Plamen Konstantinov

The Bulgarian Volleyball Federation has parted way with its men's volleyball team head coach Plamen Konstantinov. His contract expired at the end of the World Championships last month, and after meetings between he and the federation president Dancho Lazarov, the split was announced. Konstantinov had been the head coach of the team since 2014, reports VolleyMob. 

While it wasn't quite the massive 11,000+ crowd that saw co-hosts Italy kick off the tournament in Rome, injury-rattled Bulgaria kicked off play in Varna with a 3-0 win over Finland in front of 4,850 fans in the country's third-largest city: Varna.

#14 BULGARIA DEF. #18 FINLAND 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-22)

The Bulgarian men's volleyball team has been defeated by France 0:3, losing its chance to play at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Even if the Bulgarians had secured a victory, that might have been far from enough as they needed to win three games with an overall edge of at least 21 points.

Triple jumper Gabriela Petrova was announced on Tuesday as this year's winner of the Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year award.

This year Petrova won a silver medal in the European Indoors Championship and finished fourth at the World Championships, setting a personal record.

Bulgaria and the Czech Republic are playing on Saturday in a CEV 2015 Men's European Volleyball Championship game in the capital Sofia.

Just after Bulgaria's resounding victory over Germany on Friday, Daily Standart reports that tickets for the Saturday were sold out in a matter of hours on Saturday morning.

Bookmakers are so far betting on a win for Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's national volleyball team defeated Cuba by 3:1 ( 25:19, 25:21, 24:26, 25:23) in a game from Group C of the Volleyball World Cup's Second Division, Sportal reported.

This was the second consecutive major success for the team led by coach and former exceptional player Plamen Konstantinov. The Bulgarians currently were defeated only once by the team of Canada.