I will forever remain a leftist.

Author: Yoan Zapryanov

The bottom, as every Levski fan knows, is an abstract concept. I used to think, for example, that our elimination from Bate Borisov was the bottom. Or the one from Spartak Trnava in one half. Or when we lost the title in the last match with an own goal, and a week before that we had also lost the cup final. Or the other two finals, lost a few years later. In short, until not so long ago, “the bottom” was a purely sports term.

I can't find my place all day. Yesterday Delyan Peevski donated 500 thousand leva to Levski, but I accepted it with a sneer. Even last night I went to kick, as always, with a blue jersey (in this case – the one with Spisarevski). Because I was convinced that we cannot accept such a donation from such a person.

Well, it turns out we can.

For years, Levski fans have been repeating the same thing. Yes, we are weak, we are not winning, but Levski is something more – Levski is an idea, Levski is an ideal. This is especially difficult to explain when you have someone against you who is asking you the right questions. For example – what morality, what ideals, when your last owners are Chorni, Batkov, envoys of GERB and DPS, Spas Rusev (who is downright a saint considering the others on the list) and Vasil Bozhkov? Fortunately, football-related disputes are usually much simpler and real debates on the real issues do not exist.

Currently, Levski is fighting for its survival, but the truth is that it might be better not to. Because all the ideals and morals that we Levski fans once talked about have been erased and erased in recent months. Less than a year and a half ago, Vasil Bozhkov, the former owner of CSKA, became one of Levski. This did not turn out to be a problem, although a few years earlier, on the same pretext – that he was from CSKA – we ruined the career of a coach who had not led the team even for a single match. Today, Vasil Bozhkov is in exile, Levski has no money and accepts donations from Delyan Peevski, probably the darkest figure in the last 30 years in Bulgaria. A man who practically single-handedly took over the judicial system, the media sector in the country, while at the same time directing almost all state resources to himself, bankrupted one of the largest banks and created a state structure that would work only for him. A man who cost all Bulgarians billions of leva and caused damage to society that cannot be measured in money.

If Levski's existence depends on Delyan Peevski's donations, Levski should not exist because it is a mockery of everything the team's patron ever fought for.

Four years ago, CSKA went bankrupt. From there on, the story is familiar – a mutant was created by Litex and Chavdar (Etropole), which entered the A group through a quick procedure. All Levski fans united behind the thesis that this was not CSKA. We mocked that after so many years of insults from the red fans, Grisha Ganchev finally turned out to be their savior. For their part, the CSKA fans who "recognized" said that they were ready for anything so that there was any CSKA team to support. That the football club is not just a commercial company. That when the knife is pressed to the bone, even the "dwarf from Mikre" quickly becomes "Mr. Ganchev."

We laughed.

Now, less than four years later, it turns out that there was no reason to laugh. That when the knife really hits the bone, we are not ready to take the right path, to take responsibility. Let's accept that Levski is Levski even without being in Group A, and without fighting for the title (which it hasn't done for 10 years anyway), without a big budget and without European matches.

Of course, the question arises - well, why can Bozhkov's money be used, but Peevski's - not? Moreover, this is not the first time Peevski has been associated with Levski, and only years ago his right-hand man was one of the owners of the documents.

First, because there are shadows of black. Vasil Bozhkov probably deserves to rot in prison, but even he (as he admitted in the interview with bTV) turned out to be small compared to Peevski and his state.

Second and most importantly – because now we had a choice that we didn’t have before. Until now, the filth in Levski’s ownership and financing was something that I considered not a choice, but a dependency that we would deal with when we had the opportunity. Levski’s ownership was being tossed around left and right, without anyone having a say. Now we did. Levski’s management and the fans had the opportunity to say: no, thank you, we don’t accept this donation.

They didn't.

Pavel Kolev didn't do it, which is understandable, because he is still a director and is actually responsible to the shareholders. But the scary thing is that the fans didn't. It turned out that it's much easier to close your eyes than to follow the ideals in question that you constantly talk about. That double standards and hypocrisy are a way of life. That no tattoo of the Apostle on your chest can save you from your mediocrity.

With the exception of the Blue Bulgaria Trust, no one else even came up with a position. The National Communist Party did not come up with a position, the major factions did not come up with a position. Even some of the most intelligent Levski fans I know either turned a blind eye and continued to share tickets and donations on Facebook, or timidly said "hey, money doesn't smell. Since we've taken from Bozhkov, let's take from Peevski too."

Levski has always had two options.

In one case, Levski is just a football club. Football clubs are rarely a symbol of anything, they are just commercial companies that pay salaries to football players who play in a certain color of jerseys. And that's it, so whether Levski will exist through Peevski's donations or not at all, it doesn't matter. There are football clubs under the road and above the road.

In the other case, Levski is something more – a club whose goal is, as far as a football team can do, to stand behind higher ideas related to its patron: freedom, independence. In which case its size does not matter, but its name, how it is financed and whether it is used for political purposes – does.

The first choice was made slowly, painfully and consistently over many years. Now, it seems, it is becoming official to the point where we can admit that the bottom is not just an abstract concept. The bottom does not exist and in the end everything is justified. Morality and hypocrisy are justified, double standards are justified, as is the justification for preferring Levski to exist at any cost rather than to preserve its dignity. To exist as a bargaining chip between Vasil Bozhkov, Boyko Borisov and Delyan Peevski. Or whoever. I am already convinced that even if Kiril Domuschiev asks to become the owner of Levski, the reaction of the majority of supporters will not be "I've been here so far", but they will quietly or loudly say to themselves "we will finally see a title".

In fact, as of today, May 20, 2020, four days before its 106th birthday, Levski officially transitioned to being just another club. A commercial company whose responsibility is only to its shareholders. It did so while accepting the handouts of an “ordinary MP” who costs the state billions of leva, but at the same time also asking for donations from every supporter and receiving money from people for whom a donation of 50 leva has a much greater burden on their personal finances than a donation of 500 thousand leva for Delyan Peevski.

I am not a hypocrite. I avoid double standards. I certainly claim that I have morals. And today, my morals tell me that the bottom has been reached and I prefer to stay with all the pleasant and unpleasant memories of the team of my heart, Levski Sofia, rather than helping yet another commercial company that has no other purpose than to satisfy its shareholders and to be used as a bargaining chip by people who have forever tarnished the idea of a pure and holy republic.

I will forever remain a leftist.
Loyal to his team until the end.
I won't betray him.
For nothing in the world.

I am ready for anything for Levski.

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