The first challenge will be settling a dispute between coaches, with the nation’s star performer Karlos Nasar stuck in the middle.

Appointing a national head coach is paramount for a "badly demotivated" team needing strong results at the European Championships in Armenia next month, a qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Other problems include resolving the Bulgarian Weightlifting Federation’s (BWF) significant debts, creating a development programme for females after years of underachievement, and bringing unity back to the sport.

Despite all the challenges Arif Majed, the man tasked with leading the reforms, remains upbeat and is keen to put Bulgaria back on the map by bidding to host the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships next year.

Majed, a successful businessman, has finally taken control of the BWF 22 months after being elected by a large majority.

During that time Bulgaria’s best lifters have threatened to go on strike, the nation lost hosting rights to the European Championships, there has been a funding crisis that meant Bulgaria could not send a team to the World Junior Championships, and the sport was riven by ceaseless arguments.

"The barbell war affects the competitors the most," said Vesela Lecheva, Bulgaria’s Sports Minister, after hosting a peace-making meeting between Majed and the man who had kept him out of office, Nedelcho Kolev.

"It is important that they have peace of mind and prepare for the upcoming important competitions, which are also Olympic qualifiers for Paris 2024."

When clubs recently began setting up a rival body to run the sport in what was once the powerhouse of world weightlifting, negotiations led to a settlement between Majed and Kolev, who had retained control during a long and complicated legal and regulatory process.

The two men met Lecheva this week and have agreed to work together from now on, with Majed leading as President and Kolev Honorary President.

One of Kolev’s final acts was to remove the national coach Ivan Ivanov from his position, which he had held for 12 years.

Kolev is believed to have held Ivanov responsible for his situation, feeling that the coach had worked behind his back in the build-up to Majed’s victory at elections in May 2021.

He ditched Ivanov in January, since when the national team have stuck with the coach and refused to train under the newly appointed team (by Kolev) of Plamen Bratoichev, also an Olympian in the 1990s, and Kristiana Koleva.

Local media are reporting that Plamen Asparuhov, who held the role early this century, is the new head coach but Majed said today that the situation was "very delicate."

Only the BWF Executive Board, which has seven members, can decide on a national coach, Majed said, and that is likely to happen in the next week.

"The situation is nonsense, Karlos Nasar is training on his own without input from Ivanov or anybody else," Majed told insidethegames.

"It’s very sad to be in this state one month before the European Championships... we have to put the athletes first."

In an interview 15 months ago, Majed had said: "For the last 10 years our federation has been lost in space, generally speaking.

"We have to change the image of Bulgarian weightlifting."

That is another huge task, given Bulgaria’s involvement in doping in the past.

Bulgaria was sent home from or banned from the Olympic Games four times between 1988 and 2016 because of doping, which has been a huge problem for decades.

Coach Ivanov was caught up in it himself.

He was one of the world’s best weightlifters in the 1990s when he won Olympic gold and four world titles, but he forfeited a silver medal when the Bulgarian team was sent home from Sydney 2000 because of a doping scandal.

Majed, who said the national team had become "badly demotivated during the years of dispute" is realistic about the challenges that lie ahead but is positive about the future.

"Everything is a mess, but I won’t lose faith," he said.

"I have 100 per cent support from the Sports Minister and that is very encouraging, even if her powers are not infinite.

"I will use my skills that have helped me in the private sector and within a year you will see a very different federation.

"It’s very hard work, very long hours every day but I like it that way."

Majed said he would find a specialist coach to help develop a strong female team, a process which would probably take "five or six years."

He said he would support Kolev and Kolev would support him.

"He has a lot of experience, he knows how things work and we will get along in the future," Majed said.

"I can understand why he was so angry, but life continues and we must work together."

Majed was very keen to put in a bid to host the IWF World Championships next year, which will take place after the Olympic Games, "to show the world what we can do."

He was grateful for support throughout the "weightlifting war", as the local media dubbed it, from the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF).

"Everything was out of their hands but they showed patience and they really supported our athletes and our coaches through the past two years," said Majed.

"I would especially like to thanks Milan Mihajlovic and Antonio Conflitti (the EWF general secretary and President)."

Another immediate task for the BWF, besides voting in a head coach, is sending a team to the IWF World Youth Championships, which begin in Albania on March 25.

"Unfortunately there is no funding for it, but we will be there," he said.