England's qualifier in Bulgaria halted due to alleged racist abuse

England’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Bulgaria faces being ABANDONED as black players are racially abused by home fans brandishing ‘No Respect’ shirts and doing Nazi salutes

  • Racist abuse led to England’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Bulgaria being halted twice in the first half 
  • Fans were seen making Nazi salutes and making monkey noises towards England’s black players
  • Gareth Southgate spoke before the game about his fear of racism, which the Bulgaria dismissed as offensive 

England’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Bulgaria was temporarily halted twice after the visiting players reported racist chanting and Nazi salutes from the home crowd to the referee.

After the first incident on 30 minutes, the official, Ivan Bebek, then implemented the first step of UEFA’s three-step protocol for racist chanting during games.

This involved a statement being read out over the PA system, requesting supporters stop their behaviour. 

Fans do a Nazi salute despite repeated warnings about the match being stopped if that racist behaviour continued

An England European qualifying match in Bulgaria has been temporarily suspended because of racist abuse

Hordes of Bulgarian fans in black hoodies and shirts which said ‘hooligans from Sofia’ left the stadium after the warnings

Gareth Southgate and his players speak to the referee about the offensive chants from the stands

Self-described ‘hooligans from Sofia’ dressed in black and had their faces covered during the match

1 – The referee will speak to the stadium announcer and demand the halting of racist behaviour.

2 – If it continues, the referee can take the players off the field into the dressing rooms for a period of time and the stadium announcer will make another address.

3 – If it still continues, the match will be abandoned.

Along with their chanting, Bulgaria fans were also seen making Nazi salutes and offensive gestures in the crowd.

Bulgaria captain Ivan Popov went over to speak to supporters at half-time to demand they stopped the chanting.

Tyrone Mings, making his England debut, first raised concerns, with Gareth Southgate then made aware leading to step one. 

Ian Wright said on ITV: ‘The fact is there are a set of people there who have got no respect, they have no respect

‘UEFA are not doing nearly enough. 

‘I am so proud at what we are doing at the moment.’

Roy Keane added: ‘You feel sick to your stomach when you witness it. It is horrible. I feel physically sick listening to that.’

Wright added: ‘You can feel physically sick, but you have to continue playing through that and what we are seeing now is you don’t have to do that.

England captain Harry Kane spoke to referee Ivan Bobek as game was stopped the first time

The game was stopped for a second time as Gareth Southgate reported more abuse

‘It is a terrible day for Bulgarian people but it is a great day for tackling racism.

‘What we are seeing is a set of fans who do not care and need educating.

‘We have heard it for many years about walking off and it is something you do not want to do. You need your white players to do it together, when you see it happening it is powerful.’ 

After 41 minutes, England boss Gareth Southgate reported a further instance of abuse on the touchline. 

The game was stopped again but the players did not leave the pitch as a further announcement was made.

A total of six minutes of injury-time were added at the end of the first half due to the two stoppages. 

ITV commentator Clive Tyldesley said: I’I can only add our committed support to anything that will halt this sickening taint on this game. 

‘I’d like to say it is shocking but it is not.’

Before the match Gareth Southgate said he had spoken to his players about how they would react to any potential racist abuse.

He said he was prepared to walk his team off the pitch. 

But Borislav Mihaylov, the President of the Bulgarian FA also wrote a letter of complaint to UEFA accusing England of ‘offensive, unjust’ and ‘derogatory’ comments about Bulgarian fans.

This is in spite of the fact they have previously been sanctioned by UEFA who ordered that 5,000 seats be left empty tonight as a punishment. 

Source: Read Full Article