Bulgarian club issues "huge apology" after a minute's silence for a player that is still alive

A Bulgarian first division club, Arda Kardzhali, fifth in the league, has issued an apology for a terrible mistake... although, thankfully, it will have no further consequences beyond the embarrassment of holding a minute's silence for a player... that is still alive. That happened last Sunday, in a match against Levski Sofia, as part of the Parva Liga, Bulgarian's First League. It ended 1-1.

As reported by Reuters, the match started with all players from both teams lining up in the centre of the pitch, mourning the "death" of former player Petko Ganchev, who played between 2020 and 2022. However, they must have got the information wrong, because Ganchev was alive... and the club verified the information on their Facebook page during the match.

In a post, they said that "The management of PFC Arda would like to express a huge apology to the former Arda player Petko Ganchev and his relatives after the club received wrong information about his death".

"We wish Petko Ganchev many more years of good health and to enjoy the success of Arda", they added. In fact, Ganchev still plays for Dobrudzha Dobrich, a second division club in Bulgaria.