higher than third place only once (runners-up in 2015–16), and achieved its lowest ever ranking (seventh place in 2014–15 and eighth in 2020–21). On the stage of the Bulgarian Cup, the club lost two more finals, in 2015 to Cherno More and in 2018 to Slavia Sofia. In European competitions, Levski faced some of its most embarrassing eliminations – against Liechtenstein side FC Vaduz and Cypriot AEK Larnaca, the latter inflicting the largest ever European defeat on aggregate for Levski . These years were turbulent not only on the football pitch, but at the higher hierarchy of the club. In June 2015, the long-time president Todor Batkov stepped down and the club was taken over by Ivo Tonev, Aleksandar Angelov and Nikolay Ivanov. From this point onwards, Levski began to experience financial problems. Tonev, Angelov and Ivanov's reign was short-lived and in August 2016, they transferred their shares to businessman Spas Rusev. Under his governance, Levski signed players like Gabriel Obertan and Jordi Gómez, as well as coach Delio Rossi, in an attempt to return the club's glory. However, Rusev's financing was dubious, and there were complaints for delayed wages. In February 2017, Rusev admitted the club was "practically bankrupt". On 9 February 2019, Rusev stepped down as owner of Levski, leaving the club with more than 30 million BGN in debt. Four days later, businessman and former owner of archrivals CSKA Vasil Bozhkov took over the club. He attempted to stabilize Levski's financial situation by immediately covering the most urgent obligations and selling or releasing the players with the highest wages, investing around 25 million BGN in total throughout his tenure. In February 2020, Bozhkov stepped down as his main business, 7777.bg (National Lottery), had its license withdrawn by the Bulgarian government. The club being left with no financing whatsoever and in a full-scale financial crisis, sparkled an unprecedented support campaign amongst the fans, who engaged in various donation initiatives, raising 2.6 million BGN in the span of five months. In 2021, former owner Vasil Bozhkov admitted that he was forced to take over Levski under the threat of business closure by prime minister Boyko Borisov. Bozhkov's confession was somewhat of a confirmation of the insinuation that the reason behind Levski's financial problems and occasional ownership changes was Borisov's idea of using the club as an instrument for political influence. 2020–present: Return of Sirakov and Stoilov In the summer