Stara Zagora has launched a large-scale football tournament
Stara Zagora kicked off this afternoon a large-scale amateur football tournament FAN CUP 2021. 16 teams started the race, which will then pass through six more cities, to end with a final in September at the Albena Resort.
The huge interest filled the scheme of the participants of the city of limes long before the start of the tournament. The big race was opened by Krasimira Chahova, Deputy Mayor of Stara Zagora. “We are glad that this largest amateur football tournament in Bulgaria started from one of the biggest football cities in the country,” said Chahova, before welcoming the participants and wishing success to the initiative, the first stage of which is being held on artificial fields of Beroe stadium.
The opening ceremony today was attended by legendary figures with a huge contribution to the history of Stara Zagora football. Among them were some of the legendary players from the champion team of Beroe Iliya Iliev – a representative of MYS, Venelin Sivriev – responsible for the children’s and youth school of the Greens and Vasil Dragolov. Among the official guests were also Dimitar Petrov – Chairman of the Regional Council of the Bulgarian Football Union, Petko Krumov – Head of Sports Activities at the Municipality of Stara Zagora and others. All of them were awarded prizes by the organizers of the tournament and by the Municipality, in gratitude for their overall activities for the development of sports and especially football in the region.
Immediately afterwards, the draw was made and the first matches began. 16 teams are divided into 4 groups, in which they play each against each other. The first two teams qualify for the direct eliminations from the quarterfinals, which are scheduled for Sunday morning. The final is tomorrow at noon and the two teams that reached it will win the right to travel to the final tournament, which will feature players from 10 countries in mid-September in Albena.
Before that, the regional competitions will be held successively in Pazardzhik (April 17-18), Sandanski (May 15-16), Gorna Oryahovitsa (May 22-23), Montana (May 29-30), Sofia (June 5-6) and Varna. (June 12-13).