Another Champion Crowned In An Odd Manner

By: chris | April 30th, 2008

You’ve got to love Eastern European football. While the rules of the game may be the same, the entire region seems to have these little quirks which turn mundane sentences into newsworthy nuggets. The Bulgarian Premier League is quickly becoming one of my favorite leagues for some of the happenings this season, particularly those in Sofia. Like when Levski’s coach was forced to hand in his resignation, which was then rejected by the batshit crazy chairman.

Today, CSKA Sofia took home this year’s Bulgarian championship with three games to play. In front of nobody. Because their hosts had suffered a 2 game behind closed doors ban. Lovely.

Let’s be honest. CSKA Sofia has been creaming the competition, and they probably could’ve started celebrating in January. I’m guessing they started coordinating the parade with the fire marshal around Valentine’s Day. And it’s not as though they’re so far ahead in the table, only 110 points, but they just don’t lose. 26 games, 21 wins and 5 draws. It went past “form” long ago. They’re just freakin’ good.

But that still doesn’t take the sting away from winning the title and having your screams echoed back because the fans aren’t there able to share in your joy. Even if it is an away game. CSKA shouldn’t be punished for Botev’s mistakes.

“It’s a pity that we won the title in the absence of the fans,”, said CSKA coach Stoycho Mladenov told reporters.

“Football is a game for the fans and I think that the Bulgarian Football Union should reconsider its policy.”

That sums it up. It’s for the fans. Take it away an what’s left? A big shiny urn.

This is the second time in the last two weeks a title in Eastern Europe has been handed out in an unceremonial fashion. Last was in Greece, where Olympiacos was handed the title in a courtroom because one of their opponents had fielded an ineligible player. Taking the title away from AEK Athens which had won it on the field.

Maybe it’s time for UEFA to step in and see that champions are able to celebrate their accomplishments as just that.