The Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Boyko Borisov has called for the immediate resignation of the country’s football FA Chief, Borislav Mikhailov following the racist abuse aimed at England’s black players during Monday night Euro 2020 qualifiers.
According to reports, Boyko Borisov whose message was delivered by the Minister for Sport, Krasen Kralev, revealed that Bulgarian PM has vowed to cut all ties with national football bosses until Mikhailov quits.
The move is coming after the Euro 2020 qualifiers between England and Bulgaria on Monday night at the Sofia’s Vasil Levski National Stadium, which saw one of the ugliest scenes in world football history, as some Bulgaria fans racially abused England’s black players with monkey chants and Nazi salutes.
One of the targetted players was Tyrone Mings who was playing for the first time for the Three Lions, as England bounced back from their disappointment of last week against the Czech Republic to defeat the Bulgaria national team 0-6
Referee Ivan Bebek twice halted play in the opening 45 minutes and the PA announcer warned Bulgaria supporters that the match would be abandoned if the abuse continued. The announcer said:
‘This is an important stadium announcement, because of racist behaviour which is interfering with the game, the referee has indicated that he may have to suspend the match.
‘Racism in football stadiums will not be tolerated. Please be in no doubt that the game will be suspended and may be abandoned if racist behaviour continues amongst spectators. Help everyone enjoy the game and say no to racism. Thank you.’
But now Kralev has revealed the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has ordered him to cut all ties with the Bulgarian FA pending Mikhailov’s resignation.
Kralev said: “A little while ago, the Prime Minister called me urgently.
“You know that in the last four years, the government has done a lot for the development of Bulgarian football.
“But after the recent events, having in mind the whole state of football, after yesterday’s incidents, the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has ordered me from today to suspend any relations with the football union, including financial ones, until the resignation of Borislav Mikhailov.”
And Sterling was quick to praise Borisov, tweeting: “A good move credits to you M. Borissov,” he said.
The FA chief even went on to say the situation is worse in England – calling the pre-match comments against Bulgaria unfair.
But even before kick-off, Three Lions debutant, Mings claimed he could hear the disgusting abuse from home supporters.
After the game, Bulgaria boss Krasimir Balakov incredibly claimed he hadn’t heard the abuse, before a member of the local media told Southgate to “f*** off”.
The English FA in a released statement on Monday condemned the attack, saying:
The FA can confirm that England players were subjected to abhorrent racist chanting while playing in the EURO 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria.
“This is unacceptable at any level of the game and our immediate focus is supporting the players and staff involved.
As we are sadly aware, this is not the first time our players have been subjected to this level of abuse and there is no place for this kind of behaviour in society, let alone in football. We will be asking UEFA to investigate as a matter of urgency”.