FC Levski's defender Ivan Vassilev (the picture on the right) will miss today's match for the preliminary round of the Cup Winners Cup against Slovan (Bratislava) due to injury. FC Levski is the last Bulgarian representative in Europe after CSKA (Sofia) and Neftohimik (Burgas) were eliminated in the first preliminary round. Added later: Levski drew 1:1 with Slovan. The team: 1.Ivankov, 2.Vl. Ivanov, 3.Gospodinov, 18.Vatchev, 20.Marinov (55' Radukanov), 6.Yonkov, 7.Pavlov, 8.Alexandrov, 9.G. Ivanov (80' Simeonov), 10.Todorov, 11.Yovov (50' Borisov). The score: 1:0 G. Ivanov 18', 1:1 Novak 70'.

Slovan (Bratislava) arrived yesterday (August 13) in Sofia. About 50 fans from Slovakia have joined their favourite football team. The players brought with them lots of bottles with mineral water. More than 30000 Bulgarian fans are expected to appear at 18.00h today (i.e. August 14) at the National stadium "Vassil Levski".

Marian Hristov's team FCK drew 1:1 with Teneriffe in Spain (the picture on the right). Andy Bremme, the captain of FCK is on the left. Domingos from Teneriffe is the other one. Marian Hritov has a fracture on the leg and will be out for some time. In the 2nd Bundesliga Hubtchev's team Eintracht Frankfurt won 1:0 against Stuttgarter Kickers and they are the only team with 9 points out of 3 matches. Ananiev's VFB Leipzig are second with 7 points. News thatks to Anton Gintchev!

Arts dedicated to FC Levski thanks to Dimitar Rashkoff.

Krassimir Balakov got yesterday his first yellow card for the season in the 2nd Round of the German Bundesliga. Stuttgart lost 1:2 against Arminia B. after leading 1:0 at half time. Balakov is probably the best playing Bulgarian footballer abroad.

When will the new Coat of Arms be placed on the jerseys of the Bulgarian National Football team? Hard to say...

Emil Kostadinov (on the right) is hard to be traced. The coach of the Bulgarian National Team Hristo Bonev has not been able to contact the player. The 20 National players will gather together in Bojana (near Sofia) on August 14th.

Bobby Mihailov (on the right), the former Bulgarian National goalkeeper and captain is most likely to join CSKA (Sofia). He might even return to the National team for the clash against Russia on September 10th - very unlikely however considering his injury.

(i) Radostin Kishishev (the picture on the righ) was sold for $1.6 m. to the Turkish Bursaspor. This becomes the 8th highest transfer for a Bulgarian abroad. (ii) Sandor Piller (Hungary) will be the referee for the Bulgaria - Israel match, while the referee for the September clash in Sofia between Bulgaria and Russia will be Vaclav Krondel (Czech Republic).

(i) CSKA is again at the top of the table only after one round. The last year champions won their first match in A PFG by 5:1 against Etar (Veliko Tarnovo) (see the picture on the right). (ii) CSKA play Slavia (Sofia) on Friday, August 8 at 20.00h - the first match of Round 2. The referee of that match will be Stefan Ormandzhiev.

Old news: May 1997, June-July 1997

Acknowledgement: Most of the infomation (along with the pictures) is from the Bulgarian Press (24 hours, etc.)