Bulgaria
Country news
Richard Westaway with Simon Burrell SOS collector, visited Bulgaria to review SOS Kit deliveries and their needs for the future. SOS were warmly received by Georgi Marinkin (Federation General Secretary) , Daniel Yenev (Federation Rugby Development Officer) and Pepa Momchilova Federation Administrator.
Rugby is growing within the schools with a total of 54 schools ( 22 - 2 years ago) and 2,000 children between the ages of 11 to 18 yrs are now playing various forms of the game.. The interest in Rugby is growing in popularity within Bulgarian schools and this is now rubbing off onto the parents. The school teachers are showing more interest but the game has still a long way to go to rival the main sports of football, basketball & handball. The introduction of the 6 a-side game for boys and girls, which is played indoors, has seen tremendous growth. The main factors holding back the growth of Rugby is both financial and the availability of pitches due to fact that Rugby is not an Olympic sport.
During the weekend which was a feast of rugby, we attended the Lokomotiv Sofia Vs Pernik U19’s match , which was a feisty affair and very quick game. The match was well controlled by the referee Dimitar Pedrov. The commitment shown by both sides was tremendous.
We then moved onto Pernik RFC to watch the International RWC qualifier match between Bulgaria & Israel. Israel run out winners in a very tight contest which was
of huge disappointment to the Bulgarian Federation. The following day was spent watching a National Junior Tournament played at the Lokomotiv Sofia sports centre. Teams of boys & girls from various schools took part playing 6 a –side game indoors with upper body tackling !. The enthusiasm was contagious , not to mention the noise the children made in support of every team that played.
Here we saw SOS/iRB Kit Aid in action working with the commitment of the Bulgarian Federation to enable these children to play rugby in team kit. Some of the schools taking part were - Sveti Sedmochislenitzi, Dimcho Debelianov, Vasil Drumev, Neofit Rilski, from the town of Svilengrad - Luben Karavelov girls and boys, Hristo Botev - girls and boys.
more photos of the Bulgarian visit and other countries can be found on
http://www.sosirbkitaid.org/gallery/country-visits/
BULGARIAN JUNIOR RUGBY IN GOOD HANDS !
Pictured with John Broadfoot of SOS are Bulgarian Federation President Lubomir Stoitchkov(second from left), Georghi Marinkin(left) - General Secretary and Dariel Yanev(right) - Federation Development Officer.
Unusually under President Stoitchkov scarce resources are directed generally towards junior not senior rugby.This is a brave step because the benefits are longer term but President Stoitchov is to be congratulated on this brave stance and this enables Development Officer Dariel Yanev to run a full junior tournament/coaching programme.
They still need much help from the outside world because more resources are needed but they have an ambitious schools development programme under the watchful eye of ex President and current General Secretary Georghi Marinkin.Junior player numbers have grown by over 20% in two years to 2440 but they need more resources to grow still further !
Their current world ranking is low at 91 because they only have 400 senior players to choose from but once the current crop of 2000 youngsters come through - then watch them march up the rankings ! The desire is there - they just need more help and resources - YOU and SOS can help !
Stephanie has the rugby virus !!
Stephanie is a truly inspirational young lady from the Nadesda U/11 team from Sofia in Bulgaria. She adores her rugby and practises with her father in her garden at home. She says she has the rugby virus and cannot get enough of the game
She is pictured at a marvellous U/11 Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria organised by Bulgarian Federation Development Officer Dariel Yanev.She is wearing a polo shirt, a pair of football shorts and trainers. She would love you to send her proper rugby shirt, shorts, socks and boots so she can play properly the game she loves so much. If ever you needed a reason to donate your unwanted rugby kit to SOS - then she is it !
To look at Bulgarian rugby website in English just click on logo below
