site.btaTomas Lafchis: Opening of BTA Press Club in Athens Fills a Long-Standing Gap in Bulgaria–Greece Relations

“This is something that has been greatly missing,” said former owner of Levski FC, Tomas Lafchis, on the occasion of the opening of a BTA press club in Athens.

“To be informed is one of the fundamental things in modern life, and I believe that BTA is the institution that does it in the best possible way,” businessman and former footballer Tomas Lafchis said after the opening of BTA’s national press club in the Greek capital. 

“For me, this is an exceptional event, because BTA is an institution, a legend,” he said in response to a question about what he would wish BTA on the occasion of Saturday's opening of the press club in Athens.

Lafchis added that, as someone who has spent many years in Greece, he believes that “this is something that has been greatly missing in the relations between Bulgaria and Greece – for people to be properly informed.”

“I would like to wish BTA tremendous success. It will simply present in the right way the developments between the two countries and what is happening in Greece. To be informed is one of the fundamental things in modern life, and I believe that BTA is the institution that does it in the best possible way,” the businessman added. Lafchis is a former goalkeeper for the Greek teams OFI Crete and Panathinaikos, as well as a former owner of Levski FC. 

As of Saturday, BTA will have 44 press clubs. Of these, 27 are located in the regional centres of Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Burgas, Varna, Veliko Tarnovo, Vidin, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Dobrich, Kardzhali, Kyustendil, Lovech, Montana, Pazardzhik, Pernik, Pleven, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Ruse, Silistra, Sliven, Smolyan, Stara Zagora, Targovishte, Haskovo, Shumen, and Yambol. There are six press clubs in the non-regional cities of Gotse Delchev, Kazanlak, Petrich, Samokov, Svishtov, and Troyan. There are nine outside the country - in Ankara (Turkiye), Athens (Greece), Belgrade (Serbia), Bosilegrad (Serbia), Bucharest (Romania), Odesa (Ukraine), Skopje (Republic of North Macedonia), and Taraclia (Moldova), and at the Bulgarian Antarctic base on Livingston Island. Two press clubs are temporary - aboard the first Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) and the Book Fair.