Bulgarian football fa, resigned from his post

The president of the Bulgarian Football Association
has resigned from his position after England’s black
players were subjected to shocking racist chants
and monkey noises in Sofia on Monday night.

The news comes just hours after the prime minister
of Bulgaria had demanded that the FA chief steps
down, announcing that the government would freeze
all relations with the Bulgarian FA – including
denying them any funding – until Borislav Mihaylov
was gone.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin also spoke out
on Tuesday, urging the ‘football family’ to ‘wage
war on the racists’ following the abuse suffered by
the likes of Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford
on Monday.

Bulgarian football officials including Mihaylov had
spent the run-up to Monday night’s match accusing
England players of being ‘offensive’ in suggesting
they could face racist abuse in Sofia and described
branding Bulgarian fans as potential racists as
‘unjust’.

Mihaylov’s bizarre statements before the match
were followed by Bulgaria’s manager Krasimir
Balakov, selected by their FA, claiming not to have
heard any chanting and saying in his post-match press conference:

‘the unacceptable behaviour was
by England fans.’

The match was stopped twice by the referee over
the Bulgarian fans racist chants– with England
eventually running out comfortable 6-0 winners.

England’s black players silenced racist fans in
Bulgaria with a 6-0 rout after the match had to be
halted twice by the referee.

Marcus Rashford and Sterling scored while Tyrone
Mings enjoyed a fine debut in defence, despite all
three being targeted by jeering, monkey chants and
Nazi salutes from the home fans.

Despite the rubbishing of Southgate’s concerns
about racism before the Euro 2020 qualifier, it took
just 27 minutes for official Ivan Bebek to stop the
game for the first time, after Mings had alerted one
of his assistants to the abuse.

The referee implemented the first stage of UEFA’s
three-step protocol, involving a statement being
read out over the PA system, warning supporters
stop their behaviour.

There was later another stoppage moments before
half-time, but England’s players insisted they
wanted to finish the half. After the first-half
incidents, the players spoke in the changing room
at half-time, with Kane praising the fortitude of his
colleagues for wanting to continue the match
despite the issues.

Meanwhile, the Bulgarian FA’s offices have been
raided by 30 uniformed officers from the country’s
State Security Council. The purpose of the operation
is yet to be announced although sources close to
the issue say officers have been searching for
documents related to some Bulgarian referees.