Ganev astonished the whole world this morning with his appeal to Kaziyski on the national TV to qualify the team for London first & then to quit the NT, if he wants. How short could be the path from being a great & respected player to being a doormat? As we say in Bulgaria, it’s never to late to become a disgrace…..

The story is to be continued tomorrow…. I hope the management board and the president of the federation will resign finally after they left the team without a coach 2 months before the Olympics. If they don’t resign, we will have no team left either…. Outrageous madness & corruption… If there were OG in intrigues, stabbing in the back, dirty tricks & betrayals, I’m very sad to say it, but there will be Bulgarians to win it by a clear mile above all other competitors…

Few links, not sure if they’ll be any help at all, but I better put them anyway:

A Video (in Bulgarian) with few interviews with Bozhurina, Kiosev, Nikolov, Kaziyski from Sunday: http://kanal3.bg/?v=7997

Sandro Filippini’s report on the ridiculous outcome of this whole nonsense.: http://www.bgvolleyball.com/new.php?id=9786

Ganev’s statement: http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n278040

The highlights from 16th May 2012

The prime minister invited Rado & the players to find out what’s going on in the team. Salparov, Zhekov, Kaziyski went. They all had gone through a similar destructive scandal in Beijing with Konstantinov in 2008 & obviously are not afraid to stand up against the federation this time. They said there are 5 players, who will not continue with the team, unless the federation resign.

Few extracts from video interviews in Bulgarian:

Stoychev: I’m trying to convince the players not to quit the NT. It’s more important for me BG NT to qualify for London without me, than not to qualify with me. The situation in the NT at the moment is unbearable. In personal conversations with fans, he said he will join them as a fan in London to support BG NT.

Kaziyski: I never said with or without Stoychev! Did not come here to give ultimatums or anything else. There are people in BFV, who care about their own personal interests more than the national interests. For me is important to work in the correct way, systematically. We are deeply grieved from all this circus. There is one theatre in front of the public, but the decision was taken long time ago. The last drop for my patience was what happened at the final (last Sunday). We talked to the federation, but our opinion was completely ignored & they did what they wanted. We were told: “We will do what we want, you do what you want” (meaning quit the NT, if you want) The only one thing in common we have with V. Nikolov at the moment is that we all want to go to London. I did not talk to Prandi on Sun. Just barely saw him, but had no desire to talk to him. There are people, who don’t want Rado as a coach. The problems are not from today or yesterday. We, the players know what happened. I told Lazarov, that now is not the time for such actions against the team. He did not care, if he is going to hurt the team or not. I want to play at London Olympics, but not at any cost. I want to apologise to the fans, who want us to play better & better. I’m ashamed, that things like that are happening. It will be right, if Dancho Lazarov resign.

Dancho Lazarov (the president of the BVF): We should have fired Stoychev long time ago. I’m not going to resign. We have done everything possible for the NT. We are doing a great job with the youngsters. Bulgaria is 4th in Europe in the youngsters. We can’t be hostage of one player (Kaziyski). Playing for Bulgaria is an honour. If he wants to leave, he must have his own reasons. Whoever wants to play in the NT and has been called, can do it. Whoever wants to leave is free to do it (re Zhekov). Nobody likes Stoychev. More than 100 people phoned me and they even say, that Stoychev lost the match with Germany on purpose. Because his way of conducting the match was a lack of professionalism. He made such gross errors in an important match, only to prevent Bulgaria to play with Italy on the final. Kaziyski and Zhekov have their own opinion, which I can’t understand & will not comment. Do you know what our captain Vladimir Nikolov is saying – we need men and fighters! (and traitors, who can lick boots & can turn into spineless chameleons overnight I’d add).

Ganev with official decision of the management board of BFV: Stoychev and all staff from his team are restored back to their positions. We have not talked to him yet. We hope he will not reject to come back. His contract has not been terminated yet anyway. I’m not going to resign. Only the general meeting can require or approve my resignation. Why should I resign?

From volleywood.net

From an outcast to most desirable man for 3 days. Part II.

Or the scandals in the Stoychev-Lazarov axis

17th May 2012

http://volleyball.sportal.bg/news.php?news=365289

“I want to inform you about my decision in connection with the events of the recent days. Yesterday we had a meeting with the prime minister. Following this meeting, and after the conversation we had with the players, I decided to return to the team, despite of the insult.

Then a colleague of yours (report) showed me an interview with Mr. Lazarov, stating that I should have been fired much earlier, because I’ve done crap errors I did not like to qualify the team on purpose. Since it appears that I’m incompetent, I cannot lead the national team.

Further in this interview Mr. Lazarov suggests, that there is no such thing as public support or love and things like that last max half a day. On the contrary I saw completely different reality on the internet forums, in the hall, in the public space and from the prime minister.

Lazarov said that the decision of the board to fire me is final. It follows that Mr. Dancho Lazarov – as the president and Mr. Radostin Stoychev – as a coach absolutely cannot work together. Mr. Lazarov either needs to prove that I sold the game against Germany, or resign. A handful of scoundrels that he mentions (supporting Stoychev). I guess, this is us – the staff, and all those people, who signed the petition for his resignation.

So I will stay to coach the team until the end of the next qualification for the simple reason, that the time is too little and another coach cannot be found. The personal insistence of the prime minister and the request of the players, who said they would sacrifice themselves in order to qualify for the Olympics, made me stay. I owe it to the boys, who stayed behind me and risked going with me to the prime minister. This was not planned, because I did not want it, but I’m touched. However, if Dancho Lazarov will not resign by end of the qualifications, I’m handing my resignation now in front of you, because obviously I’m harmful.

The staff and the team will do their utmost, even impossible to go to the Olympics. I’ll stay for three weeks coaching the national team with gratitude to the prime minister – not as prime minister, but as a man. I’m not flattering him, just respect him. Then if Dancho Lazarov does not resign within three weeks, I’m gone.

The Italians from the staff went to Italy and said that if I dont return , they will not return either. There is no time. We lost two days. We have to organize ourselves quickly”

Matey said yesterday (16th May, in an audio interview), that if in the next 3 weeks Lazarov won’t resign, regardless if Bulgaria qualifies for the London Olympics or not, he will quit the NT.

Eva Yaneva (Bulgarian volleyball player) was only threatened to be suspended. However, less than a month after her punishment, she was back in the NT & the girls got the coach they wanted to work with – Abondanza. This scandal was again Lazarov’s fault, as he was trying to please the setter Lubka Debarlieva, who he has an affair with & they have a child together. There are many scandals due to Lazarov’s incompetence – Plamen Konstantinov in Beijing, the girls last year, Dimitar Zlatanov was kicked out from the Bulgarian vball again due to Lazarov’s handy work, the champions in BG superliga this year, both men & women, were awarded their titles by the BVF. For the men’s competition Pirin, who finished 2nd, but were leading by more than 10 points all season were disallowed to play the final 3rd match in their own hall. There was some issue with the women as well, but can’t recall it now.

Silvano Prandi, who coached the team a couple of years ago, is reportedly going to return as the new head coach but he is NOT interested. Well, didn’t Prandi also get fired after Bulgaria’s disastrous performance at the 2010 World Championship?

He has released this statement:

“I am writing this press release to inform you that I took the irrevocable decision to REJECT Volleyball Federation’s invitation to be the new coach of the men’s national team. After considering it for several days, I realized that there are no minimum requirements for interaction and consensus which won’t allow me to exercise a reasonable way to do my work. Thanks to all who approached me and I wish the Bulgarian national team at my heart “in bocca al lupo” for future meetings.

Sincerely,

Silvano Prandi”

A member of the Bulgaria Federation, Lyubo Ganev, has finally decided to talk about Matey Kaziyski’s case.

“Matey should come, play, defeat the teams alone in the upcoming three matches and then I will shake his hand, if he wants to leave. He should leave after the matches, because he is the leader of the team. I do not need him, neither does the federation, but the team need him. We have already made a decision and we will stand up for it. The fans should again come and fill up the hall. There are no personal interests in Stoychev’s dismissal; neither are there any disagreements with the federation. Rado came to be a coach; we gave him the freedom to elect his staff and make decisions on his own, but we have just one more chance to advance to the Olympic Games and we had to take measures.”

From volleywood.net

Playing pregnant
the relationship between Dancho Lazarov and Lyubka Deburlieva

On 1st July, 2011, at the age of 53 years, the head of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation Dancho Lazarov became a father of a child. He has two other children, 30 years or more older than the new one, and 4 grandchildren. Some of his grandchildren are older than his new baby girl. The shocking thing is that this new kid is not from his wife, but from his mistress, the NT volleyball player Lyubka Deburlieva. Some sources claim that they have a relationship for more than 10 years, since Deburlieva came to his club Levski from Maritsa Plovdiv. These facts alone are disturbing but aren't something that is ruining Bulgarian volleyball.

What is ruining our own volleyball is Lazarov's deals supporting his relationship with Deburlieva:

After firing Dragan Nesic as a head coach of the women's NT, Dancho Lazarov started negotiating with the coach of Dinamo Kazan Rishat Gilyazutdinov. Lazarov promised Gilyazutdinov the position of head coach of Bulgarian NT with one condition: Gilyazutdinov must take Deburlieva in Dinamo Kazan! The more shocking thing is that by that time Deburlieva was pregnant!

Lazarov stated in front of our media that Gilyazutdinov will be most likely the new coach of our NT. Gilyazutdinov himself said that he'd be happy to take over as a head coach of Bulgaria.

The transfer became a fact in 9 February 2011 - the exact date when the new coach of our NT had to be announced. But on the FIVB system, this contract was with number 2452. According to the document, this contract was from 16 August 2010! One week before that date(8 August 2010) the President of Levski Volley Tihomir Lesev said through the media that Lyubka Deburlieva was the new coach of Levski Volley. So according to the documents, at the same time Deburlieva was player of Dinamo Kazan, coach of Levski Volley and she was pregnant! She was also injured at that time. Another fact - the contract number with which Emiliya Nikolova went to play in Tomis Constanta was 2391, so the contract had to be signed before 16 August 2010 because its number is lower than the number of the contract of Deburlieva. Far from the truth, Nikolova's contract was signed in 17 January 2011, which was almost half a year after that!

Deburlieva also became a head coach of women's Junior NT thanks to Lazarov and he bought an expensive car and built an estate near Sofia for Deburlieva to live there.