CSKA, until recently one of Bulgaria's top football teams, will be part of A Regional Football Group, businessman Vasil Bozhkov has said.

At a meeting with the official union of CSKA fans, Bozhkov reiterated that the team will not be part of the A Professional Football Group in the immediate future.

For now it will be run on a BGN 3 M budget, the specialized website Gong.bg quotes Bozhkov as telling the fans.

The team is in financial turmoil, and recently rumors had circulated that it might even join hands with Lovech-based Litex of businessman Grisha Ganchev, which is also passing through dire straits.

Formerly, Vasil Bozhkov was the owner of CSKA between 1999 and 2006. He then sold the team to Indian businessman Pramod Mital.

"CSKA doesn't need saving anymore, but revival," the businessman said in a statement to the media before the meeting.

"Starting today CSKA will work for CSKA... Changes in how the 31-time champion of Bulgaria is governed will be in place and they will be drastic," he added.

Since it was established in 1948, CSKA (Central Sports Club of the Army) was known most of the time as one of the best-reputed and most professional teams in Bulgaria alongside Levski Sofia.

Financial disputes around its recent owners, however, left both the reputation and the team itself in tatters, cutting its access to both European and national professional football.