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Bulgarian giants Sofia's fans are delighted. The club was acquired at the end of last year by one of the wealthiest representatives of the World family, Indian steel magnate Pramod Mittal.
Although Sofia's fiercest rivals "Levski" have reached the group stage of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in Bulgarian football history this year, most of the attention is now focused on CSKA.
P. Mittal took over the management of the Sofia club from Vasil Bozhkov in December. V. Bozhkov, considered the richest man in Bulgaria, took over the club in the 1999-2000 season, and although the club became the Bulgarian champion in 2003 and 2004 and won the Bulgarian Cup last year, poor results in the UEFA Champions League did not satisfy the owner.
It is expected that the arrival of Pramod Mittal - the youngest of the three brothers titled "Steel Kings" - will help CSKA, which has been Bulgarian champions 30 times, become a serious force not only in Bulgaria but also in Europe.
"I am happy to have arrived at CSKA," said P. Mittal. "It is a wonderful club, and my goal is to bring back its glory."
Together with the new owner, a new management team also took over CSKA. Former Bulgarian deputy prime minister Alexander Tomov became the club's president, and former Bulgarian football legend Emil Kostadinov became the club's sports director.
"The club's management has two goals," explained the new CSKA president. "Firstly, we want to organize the club's administration and turn it into a strong mechanism. The second will be a sports goal. Head coach Plamen Markov has our support, and his goal is to win the Bulgarian championship. That is the direction we must work towards."
Currently, CSKA is trailing leaders "Levski" by two points, but in terms of playing quality, the difference between P. Markov's and Stanimiro Stoilov's players on the field is much greater. Although P. Mittal has provided CSKA with a significant budget to strengthen during the winter transfer window, this year it will be really difficult for the club to match the significantly improved "Levski" in recent years.
The club has already strengthened with several leaders from other Bulgarian teams and has retained its current team leaders. The Bulgarian championship will continue from March, so the fans hope that by that time CSKA will further strengthen.
