Bad news for Beroe and Botev

Two months into the Bulgarian season, PFC Beroe Stara Zagora and PFC Botev Plovdiv face uncertain futures following the withdrawal of their main sponsors.

Banev walks
After a game against PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv in late August when he had been abused by home fans, Beroe's majority shareholder Nikolai Banev walked out on the club, leaving a group of local businessmen to try and keep things running while a new investor could be found. Coach Radoslav Zdravkov resigned in September but returned for three more games before leaving again last week.

Transfer requests
Now club administrator Nikolai Demirev is temporarily in charge of the first team and will lead Beroe in their next league game against PFC Vihren Sandnaski on Saturday. His situation is not an easy one. Every member of the team's playing staff has handed in a transfer request, and everyone is hoping that the club directors' meeting on 18 October will end with a new investor being named.

Golden players
Should no new majority shareholder be found, it could easily spell the death of the 1986 Bulgarian champions who have won against the likes of Juventus, FK Austria Wien, Athletic Club Bilbao and Fenerbahçe SK in UEFA club competition and also won the now defunct Balkan Cup four times as well as discovering great players like Petar Zhekov, Stoicho Mladenov, Georgi Dimitrov and Petko Petkov.

Ups and downs
A turbulent spell in the 1990s saw Beroe slip down into the second and third divisions and since returning to the A PFG in 2004, they have struggled to live up to past glories. The same is true of the Canaries of Botev Plovdiv. Once ranked alongside PFC CSKA Sofia and PFC Levski Sofia as one of Bulgaria's finest sides, they have slipped a long way since winning the 1929 and 1967 titles.

Famous Canaries
Bulgarian Cup winners in 1962, Botev beat the likes of FC Barcelona and FC Bayern München in European games and unearthed players of the calibre of Dinko Dermendzhiev, Viden Apostolov, Georgi Slavkov, Kostadin Kostadinov, Petar Zehtinski and Atanas Pashev. However, like Beroe, they have been left in limbo after majority shareholder Dimitar Hristolov quit following abuse from supporters.

Sudden end
Despite efforts by his players to secure Hristolov's return - even staging a one-day strike in his defence - the investor has stuck by his decision, and now coach Tencho Tenev - who has replaced Svetoslav Garkov - faces an unpredictable situation. Botev may not even be able to play their weekend game against PFC Marek Dupnitza. A long, distinguished history could be coming to an abrupt end.