Botev Plovdiv President, Whose Name Featured in Suspected Match-Fixing Scandal, Shot Dead in Bulgaria

^{Iliyan Filipov, president of Botev Plovdiv}

Iliyan Filipov, president of Bulgarian football club Botev Plovdiv, was shot dead in the early hours of September 30. The killing took place at a property he owned in Plovdiv, according to Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

Police were alerted to the shooting shortly after 1 a.m. Investigators are treating the case as murder and are seeking witnesses.

Police stepped up checks on roads into and out of the city. No suspects had been publicly identified at the time of publication. Officials said they were examining several possible motives.

Filipov was a prominent Bulgarian businessman and the head of Botev Plovdiv. His name had previously emerged in a controversy over an alleged attempt to influence the outcome of a match against Slavia Sofia.

In October 2025, Slavia president Ventseslav Stefanov said that people he described as close to Filipov had offered one of his players money to help Slavia lose an upcoming match against Botev. According to Stefanov, the player rejected the offer and reported it to the club’s management.

Filipov strongly denied the allegations and demanded that Stefanov name the person who had allegedly tried to bribe the player. He later filed a defamation lawsuit against the Slavia president.

The allegations were investigated by Bulgaria’s General Directorate of National Police before the case files were passed to the Plovdiv District Prosecutor’s Office. On June 10, 2026, prosecutors declined to open pre-trial proceedings, citing insufficient evidence that a criminal offense had been committed.

The decision came more than three months before Filipov’s killing. There is currently no confirmed evidence linking his death to the earlier match-fixing allegations, and police have not publicly identified a motive.