One of the biggest magazines in regard to the topic of football business – Football Business Inside, published on its website an exclusive interview with the CEO of CSKA 1948 – Dobrin Gionov.

Below you can read the whole interview, which was published in two parts by the media.

Only founded 5,5 years ago as the successor of the bankrupt PFC CSKA Sofia, CSKA 1948 managed to climb from the fourth to the first tier of Bulgarian football. With a different approach and focus on building a brand, the new club wants to establish itself in the top tier and fight for the European competition. FBIN spoke to Dobrin Gionov, since January 2017 CEO of CSKA 1948.

You are a very young club, founded in 2016. Can you tell us the story of CSKA 1948?

Dobrin Gionov: This is probably the most frequent question that I receive among with the one of why there are two teams named CSKA in Sofia - CSKA 1948 and CSKA Sofia.

In 2016 PFC CSKA, the most successful football team in Bulgaria, went bankrupt. The owner of the club at that time owned one more club, namely Litex- Lovech. In order to avoid the payment of debt as big as 15-20 million Euro, he took the decision to relocate Litex Lovech to Sofia, change the name to CSKA Sofia along with the colors of the official equipment and announced that this is the “new” CSKA. However, this was still the same Litex Lovech, only playing at the origin stadium of PFC CSKA and competing directly in First Division.

The same summer, a group of supporters of PFC CSKA including fans, legends of the team, coaches, players from the academy of the team and so on, gathered at the Military Club in Sofia (the place, where the club was officially established back in 1948, 5th May) and founded a new team named FC CSKA 1948. As a novice, the team FC CSKA 1948 started the season 2016-2017 from the lowest level of Bulgarian football – 4th Division and in four years managed to enter into the First division passing through all levels of Bulgarian football.

You are playing the second year in the first tier. How big is the club, how many people are working for it in the not sports-related part?

I would consider CSKA 1948 as one of the most innovative sports organisations in Bulgaria. The total number of employees including all units of the club is90.This might seem a big number, however, we strongly believe in the professionalism of every single person that works for the team. We try to combine the mind and experience of well-established names in the industry together with the innovation that comes with the younger generation of professionals. When it comes to the administration, marketing and sales departments, I would say that around 15 people are working in those units. Moreover, we also rely on “freelancers” and subcontractors for match-days and the following preparation.

What is an average yearly budget of CSKA 1984 and how is it divided into the different areas, like sponsorship, matchday, TV rights, etc.?

The budget of our team is between 2,5 and 3 million Euro, which according to my knowledge, positions us among the top 5 teams in the country when it comes to budget. What is more, in my opinion, our revenue is close to the average revenue of teams in first divisions in Central and Eastern European championships.

Regarding the different areas, I don’t have the exact numbers right now, but sponsorship and merchandising are a little more than 60%, TV rights are between 10% and 15%. Because of the Covid pandemic, the match-day revenue has not been high during the past two years.

When making an analysis of a club with our dimensions, the main objectives are participation in UEFA European tournaments and realization of outgoing transfers. Based on these objectives, a strategy and a transfer policy should be developed. For example, Dinamo Zagreb, for the period 2017-2021 spent 26 million Euro for income transfers and made 118 million Euro from outgoing transfers.

How developed is the sponsorship market in Bulgaria?

Unfortunately, the sponsorship market in Bulgaria is not very well developed. In my opinion this comes from the fact, that the product “Bulgarian football” it is not well recognized. All clubs from the first division should work hard towards changing this perception.

Matchday revenue is not a big part – how many people are watching your home games on average? What’s the average number in the league and how did it develop over the past years – leaving the pandemic aside?

As a young club, we have been on a constant development path searching for the best solutions for our team and for our fans. Naturally, some decisions have been accepted well and others not that much, which often affects the enthusiasm of our fans to come or watch our matches.

Even if we leave aside the pandemic, which has had an enormous impact on any sport, the uncertainty, and constant changes it brings, do not allow us to make stable conclusions and follow tendencies.

When speaking about the league in general, figures are not impressive, I would even say that they have been decreasing during the past years. There are several reasons for this negative trend in my opinion and those include the fact that most of the stadiums are old and not maintained, the low level of football as well as too many hooligan scenes.

Also, TV money does not play a big role. What is the situation regarding the TV rights right now?

In general, broadcasting rights play an important role in football. For the Bulgarian market, statistics show that Bulgarian the first division is more watched and followed than the English Premier League. Even though the interest is higher, the television pays less for it when compared to the EPL. In my personal opinion, the federation should have strived for better conditions. Now this leads me to another very important topic. The federation and the professional league should be divided.

You said that dividing the FA and the league into two separate entities would be the next big step for the Bulgarian football. Why do you think so?

Because the professional clubs are the face of Bulgarian football. In Bulgaria we have 600 clubs, but only 14 are in first division. The professional clubs should gather and work together to increase the value of the product “Bulgarian football”. We should create a better communication with the government, municipalities, sponsors and television in order to make better agreements for the clubs.

The federation should concentrate on the national teams, further development of the young sector along with women’s football, futsal and of course the base - grassroots.

You want to develop the club to a brand. How are you doing that?

Since the very beginning, we have been following the same constant philosophy and values that we as organization truly believe in. We keep the same tone of voice across all areas of our business and in every communication across online and offline marketing channels. We do not really want to appeal to masses, we want our fans to feel affinity and to truly identify themselves with the team.

You are actively looking for young, talented, and motivated people for the club. How easy is it to find them and why is this so important for you?

I believe in younger generations and their capacity and motivation to learn and develop and to apply innovative thinking in everything they do. However, finding such people particularly for the sport industry is not an easy task. The students coming from academic institutions are not prepared enough for positions in sports marketing, sports administration, etc. Therefore, our strategy for now is to find young, motivated people, passionate for football, and start teaching them how a sport structure should function.

Are you looking a lot at other football clubs or sports for inspiration?

Yes, this is crucial for the development of a football club. We are constantly analyzing foreign football clubs in Europe and the Balkans and we try to adapt their best practices to our reality.

How important is data for you? Do you have a data strategy?

Data analytics has an essential role in the football industry. As clubs are striving to gain a competitive edge on and off-the-pitch, data is allowing us to extract insights to improve players performance, prevent injuries and increase efficiency. We make use of several software solutions along with the valuable contribution of our scouts and football professionals.

Where and how do you gather the fan’s data and how do you use it?

Digital event ticketing, direct mailings, social media - these are some of our sources of data. However, as I have already mentioned, innovation is what we strive for and this area does not make an exception. Stadium entry systems, which can produce fan engagement analytics and other important information about who is sitting to watch our games is what we are looking for in the future.

What are the main communication channels for the club?

I would consider CSKA 1948 as one of the most active clubs in Bulgaria in terms of media participation and activity in social networks. The rise of social media offers challenges as well as opportunities to the football clubs to interact with people. It is the easiest way for a person to create an opinion of the whole organization and to follow the development of a structure.

Since the beginning of CSKA 1948, the club has adopted clear strategy towards media stakeholders. The most important acquired factors by the club in building lasting relationships with the media have been trust, quality of the content, transparency, network, and acknowledgment. At the beginning, CSKA 1948 was neglected by most of the media because of the poor level of football in the lowest divisions and due to the presence of CSKA Sofia in the first division. However, gradually CSKA 1948 got the image of a professional football club and a trustworthy partner for media stakeholders.

You have a pretty big fanbase on Facebook – more than 90k followers. Can you monetise this asset?

Facebook is one very powerful gun. We try to make marketing activities in Facebook, involving also our partners and sponsors.

You are planning to move to a new stadium. The next big step for you as a young club? What are the advantages of the new stadium?

For the duration of the past three years, we have been playing at the national stadium, where the capacity is 44 000, with sports halls located under the stands. Adding the large running track to the big stadium, the acoustics are seriously lost and the only way to make great atmosphere is to fill up the stadium with a public of at least 20000 people, which at this moment is a very difficult task for every team in Bulgaria. Therefore, we made an agreement to start playing at the “Bistritsa” stadium. It is new, well maintained and very compact, with capacity of 3000 people. Even if there are 300 people at the stadium, the atmosphere is fantastic.

We also have the possibility to brand it with the colors of the team and we have more positions to advertise our sponsors. Last but not least, the cost to rent the National stadium is high, money we can invest in other activities. The only disadvantage I can point out, is the location. The “Bistritsa” stadium is in the mountain, the outskirts of Sofia. However, the area is very beautiful and a match visit could be well combined with a nice walk.

Do you have a strategy, a concept how the club should evolve off-the-pitch within the next five to ten years?

As I mentioned before, clubs with our dimensions from the Balkans should focus on realizing outgoing transfers of young players. In other words, our strategy is based on the development of young Bulgarian players. The first team should have four young players (age between 18 and 22) and at least two of them to be in the first eleven for every game. Through playing frequently together with experienced players in the Bulgarian tournament and hopefully also UEFA tournaments, they will gain great experience and confidence and will possibly become an object of interest for the scouting departments of the biggest European clubs.

With the beginning of season 2021/2022 CSKA 1948 has formed a second team, which competes in the second league. We hope that this decision will attract the best young players in Bulgaria as we are providing them perfect conditions to train and play professional football. When a transfer of a first league football player takes place, we will be ready with a worthy replacement coming from the second team.