England v Bulgaria - Bulgarian Government reaction

[Roberty]

I thought this deserved a thread of it's own:

According to the English Language "Sofia Globe" :-
https://sofiaglobe.com/2019/10/15/bulgarian-pm-wants-resignation-of-bulgarian-football-union-head-after-england-match-debacle/

Bulgarian PM wants resignation of Bulgarian Football Union head after England match debacle

The government is severing its relations with the Bulgarian Football Union until BFU head Borislav Mihailov resigns, Minister of Sport Krassen Kralev said after talks with Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, the morning after the Bulgarian national team was defeated six-nil by England at a match marred by racist behaviour in the stands.

The match was suspended twice and came close to being called off as Bulgarians directed racist abuse at England player Tyrone Mings, as well as at Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford. Bulgarians were photographed giving Hitler salutes.

Kralev said that Borissov had ordered a suspension of relations, including financial ones, with the BFU until Mihailov resigned. The resignation was sought because of the overall state of Bulgarian football, Kralev said.

The Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria "Shalom" strongly condemned the racist insults and chants from the Bulgarian fan sector during the Euro 2020 qualifying match.

"Nazi salutes have no place in any stadium. Such behaviour by the public is a shameful stain for both the players on the pitch and the name of the team who accept it uncritically," Shalom said.

"We hope that the Bulgarian Football Union will take into account the recommendations of UEFA and will implement lasting and working measures to solve this serious problem, which our organization has repeatedly signalled."

The Football Association's website quoted England manager Gareth Southgate as saying: "I have to say the officials were onto everything very quickly and we reported everything immediately when we heard things".

"We had constant communication with the fourth official and the referee and I was in contact with the players all the way through the first half and then at half time," Southgate said.

"We know it's an unacceptable situation but I think we've managed to make two statements: by winning the game but also by raising awareness of everybody to the situation as the game was stopped twice.

"I know for some people, that won't be enough, but as a group we were on board with that process," he said.

The website quoted Mings as saying that it had been a great win "overshadowed by a few disappointing chants".

"It was quite clear to hear on the pitch but we showed a great response and we showed a great togetherness and ultimately we let the football do the talking," Mings said.

"Hopefully, the higher powers will deal with the incidents, but we couldn't do much more than what we did on the pitch." He said that England team members and staff had made the decision at half-time to complete the match.

[snarks]

It is shameful, but this is not the only stadium, and playing games behind closed doors doesn't resolve it, nor do teams walking off. A ban for Bulgaria isn't right either as they can't stop every idiot.

UEFA and FIFA need a radical rethink about how they approach this situation in Bulgaria and the other countries where it occurs (including here) and other aspects of the system going forward. It's pointless hitting Bulgaria with penalties that are disproportionate to the fines they levy on clubs and teams for other aspects of wrongdoing in the game.

I'm sure the penalty for Bulgaria will be a fine and next game or 2 games behind closed doors. The fine will probably only be in the tens of thousands.

[toshes mate]

It is very naive, IMO, to believe there are European countries who do not have racism problems, even the seemingly more enlightened Scandinavian countries.  It happens anywhere there is at least one bigot and nobody around them with the time, means and responsibility to resolve ignorance through positive and informed reasoning and education.  Most phobias can be cured through treatment that allows a person to come to terms with the irrationality of their fear.  Real fear cannot be so treated since it is part of our fight or flight nature.  Real fear happens when someone is bullied or conscripted into a regime and can see no escape, and it thus becomes a rational response.  All society needs workable ways of dealing with fear, both rational and irrational.  We need, IMO, serious education towards integration in a cultural whole and not be forever concerned with dividing things up to make them more digestible.  In short we need real equality, really enforced and monitored for effectiveness, with no abstentions or abstainers and it needs to start at a young age.           

[filham]

This morning every jail in Bulgaria should be full of the fans responsible for that terrible act of racism and they should all have spent the night on a hard floor with nothing more than bread and water for breakfast. That would be the start of a solution to the problem.

[gang]

Putting the people responsible in prison will not solve the problem, they will consider themselves as heroes and encourage more morons to join them. Education has to start from an early age and is a long process.

[FFCAli]

If the match had been abandoned what would have been the result so far as qualifying went?  I haven't heard anything explaining that.

[BigbadBillyMcKinley]

The head of the Bulgarian FA has resigned.

[ALG01]

The head of the Bulgarian FA has resigned.

Pushed or fell?

However, that is pretty irrelevant, these people are in denial BUT on the other hand it is a bit like when we had hooliganism as a de facto norm, it is very difficult to know how to get football to deal with a societal problem. Football does not create racists, and keeping them away from matches does not stop their loathsome outlook. I am sure you will know I do not have any answers except the better education stuff and even that doesn't help, just look at the way the world is.

[toshes mate]

Mastercard, as a sponsor of Uefa events, has been urged to take action to stop funds passing into the hands of the organised groups who were at the Bulgaria game last night.  Meanwhile an unnamed Bulgarian player has suggested to England that all last night's abuse was pre-planned and coordinated.

Meanwhile Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, claimed his organisation 'was committed to do everything it can to eliminate racism from football', but then explicitly suggesting governments need to do more in this area.

Perhaps the Swiss government should start fining Uefa very large sums of money for not doing enough to counter racism, and then they may just begin to take this matter a little more seriously as one of the many things they are very much inclusively and explicitly responsible for.     

[Roberty]

Sad to say - as is often the case these days - not all of the England were well behaved

Disturbances were reports in Sofia - mostly fighting between different groups of England supporters who had been drinking

On Bulgarian TV a local supporter could not understand why those involved were not removed from the ground by the police and security staff, so as to let the majority of Bulgarian supporters enjoy the game.

It has also been reported that the Bulgaria FA offices have been raided by the police

[snarks]

Not helped by their manager and their goalkeeper saying they didn't hear anything.

Lets not pretend that England don't have a problem though, just look at the Chelsea "fan" having a go at Stirling earlier this year.

[Statto]

Lets not pretend that England don't have a problem though, just look at the Chelsea "fan" having a go at Stirling earlier this year.

Oh please. Totally different scale. They're 30 yrs behind us, like most of Eastern Europe. Southern Europe are perhaps a bit further ahead but again well behind us.

[filham]

Putting the people responsible in prison will not solve the problem, they will consider themselves as heroes and encourage more morons to join them. Education has to start from an early age and is a long process.

Of course, education, education, education is the answer but until that takes effect we can't allow these types the freedom to practise their awful habits to the detriment of the majorities.

[CottagersOnTour]

Not helped by their manager and their goalkeeper saying they didn't hear anything.

Lets not pretend that England don't have a problem though, just look at the Chelsea "fan" having a go at Stirling earlier this year.

I dont think anyone is pretending we don't have issues at home... but London is actually one of the most multi-cultural (and one of the most tolerant) cities in the world.

Jesus I lived in Sydney and California for 5+ years and some of the stuff the Aussies & Yanks come up with doesn't even compare AND I was living in the most liberal parts of both countries. The bogans and rednecks have much dimmer views!

We can always improve on this front for sure, but we're miles ahead of most.

[Lyle from Hangeland]

This morning every jail in Bulgaria should be full of the fans responsible for that terrible act of racism and they should all have spent the night on a hard floor with nothing more than bread and water for breakfast. That would be the start of a solution to the problem.

People shouldn't be in jail for gestures or speech. That is wrong too.

[filham]

This morning every jail in Bulgaria should be full of the fans responsible for that terrible act of racism and they should all have spent the night on a hard floor with nothing more than bread and water for breakfast. That would be the start of a solution to the problem.

People shouldn't be in jail for gestures or speech. That is wrong too.

Don't get freedom of speech mixed up with speech and gestures designed to incite riots.

[FFC1987]

This morning every jail in Bulgaria should be full of the fans responsible for that terrible act of racism and they should all have spent the night on a hard floor with nothing more than bread and water for breakfast. That would be the start of a solution to the problem.

People shouldn't be in jail for gestures or speech. That is wrong too.

Don't get freedom of speech mixed up with speech and gestures designed to incite riots.

I think you meant to say hate speech? Just making the distinction as certain riots at the moment could fall into this bracket and I don't think supporting say Hong Kong would be deemed as against the law. Hate speech however is obviously.

Edit, Im not making this a political post, just making a distinction.

[snarks]

Lets not pretend that England don't have a problem though, just look at the Chelsea "fan" having a go at Stirling earlier this year.

Oh please. Totally different scale. They're 30 yrs behind us, like most of Eastern Europe. Southern Europe are perhaps a bit further ahead but again well behind us.

I wasn't saying it wasn't a totally different scale, what I was pointing out is that it hasn't been resolved here either. I agree with the comments that we are better and about London in general. Really not the point I was making at all.

[FFC1987]

Lets not pretend that England don't have a problem though, just look at the Chelsea "fan" having a go at Stirling earlier this year.

Oh please. Totally different scale. They're 30 yrs behind us, like most of Eastern Europe. Southern Europe are perhaps a bit further ahead but again well behind us.

I wasn't saying it wasn't a totally different scale, what I was pointing out is that it hasn't been resolved here either. I agree with the comments that we are better and about London in general. Really not the point I was making at all.

Southgate made the same point really too in his press conference about how his players are hardened to it as a result of treatment in the UK. Its obviously way less serious in scale and scope but it does happen particularly online. I mean, we're talking actual neo nazi's and behaviours seemingly normalised in the Bulgarian stands that we haven't been for a decade at least, and in vocal numbers we haven't either.

[snarks]

Just thought I'd bring this back up, given the events at Yeovil over the weekend, let alone the investigations into incidents involving Hartlepool, Bristol City and Hearts games.

We obviously still have a long way to go.