October 24 – British sports investment company Sport Republic has reportedly expressed interest in taking an 87.5% majority stake in Bulgaria’s Levski Sofia, but no formal offer has been made.
Levski owner Nasko Sirakov (pictured) said in a statement that he held two preliminary talks with Sport Republic representatives in the summer, but despite those meetings, progress has been slow.
Sport Republic was founded by Scandinavians Rasmus Ankersen and Henrik Kraft and is financed by the main investor, the Serbian media owner. Dragan Šolak. The company owns Southampton in the EFL Championship, Valenciennes in France, Turkish club Göztepe and Malian club Malou Kourra.
Sirakov said he had an exploratory conversation with Sport Republic CEO Dirk Gerkens, who confirmed Sport Republic’s willingness to buy the shares. Sirakov said he was pushing for an official letter of intent and a financial audit, the results of which should also be disclosed to the club management. The letter was sent to Levski on August 2, but the audit has not yet taken place.
“A meeting was held at the club in mid-June 2025 between PFC ‘Levski’ and representatives of Sport Republic, led by the group’s CEO, Mr. Dirk Gerkens. The meeting was informal and introductory – it was not pre-planned and there were no specific topic requests, therefore members of the Supervisory Board were absent,” Sirikov said.
“During the meeting, Mr Gerkens brought up for discussion Sport Republic’s renewed desire to acquire the controlling stake (85.7%) of Levski and to include the club in the group of clubs owned by Sport Republic – Southampton (England), Valenciennes (France), Göztepe (Turkey) and Mali Kourra (Mali).
“I indicated my willingness to assist according to the established procedure, and during the meeting we outlined two clear steps: first, an official letter of intent to be submitted to the club; second, immediately afterwards, a team from Sport Republic to start the financial audit procedure (due diligence). The only condition from our side was that the results of the analysis would also be accessible to the club – something that did not happen during the previous audit conducted by the same group,” Sirakov continued.
“On August 2, 2025, I received a letter essentially repeating what Sport Republic said at the meeting, and the club remained willing to assist with the next step: the financial audit by their team. As of today, Sport Republic has not initiated any such procedure. There have been no further meetings on this subject.”
“I publicly confirm that we are ready to assist if there is a real interest and a clearly defined strategy for the development of PFC Levski, should the intention to acquire the controlling stake become reality.”
Sirakov said there was interest from other companies to take control of Levski and that the club has shared his financial information, but so far there has been no formal offer.
Sirakov said: “To be fair to the supporters and partners, I also share the main questions and comments raised during the meeting, as well as in the subsequent discussions with the Board of Trustees:
– What has changed in Sport Republic’s attitude compared to the period two seasons ago when I personally offered to transfer the shares to them free of charge;
– The need to appoint authorized representatives of both parties to lead the negotiations, to avoid a recurrence of situations such as at the end of 2022, when immediately after I met Mr Šolak, he held a second, unapproved meeting in his office with third parties of the club. This approach seriously undermined trust between all parties involved, and subsequent events threatened the club’s stability;
– Clear guarantees of autonomy and identity – Levski should be governed by people for whom the club is an end, and not a means in a larger group or for participation in political projects;
– Clear protection against a ‘satellite model’ – legally binding guarantees that ‘Levski’ will not be used to develop players for the benefit of other clubs in the group;
– Risk management under UEFA Multi-Club Ownership and Financial Fair Play Rules – specific proposals on how to address possible future restrictions that would prohibit clubs with common ownership from playing in the same European tournaments throughout the season;
– Guarantees of sporting results and sustainability – how a scenario will be avoided where Levski follows a negative dynamic observed in other projects of the group (for example, Southampton and Valenciennes in their respective championships);
– Clear framework for investments – financial and temporal: not only regarding sports technical aspects, but also infrastructure projects.
Sirakov said he is waiting for “concrete” answers to his questions, especially around guarantees that will protect Levski’s independence. “This will allow us to move to the next phase of any ownership conversation,” he concluded.
Contact the author of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at force.l1761281409laboratory1761281409ofdlr1761281409are1761281409sni@o1761281409old1761281409
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