October 9 – The entire management and technical staff of Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad have resigned, just minutes after a loss to the Danish club FC Nordsjaelland in a match of Group H of the UEFA Europa Conference League tournament.
The Bulgarian team was swept aside 7:1 during its visit to the small Danish town of Farum. It is the biggest loss for Ludogorets in Europe in the history of the club.
The resignations were handed in to club owners Kiril and Georgi Domuschievi.
The team management and staff said they took responsibility for the nightmarish loss and called their resignations a “moral” act.
So far the Domuschievi brothers have not made any statement on the future, or of they are accepting the resignations. The club announced that they will announce their decision in the coming days.
In a statement the club said: “The entire management of PFC Ludogorets and the sports and technical staff resigned minutes after the record loss against Nordsjælland on Thursday. They have been deposited to the owners Kiril and Georgi Domuschievi. With this act, the management and sports-technical staff take full responsibility for the loss in Denmark, which is among the biggest for the team in European tournaments. More details in the coming days”, said the club in a statement.
A day after the defeat, the club’s executive director, Angel Petrichev, confirmed the news, which sees as many as 15 people from the management and coaching staff leaving. The resignations include president of the club Alexander Alexandrov, Petrichev, the sports director Georgi Karamandzukov and the technical director Kozmin Motsi. The head coach Ivaylo Petev, his assistants Svetoslav Dyakov and Admir Kozlic, goalkeeper coach Adi Adilovic, as well as video analyst Caio Fonseca, team manager Nikolay Kirchev and conditioning coach Caba Gabrish resigned from the technical staff.
The selection board of Ludogorets – Dimitar Bozhkilov, Yakov Paparkov, Ivan Tsvetkov and Ivaylo Dimitrov – have also expressed their desire to leave the club.Ludogorets fan group – Green Boys Razgrad – said that they did not support the management coaching staff decisions to quit, and called for their resignations not to be accepted. They said that they would boycott matches until the technical staff and the club management returned.
Contact the writer of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at moc.l1734928981labto1734928981ofdlr1734928981owedi1734928981sni@o1734928981fni1734928981