Chernomorets Burgas Sofia

Vasil Levski National Stadium sits in the centre of Sofia, the country's national ground and the venue reached for when a fixture calls for something larger than an ordinary club stadium. Its stands hold 43,230, built for the national team and the biggest occasions the capital produces. For one season, they also held for a club that had existed only a matter of months.

Chernomorets Burgas Sofia's name was on a license, not a history. In the summer of 2006 the club came into being by buying the playing rights of Conegliano German F.C., a Sofia-based side, and inheriting its place in the top flight, the A Group. There was no run of results behind it, no squad carried over in spirit — just a slot in the country's elite division and a home ground far larger than the club's standing warranted.

The season that followed answered the question of whether the size of the stadium meant anything. Chernomorets did not win a match all campaign. A single draw was the closest they came; twenty-nine defeats followed, and a penalty deduction of two points pushed them further down still. A license to drop into the second tier and rebuild there was refused, and by the summer of 2007 Chernomorets Burgas Sofia had stopped existing altogether.

Sixteenth place, no trophies — and a national stadium in Sofia that, for those few months, hosted a club no one now finds playing there again.