Football club forced to apoligise after observing a minute’s silence for former player who is still alive

A first division team observed a minute’s silence for a club legend only to later realise they had badly messed up.

A Bulgarian first-division team has had one of the all-time biggest gaffes after holding a minute’s silence for a former player only to later realise he was still alive.

Arda Kardzhali – which is located in the southern Bulgarian town of Kardzhali, and plays in the country’s top division – made the awkward blunder while facing league giants Levski Sofia on Sunday.

Before the first whistle, both sides gathered at the centre circle, bowed their heads and paid their respects to Arda club legend, Petko Ganchev.

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However, all the while the 78-year-old was in town scrambling to get home in time to watch his beloved team play.

So when the club realised their shocking error shortly after the hour mark they put out a statement that read: “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.”

You can watch the awkward minute’s silence in the player above.

Players observed a minute's silence for a player that was in fact still alive on Sunday.

Incredibly the minute silence ahead of the clash had also made Ganchev’s wife panic that something had happened to her husband while he was out.

Ganchev told TV station bTV that she was even more concerned because he never misses an Arda match and still hadn’t returned home from town.

“I never miss watching Arda’s matches on television,” Ganchev said.

“This time, I was about ten minutes late for the game against Levski because I had some work to do. 

The crowd paid their respects to someone they believed had passed away.

“As I was driving home, my phone started ringing a lot but I was driving and I didn’t dare to answer.

“I entered the garden and my wife greeted me in tears. She said, ‘Petko, Petko, they’ve announced on TV that you’ve passed away!’ I couldn’t understand what she was saying or what had happened.”

And fans could simply not wrap their head around how a club could make such an error.

“That’s hilarious but seriously how does that happen?” one fan asked on X.

“How does this happen?” another quizzed.

While a third suggested a different solution. “Maybe do a minutes applause next week”.

In the end Arda managed to secure a 1-1 draw against the 26-time league champions to keep them fifth in the league.

Originally published as Football club forced to apoligise after observing a minute’s silence for former player who is still alive