Kristiana Koleva in front of FACTS: The barbell nationals have been sitting without salaries for six months now

There is a happy ending, because the money for the participation of our young weightlifters in the World Championship was collected. An anonymous donation worth BGN 40,000 covered the expenses of our young weightlifters for the championship in Peru. What's going on in the Weightlifting Federation? Coach Christiana Koleva spoke to FAKTI.

- Mrs. Koleva, the problems in the weightlifting federation are big and not from today, but what about the young athletes who have to travel to the World Championships in Peru, which will be given quotas for the Youth Olympic games in Dakar (Senegal) in 2026…
- My club is leaving on Saturday. I have to thank a woman who helped us a lot, made a big gesture and we bought the tickets. We took teams from a boy from Haskovo – Stanimir. We are very grateful to him and so, in the end, we leave. I'm talking about my club because the other colleagues gave up. I don't know for what reasons, but they preferred to prepare for the European one. But we don't have the funds for it either?

- The European starts on June 20, there is a month of time…
- The contestants are ready, we have participants, but we have no money. This is the situation. We are currently running targeted projects to our federation that will not be funded due to a number of reasons and misunderstandings. I am absolutely baffled at the moment how the new president Anton Kojabashev has not sent a single letter to the clubs to inform them of the situation, even though they had a Board of Directors in Ruse days ago. Until now, no one has informed us, they have not inquired, for example, that I am traveling to the World Cup in Peru. Kojabashev is running his political campaign.

Currently the federation is commanded by the old Governing Council.

There are also new people who this time I hope will give a strong resistance to the old Management Board. I believe that in the face of Stefan Botev, Asen Zlatev, a coach and colleague from Varna – Dancho, who was abroad for many years, these people will fight back because they stand behind the clubs. And I hope this old Board of Directors will resign so that things start to sort themselves out. No one pays attention to the children, nothing moves unfortunately.

With the new teams

- How can we explain the fact that soon there was an elected president in the person of Arif Majid, who, however, was replaced by Anton Kojabashev, who has experience in managing the federation because he was president…
- Kodjabashev has experience in management, but he does nothing to move things forward. The Federation has obligations and the Ministry of Sports simply does not believe us. Obligations do not belong to Kodjabashev, but to the old Management Board. You know that this Management Board is from 2011. These people just need to go, they have brought the federation to this financial situation with the way they operate. Everyone should resign.

- The Ministry of Sports at the moment, as far as it can assist, have talks been held to improve the situation?
- A few days ago, I had a meeting with one of the deputy ministers in the ministry, and he says that Kojabashev did not go to the ministry and did not have any conversations. He called on the phone to ask if we would have financing, nothing more. He didn't even go to make an agreement, it was already in the media, but nothing has been done so far.

The Barbell Federation is running on its own.

In Sofia, things are moving only by Marin Milashki, for which I thank him very much, because he assisted us in the purchase of tickets and the entire organization of documents for our trip to Peru. Everything was done by him.

- So at least you saved the boys' work…
- Oh yeah. Definitely. I really insisted on taking the boys. We have huge potential. Neno has already proven himself, he was third in the world in Mexico, then they became third with Jesus at the European in Poland. Neno then became the second in Rashin. This is his work, after all, we train for a whole year and for what… There is no money for the clubs. The boys are without salaries because the federation has outstanding accounts and soon they will not get any money. I am talking about the entire national team, they are without salaries. Last year, the national team went on strike because they didn't have salaries. Now they are silent. Some of them got their premiums and are fine. A few days ago I told Angel Rusev that last year he was on strike, why didn't he now support his colleagues from the national team who did not receive bonuses. 40 people are sitting without wages. That is the fact. They have been without wages for six months.

- Your goal in Peru is…
- In the category up to 49 kg, Jesus Kirilov is the first entry, (up to 55 kg) Nino Simeonov is the first entry, (up to 49 kg) Rumen Ivanov is the second entry, (up to 73 kg) Boris Dimitrov is the sixth entry. These are my children. Again, I want to thank the woman and all the people who helped us, Marin Milashki, because he is the head of the federation at the moment and sits all day in the office. I hope that the Ministry of Sports will soon accept our target requests and provide money for the European one.