Bulgaria was the third national association to launch its new strategy this month with EuroHockey President Marcos Hofmann joining Head of Strategy and Development Tom Pedersen-Smith in Sofia this week.

It is part of the EU-supported Solidarity through Great Governance (SGG) project which already has seen new strategic plans launched in Croatia and Türkiye this month.

This visit took in Bulgaria’s National University Hockey 5s championship followed by a discussion on the Bulgarian strategic plan for 2024 to 2032 with Dr Jorg Schenk (BHF President), Professor Antonio Antonov (BHF Executive Director) and Dimitri Dubuisson (BHF Development and Project Manager).

The following day, the group met with Ministry of Youth and Sport with Minister Georgi Glushkov launching the strategic plan.

This was followed by a visit to the National Sports Academy (NSA) for a meeting with Professor Krasimir Petkov, rector of the NSA, and Professor Lozan Mitev. The trip concluded with a visit to the Educational and Olympic Centre.

Hofmann said of the visit: “It was an inspiring trip to Sofia where we got to see the vitality and enthusiasm for hockey which can only benefit from the new strategy document, made possible by the SGG project.

“The openness and constructive nature of our talks have also laid the groundwork on the path to open a regional centre of excellence, certified by the EuroHockey Institute.

“I would like to thank the Bulgarian Hockey Federation, their national Olympic committee and the ministry for sport for working with us on this venture.”

SGG is a two-year pilot programme for developing organisational strategies of member national associations linked to their national Olympic committee and ministry of sport strategic objectives.

The target is to create a pilot scheme to enable each participating nation build clear, costed and scheduled plans for their strategies.  

The latest phase has seen the participating bodies work together with EuroHockey to structure a model of training programme needs – from creation to delivery to implementation – in tandem with each national association’s stated goals.

From there, a comprehensive review of the national association’s ability to operate their strategies and its initial impact will be utilised to kickstart their own journey.

Find out more

– Croatian Solidarity through Great Governance project takes big step forward
– Türkiye launches new strategy as part of EU-backed SSG project