Football in Bulgaria is taken in a totally different way here. There are certainly fanatical fans at local and national level but this is from a tiny minority of Bulgarians. Sport in general from this small European country has a small following the reasons are that supporting a sport has no financial benefit to most people. They certainly have nothing to gain by going to sporting events or spending money on satellite/cable sports TV stations. Even the potential nationalistic emotions to on international sporting success is taken here with total calmness, placidity and restrain.
Speaking to a Bulgarian friend the other day I asked why he didn't have any sense of disappointment when Holland scored a goal against Bulgaria in an European qualification match on terrestrial TV? He said that football was of no interest to him and was the same to many other Bulgarians. He went on to say that they expect footballers to score two or three goals in every match and if they don't that where the interest ends. On any professional football front this doesn't happen and a sense over expectation from sportsmen leads to inevitable failure in their eyes. What he is really saying is unless the team is the best in the world most Bulgarians want to know and don't care!
Anyone who knows about football will be fully aware that the game is not just about a couple of individual footballers scoring lost of goals, it is far more complex than that. This leave me doubting that my Bulgarian friend know much about the game anyway with statements like that. Furthermore if he wasn't interested in Bulgarian football that would provoke more evidence of his lack of knowledge and understanding of the game. Another 'Bulgarian Maestro!'
It just goes to show that there is a big difference in the way sport is viewed and felt here. Certainly sport is not a way of life here unless you are part of the of game. Many football followers in the UK have this fanatical side to them which is part of their culture. I might add that British culture might well be lacking without football as part of it. It may be so that the UK and other countries need football, Bulgaria at this point doesn't and it would be no great loss to many without it.
A recent forum posting shows another example of this recently:
http://www.ourbulgarianworld.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=254&topic=480.0Just to add to this, there were some English speaking Bulgarians who contested that Bulgarian are quite passionate about their football and noisy with it contrary to my experiences. There has now been an invitation to join these passionate Bulgarian football folk on the next game due. We will see whether this will change my view of the matter.
There seemed to be a certain calm and non discussion on football for the last week or so in the house. I knew that it was a bit of a taboo subject, then the news came in on the television that Plamen Markov the National team's coach had been given the sack.
No doubt the football talk will recommence soon as the last match becomes history and a new manger full of optimism, surely they won't go for Bulgaria’s football hero Hristo Stoichkov again will they? There is rumour that Ex-Spurs player and England Coach Terry Venables is in the picture again as the Bulgarian Football Union look abroad for potential managers to see them though to the 2010 world cup finals and beyond. Interesting times as Venables was in the frame around this time last year.
