Xenophobia in Sport
Bulgarian football fans
Lately, football racism is becoming increasingly widespread in Bulgaria. Groups of radical right-wing football fans are emerging across the country, and the radical nationalist parties are gladly banking on them. Majority of NPB members are football fans.
Football fans acted as the main force during the anti-Muslim unrest in February. Fans of Levsky FC attending the game with CSKA FC displayed a large banner, saying “Bulgaria will remain free when all of you are dead,” referring to Turks. Bulgarian Football Union did not issue any sanctions against Levsky FC. Bulgarian authorities did not react to this at all.
In October 2019, Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) President Borislav Mihaylov resigned on Tuesday after Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov urged him to step down due to racist slurs by Bulgarian fans towards black English players during their qualifying tournament for Euro 2020. Racist slurs marred the match at the Vasil Levski National Stadium, as the game was stopped twice by the referee after monkey screams and crowd chants were targeted at black English players. A group of black-clad Bulgarian fans, some of whom were giving the Nazi salute, were detained by the police, and the captain of the home team, Ivelin Popov, addressed the fans in a heated discussion at halftime.
