A Bulgarian football club has been forced to issue an unfortunate apology after holding a minute’s silence for a former player who they later discovered was still alive.
Arda Kardzhali and Levski Sofia – second and fifth respectively in Bulgaria’s First league – faced off against each other in Kardzhali on Sunday.
And prior to kick-off, the two sides lined up around the centre circle for a minute’s silence to pay tribute to Arda’s former player Petko Ganchev.
However, prior to the game ending, Arda were forced to issue a statement apologising to Ganchev and his family after they discovered he was, in fact, still alive.
It read: ‘The management of PFC Arda would like to express its deepest apologies to the team’s former footballer, Petko Ganchev, and his loved ones, after the club received incorrect information regarding his death.
‘We wish Petko Ganchev many years of health and to enjoy Arda’s successes.’
The match ended 1-1 which saw the visitors Levski fall further behind runaway league leaders Ludogerets who now have a 12-point advantage over the second-place side.
Arda are not the only club to suffer the misfortune of mistakenly honouring a former player who was not yet dead.
In 2009, English non-league side Bishop Auckland mistakenly held a minute’s silence in honour of former captain Tommy Farrer who had won 20 caps for England at amateur level.
The club later discovered their error when chairman Terry Jackson phoned Farrer’s wife, Gladys, to offer his condolences only to be told: ‘He will be back in a minute. He’s only popped out to get a paper.’
Meanwhile, in 2018, an Irish amateur team landed themselves in hot water after falsely reporting that one of their players had died.
Ballybrack FC informed the Leinster Senior League that Fernando Nuno La-Fuente had been killed in a motorcycle accident which saw their upcoming game postponed and a minute’s silence held before the league’s other fixtures.
However, it later emerged that La-Fuente had simply been relocated from Dublin to Galway by his employers.
The club later apologised, describing the incident as a ‘gross error of judgment’.
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