Racial Abuse continues in Football:Bulgaria vs England

Racism in football has been prominent for the last couple of years. The latest one being the Bulgaria vs England game.

England played Bulgaria away at Sofia stadium.  England beat Bulgaria 6-0 in the Euro 2020 qualifiers. During the game Bulgarian fans made racist chants and Nazi salutes towards England Players.

The game had to come to a stop twice during the 90 minutes. England manager Gareth Southgate told Sky News that the England management team let the officials now on both occasions when they heard the racist chants.

The referee initiand the first step of UEFA’s anti-racism protocol just before the end of the first half of the game.

In 2011 the Bulgarian football union was fined after Ashley Young, Ashley Cole and Theo Walcott faced racist abuse during the euro qualifiers.

In Tuesday’s game, Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford were the players targeted by Bulgarian fans during the 90 minutes of the game.

The England football team were given the option to end the game after the first half however they refused and carried on to the end of the game.

The Bulgarian football team had to play 2 games behind closed doors after their game with England and are under investigation by UEFA.

The president of the Bulgarian football union Borislav Mihaylov resigned.Boris Mihaylo had said during interviews that he did not hear any of the racist chants and that Gareth Southgate was exaggerating.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borrissov called for him to quit after the game on Tuesday.

16 men have been arrested in the connection with the racist abuse against the England team.

5 of the men were detained and a further 5 were searched and 6 of the men were fined up to £434.00.

it has been said that Bulgaria have a racism problem and it goes beyond football.

The phoenix today interviewed a Bulgarian Lecturer from Coventry University who discussed the Problem with Racism in Bulgaria. “I can confirm that the whole nation is racist it’s just not the Football Hooligans. The way which the Bulgarian community reacted to the situation shows that there is a problem because they refuse to acknowledge that the whole country is racist.”

“This was the ugliest display in the last 10 years.

"I believe that it’s a social issue, as a Bulgarian I can tell you that we have problem with Racism, Homophobia, with misogyny and it is intrenched into our system. “

We were able to speak to a spokesman from the Coventry West Indian Club on the events that occurred during the Bulgaria vs England game.“The events that occurred during Tuesday’s game were outrageous. It shows that UEFA and other football unions have a lot of work to do, when it comes to tackling racism.”

“This month is black History month, as a club we are celebrating the Black England Football players such as Raheem sterling as they are role models to the young black men that we work with on a daily basis. The Bulgarian football team needs to be banned from the Euro 2020 Qualifiers and servilely punished.”

Gareth Southgate has said that him and his team would like to move on and continue focussing on the other games ahead of the euro 2020 qualifiers.