Neutral venues for Bulgarian clubs whose fans misbehave
By Angel Krasimirov
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian clubs whose supporters cause trouble will be forced to play at neutral venues instead of behind closed doors, the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) said on Tuesday.
"Visiting fans are not to blame for the violations committed by the home club's supporters," the BFU said in a statement on Tuesday after discussing the problem with fans' organisations, clubs and interior ministry officials.
The BFU said that instead of excluding all fans, it would require punished teams to serve their "bans" in one of three Bulgarian cities -- Veliko Tarnovo in the north of the country and Blagoevgrad and Sliven in the south.
Violence inside and outside stadiums has plagued Bulgarian football in recent seasons, endangering the safety of players and supporters.
The BFU has imposed a number of crowd bans in recent seasons, with Levski Sofia, Botev Plovdiv and their city rivals Lokomotiv playing more than a dozen matches behind closed doors because of fan violence.
UGLY INCIDENT
The BFU's decision to ensure "away" fans are not punished for home supporters' crimes comes amid criticism by supporters and local media that the soccer authorities acted too slowly in handing Levski Sofia a heavy sanction for another racial incident which caused outrage in the Black Sea state.
A photograph, published in local media, showed Levski supporters holding up a banner stating "Say yes to racism" during their 3-2 league win over Ludogorets last month.
Their fans also mocked one of the anti-racism campaigns launched by European soccer's governing body by doctoring the UEFA logo on a banner.
Levski have failed to condemn the ugly incident so far and their officials have refused to comment.
However, the club's national fan club said in a statement that it was an isolated act by "a few masked boys who don't want to become part of our organisation".
Levski, 26-times Bulgarian champions and one of the country's two most popular clubs along with bitter city rivals CSKA, have a history of racism at their matches.
The BFU fined the club 37,500 levs ($24,300) after their supporters displayed a banner showing a swastika and another one marking what would have been Adolf Hitler's birthday during their game at Litex Lovech in April 2013.
($1 = 1.5442 Bulgarian Levs)
(Editing by Neville Dalton)
