2024-02-12 11:19:40
BFS congratulated Borislav Mihailov, who resigned as president in December, through the following message:
Borislav Mihailov, the captain of the Golden Generation of Bulgarian football, long-time president of the Bulgarian Football Union and senior official at UEFA, turns 61 today.
The legendary goalkeeper was born on February 12, 1963 in Sofia. He started his football career in “Levski” – a club whose emblem is his father Biser. Mihailov played for the Blues for eight seasons, making 180 league appearances, before making transfers to Portuguese Belenenses and French Mulhouse. He briefly returned to his native league with Botev ( Plovdiv), then played for London’s Reading, Slavia and Switzerland’s FC Zurich, before ending his competitive career as a three-time champion, three-time winner of the Bulgarian Cup and three-time winner of the Soviet Army Cup tournament.
Borislav Mihailov made his debut for the national team in 1983, and in the following 15 years he was the unchanging leader of our representative team. As captain, he led the “lions” to the greatest success in the history of our football – bronze medals from the World Championship in the USA in 1994. He also participated in the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and the European Championship in England ten years later. he was part of the team at the World Cup in France in 1998. With the national team, Mihailov played 102 games (60 as captain), which was a record for the country for a long time and earned him a place in the prestigious international “100 Club”.
In 1986, he was elected Footballer of the Year in Bulgaria, and the next goalkeeper to receive the biggest individual prize was his son Nikolay, who was named number one in 2011.
After the end of his competitive career, Borislav Mihailov quickly became a leading figure in the administration of Bulgarian sports, and subsequently – of European and world football. Between 2000 and 2001, he was the deputy chairman of the State Agency for Youth and Sports and a member of the Executive Committee of the BFS. Since 2001, he has been vice president of the football headquarters, and on October 21, 2005, he was elected president of the union. At the next four congresses – in 2009, 2014, 2018 and 2021, the clubs from the BFS system again voted for him, thus Mihailov became the longest-serving president of Bulgarian football.
During his period at the head of BFS Bulgaria, he successfully held three large-scale European championships – for juniors under 17 years, for girls under 17 years and for amateurs, receiving positive feedback for the organization; the budget of the football union increased more than three times, dozens of mini-football fields and multi-functional mini-complexes were built throughout the country; in 2014, a training center was built in the town of Pravets, and on November 17, 2016, in the presence of the UEFA president, Alexander Ceferin Mihailov, he opened the National Football Base “Boyana”. During the administration of Borislav Mihailov, the BFS seriously developed the “Grassroots” directions ” and women’s football, various social activities, programs for the development of young players, as well as huge steps have been taken towards the complete digitization of our football.
In 2011, Borislav Mihailov became the first Bulgarian elected to the management of UEFA, for eight years he was part of the Executive Committee of the European headquarters, and in the meantime he was the chairman of the Committee for Development and Technical Assistance and the Committee for Futsal and vice- chairman of the UEFA Referees Committee. Mihailov currently holds the prestigious position of Chairman of the UEFA Football Commission.
Since January 2017, he is also the first Bulgarian to hold positions in the World Football Federation as part of the FIFA Football Development Commission, dealing with the strategic development and rules of the game. Member of the working group for the organization of the European Championship in France in 2016 and of the organizing committee for the FIFA Confederations Cup.
The Bulgarian Football Union congratulates Borislav Mihailov on his holiday and wishes him health, luck and even more future successes!