Botev Plovdiv Owner Iliyan Filipov Shot Dead

The 112 call came in around one in the morning on 30 September 2026. Police reached a parking area in front of a residential building at a complex behind 134 Peshtersko Shose Boulevard, in the Hristo Smirnenski district, a property owned by Iliyan Filipov. Local media reported that he had been shot in the head with a single bullet.

They sealed the ground at once. A cordon went up around the parking spaces and the approaches to the building. Traffic on the nearby streets was stopped and held while investigators began their work.

Iliyan Filipov was born in Plovdiv on 31 March 1973 and trained as a mechanical engineer at a technical high school. In 2000 he and Penko Nestorov co-founded PIMK. They started in a rented Plovdiv garage making snack brands for Albania and Kosovo; unrest on those routes forced them to buy a used truck, and when manufacturing looked finished they pivoted entirely to haulage. The snack lines closed in 2008 and 2009. “State-owned factories had been sold off, and large international companies began squeezing out small producers,” Nestorov later said. PIMK grew into one of Bulgaria’s largest transport firms and one of Europe’s top ten. The holding expanded into construction, freight forwarding, rail, concrete and quarrying; its eight companies include PIMK Rail. In 2020 the group won a nearly BGN 44 million tender to rebuild Hristo Botev Stadium, taking a 6.3 percent share.

In June 2025 Filipov took ownership and the presidency of Botev Plovdiv and assumed the club’s BGN 6,871,000 of debt—about 3.5 million euros. Hours before the shooting he had sat through the Bulgaria–Estonia Nations League match, a 0–0 draw, at the club’s home ground.

Botev Plovdiv answered the same day with a formal statement. “The football club 'Botev Plovdiv' expresses deep sorrow over the tragic death of the club president Iliyan Filipov. The management, players, and staff of the club extend their deepest condolences to his family, relatives, and friends.” A separate Facebook tribute followed. “Iliyan Filipov dreamed and fought for a strong and united Botev. A club that the whole city can be proud of. Botev is eternal.” The planned friendly against Septemvri Sofia was scrapped. All junior matches were called off. Training sessions were closed. The Bulgarian Football Union expressed its deepest condolences to the family and relatives and to everyone at the club. Other top-flight clubs posted theirs on social media. By Wednesday morning the killing had been covered by more than 15 foreign outlets in over 10 countries. Reuters was among the first. Reports also ran in Britain’s Inside World Football, Greece’s Proto Thema, Poland’s RMF24, Russia’s Sport-Express, Serbia’s Glas Srpske, North Macedonia’s Libertas, Euronews Albania and Romanian media.

Chief Commissioner Emil Parmakov of the National Police General Directorate established a national coordination headquarters and task force on the Interior Minister’s orders. Security and control measures went into force across Plovdiv and the neighbouring regions at once. Checkpoints sealed the city’s main exits and entries. More than twelve hours after the killing those posts were still open. Officers stopped vehicles and checked every occupant. Border controls tightened in parallel. Deputy Interior Minister Emil Ganchev came to the scene. He urged against any comparison with the organised-crime killings of the 1990s.

Plovdiv District Prosecutor Vanya Hristeva held a briefing that morning. Her office was overseeing pre-trial proceedings for premeditated murder. Teams of investigating officers were still at work. Witnesses were being identified, summoned and questioned. A forensic medical examination had been ordered. Physical evidence had been collected. No version of events had been ruled out. “We are actively pursuing all possible leads,” Hristeva said.

Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev ordered a full review of whether the Ministry of Interior had previously received information, complaints or reports from Filipov concerning concerns for his safety. According to the ministry’s official records, there were no such reports. The review was also to examine whether authorities had taken appropriate action following publicly circulated information in March 2025 that Filipov was concerned about his safety, and whether any important circumstances or information had been overlooked by law enforcement in 2025. In recent years Filipov had been involved in a public dispute with another Plovdiv businessman, Ivan Petleshkov. Filipov had accused Petleshkov of exerting influence over police and municipal officials. Police said there was no information that he had previously reported receiving threats.

A 51-year-old man identified only as S.M. was arrested in Sofia. He had a prior police record and had worked for one of Filipov’s companies until several months earlier. Security cameras near the killing ground had recorded a man in a hooded sweatshirt; the image was released earlier that day and investigators believed it showed him. The lines still under examination ranged from a contract killing to a crime linked to personal circumstances. “We are actively chasing every lead,” District Attorney Vanya Hristeva said.

Checkpoints at Plovdiv’s exits kept stopping vehicles and checking every occupant while forensic teams worked the parking spaces behind 134 Peshtersko Shose Boulevard.