Todor Batkov

Todor Batkov

Todor Batkov (Bulgarian: Тодор Батков) (born 17 October 1958 in Smolyan) is president of the Bulgarian football club Levski (Sofia).

Since June 1991, Batkov has been a managing partner of the “Batkov, Stoev, Botev and Co.” Lawyer’s House. He is a member of the College of Barristers, the International Lawyer’s League and the Supervising Council of MobilTel Ltd. Batkov is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Standard News Ltd – publisher of the “Standart” Newspaper.

Batkov is generally infamous within Levski Sofia fans, who believe that he does not have the club's best interests at heart, but some Levski factions like Sofia West tend to be supportive of him. On 30 March 2006, Batkov caused controversy when in the post-match interview following Levski Sofia's 1:3 home defeat against German side FC Schalke 04, he summed up English referee Mike Riley's performance as follows: "This British homosexual broke the game!" (Bulgarian: "Този британски педераст развали мача!"), referring to what he perceived as Riley's controversial dismissal of Levski Sofia midfielder Cédric Bardon for a second yellow card in the 35th minute of the game. Batkov was subsequently fined 5000 Swiss franks and banned from attending the next 2 Levski games in any UEFA tournaments. In August 2008, some of his remarks in relation to the BATE Borisov football team as well as the country of Belarus attracted criticism among the press and a number of politicians in the former Soviet state. Bulgarian football fans sometimes call him Borat because of his similarity to the film character.