Sports

If the compulsory nationalisation of sports assets, clubs and federations is excluded, sport was one of the few pre-Revolutionary aspects of Bulgaria that remained unchanged.

The Bulgarian Football Union, the country's football federation, was renamed to Bulgarian Football Committee and placed under People's Committee for Domestic Affairs jurisdiction. All Bulgarian football clubs had the same fate, and most of them, with the notable exception of CSKA, changed their names. For example, PFC Levski was changed to FC Borba and Slavia to FC Mashinist. Football remains a popular sport and a favourite pastime among many; however, the absence of private sponsors has increased interest in volleyball. Greco-Roman, weightlifting, boxing and other heavyweight sports have retained high state priority, while more creative ones such as gymnastics and ice skating have been banned. The Bulgar Rouge National Football Team played its first international game with the Nasserist Republic of Huda in 2016, finishing with a 2:2 draw. In 2018, the country hosted the Football Friendship Tournament, where Bulgar Rouge finished third out of four teams in the group, winning two and losing four of its games.

A rather positive development in the sports policy of the Bulgar Rouge has been the institution of compulsory training at commune level. Smaller communes usually select their most physically fit members to participate in a sport of their choosing, while larger communes have several sporting teams that compete with each other and with teams from other communes, creating a huge variety of clubs and a large pool of actively practicing players.

The Bulgar Rouge government has also re-instituted the Soviet-era Spartakiad. A competition similar to the Olympic games, a Spartakiad is held every four three years and includes a number of events where the best teams from all communes in the country participate. An international Spartakiad is planned to be held in 2018.

Olympic participation is overseen by the Bulgarian Olympic Committee, the sole pre-Revolution body that has not changed its name.

Record:

• First Spartakiad, 2/5/5

• XI Winter Olympics, 0/3/0

• XI Summer Olympics, 3/0/1 (2xOR)