Petar Georgiev: Everything comes from the love of the game

Petar Georgiev, the president and as well main sponsor of BC Rilski Sportist Samokov is the main reason for the progress of the basketball in Samokov. He was very happy after his team defeated Levski in the semifinals, and answered Lubomir Neshev′s questions for BGBasket.com before the final against Feni.
 
Q: Mr. Georgiev you outplayed Levski in the semifinals of the EUROHOLD Balkan League, what′s the feeling?
 
Petar Georgiev: It was a great experience for me and for those fans who traveled 400 km from Samokov to Kavadarci. It wasn′t an unexpected victory for me, I finally expected something like that from our team, that we would beat the so called "unbeatable" teams of Lukoil and Levski. I′m really happy about what happened.
 
Q: Ahead of you is the final against the host team KK Feni Industries. In the previous two editions of the EUROHOLD Balkan League, always the host team won, what are your expectations now?
 
I hope that will be able to beat them, and that we will do it. Nobody expected that we will knock-out Levski at the semifinal, but I also think that we have enough quality to beat Feni in their own hall as well. I hope that the boys won′t have any negative mindset, and I think that Feni aren′t unbeatable. There is difference between their play a couple of months ago when we played for the last time and now.
 
Q:What does the participation in the EUROHOLD Balkan League brings to you and your club?
 
The creation of this league for me personally is something extremely positive, because we can see our position compared to our neighbour countries. As you can see we aren′t far away from the right way and that the basketball in Bulgaria is developing. We can see that Serbians, Romanians, Macedonians and Bulgarians are at near levels. The other important thing is the sport-technical part, so you can compare to the others. Also we are making new friendships and contacts.
 
Q: It′s not a secret that the times are tough, especially from a financial point of view, how do you manage to go through?
 
Everyone in Samokov is curious, asking what do I gain from this already 20 years. My answer is that I haven′t made any money from basketball, all I do, I do it because of the love of the game.
 
Q: You had the support of your fans who came all the way from Samokov. Do you expect the same thing for the final?
 
I am very grateful to the fans. Everybody did it at their own expenses and came here to support the team. In the buses there were 10-years old kids and as well elder people more than 60 years of age which shows that people in Samokov already know what basketball is. I hope that there will be even more fans in the final, and I expect around 150 people.