It is significant that we are celebrating this anniversary today.
Exactly 30 years ago, Bulgaria did not sleep all night because the miracle of “Parc des Princes” happened, which changed so many destinies and gave us so many unforgettable moments.
A moment of magic with one magical strike in the last minute sends the Bulgarian national team to the world championship.
After “Parc des Princes” and the unforgettable American summer, the boys from the national team became the most loved people in our country.
In difficult and hungry years for post-socialist Bulgaria, no one gathered as much positive energy as the talented generation that brought the greatest success to Bulgarian football.
30 years ago, the heroes of USA ’94 were more than successful athletes, they symbolized the universal hope that our country has a worthy future in the developed world. That we can compete with the best and beat them with fairness, honor and authority.
Three decades later, three of the well-known heroes woke up on the morning of November 17 as the most hated people in Bulgaria.
It’s even hard to believe that these are the same universal favorites and haven’t been replaced by some malevolent doppelgangers.
Is it really still them? The Golden Emo who ranked us with that creepy jester in Paris; the irreplaceable Dancho, who parried the Germans with the magical header and sent Bulgaria into the top 4 in the world; “that incredible Bobby Mihailov” who scored the two penalties against Mexico in the Round of 16.
There is no longer a football fan in our country who does not feel intolerance towards the three – who have become symbols of decay in the Bulgarian Football Union.
Their unbridled arrogance, greed and unceremoniousness led to the biggest rout of the 100th anniversary of the BFS with all the madness surrounding the search for a stadium for the match with Hungary, throwing out the crowd and turning the protest against them into a bloodbath.
No matter how hard they try to wash their hands of everyone else, there isn’t a single person left that they can fool.
There is no way the excuses will pass with UEFA, SDVR, MIA, fans, clubs, football players, coaches, MPs, mayors, builders and who else.
No one grasps the explanations that everyone else is to blame, and Mihailov and his people are not responsible for anything and have nothing to do with the downfall of our football.
It is clear whose fault it is that Bulgaria has become the stomping ground of football Europe after the 18-year rule of Bobby and company.
The change should have happened long ago. Obviously the seats in the BFS are too comfortable with the millions pouring in from UEFA year after year, but everything has an end.
The former heroes lost all the accumulated authority and dignity, allowed themselves to sink into a swamp of indifference, complacency and mediocrity, to get entangled in dubious schemes and to turn football into a prisoner of their personal interests.
It is high time they ended this agony, this radical humiliation of theirs, and rid football of their presence immediately. To preserve a shred of hope that sometime in the future, after many years, we will remember them not as the gravediggers of Bulgarian football.
And like those Bobby, Emo and Dancho who brought us the greatest football joy.
