UEFA leader wants ‘war on racists’ after English face abuse

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin urged governments to escalate the "war on the racists" to help soccer authorities eliminate them from stadiums after England players faced abuse in Bulgaria.

In a statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday, Ceferin blamed a rise in nationalism across Europe for fueling racism at matches and said UEFA was committed to imposing strong punishments.

The Bulgarian Football Union was charged by UEFA over its fans making Nazi salutes and directing monkey noises at England's black players, which led to the European Championship qualifier in Sofia being stopped twice on Monday.

But the English Football Association is also facing punishment from UEFA after a disciplinary case was opened into their fans jeering through the Bulgarian national anthem and bringing an insufficient numbers of stewards.

The Bulgarian Football Union was also charged for disrupting the English national anthem. But, in a swift fallout after coming under pressure from Bulgaria's prime minister, BFU president Borislav Mihailov said he would resign at a meeting on Friday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street office called on UEFA to impose tough penalties on Bulgaria. Ceferin sees eradicating racism as part of a wider effort.

UEFA's racism monitoring partner, the Fare network, called on Bulgaria to be blocked from qualifying for Euro 2020 as punishment for repeated racism offenses.

Ceferin maintains that UEFA's "sanctions are among the toughest in sport" and that the organization was willing to get tough.

Monday's game was played in a partially closed stadium as punishment for racist behavior by Bulgaria fans during a home qualifier against Kosovo. A 3,000-seat section of Vasil Levski National Stadium was already due to be closed for the Czech Republic's visit next month because of another racist incident in June when Bulgaria played in Prague.

Bulgaria could be in line for a stronger punishment if UEFA's disciplinary panel decides Monday's incident was a third offense in Euro 2020 qualifying, with at least one game potentially ordered to be played behind closed doors.

UEFA has had a three-step process in place for a decade to deal with racism at matches.

The first step was enforced during the first break in Sofia, with the public announcer warning that the match could be called off completely unless the racist abuse stopped. During the second break, dozens of Bulgaria fans involved in the chanting, many of them wearing dark hoodies, left the stadium. England players decided against not continuing playing.

UEFA's disciplinary case against Bulgaria is set to include evidence from the Fare network's anti-racism monitors.

While Bulgaria is in last place in the qualifying group, it could still potentially reach Euro 2020 via the playoffs route linked to the Nations League competition.

That, according to Powar, would make countries "sit up and take notice" of the racism problem on their doorstep.

President of Bulgarian soccer resigns after fan racism, loss

Criticized around Europe for the racist behavior of Bulgarian fans and under pressure from the country's prime minister following a run of poor results, the president of the country's soccer federation resigned on Tuesday.

A few hours later, Bulgarian special police forces raided the federation offices. It was unclear what they were looking for.

Borislav Mihailov, a former national team goalkeeper who reached the World Cup semifinals in 1994 and served as president for 14 years, will present his resignation to the federation's executive committee on Friday, the soccer body said in a statement.

The decision comes one day after Bulgaria lost to England 6-0 in a European Championship qualifying game that was halted twice as fans in Sofia made Nazi salutes and directed monkey noises at the black players on the visiting team.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov condemned the racist behavior.

The Bulgarian soccer federation distanced itself from the racist abuse.

Bulgarian fans have already been sanctioned for other racist abuse in qualifying for Euro 2020 and played the match against England on Monday in a partially closed stadium.

In his post, Borissov also called for Mihailov to resign because of the team's poor results. He said he ordered sports minister Krasen Kralev to terminate any relations with Mihailov until he quits.

Zapryanov, however, at first said Mihailov would not step down. The resignation announcement came a short time later.

Not long after that, more than 50 uniformed police entered the federation offices, according to local media.

Bulgaria is last in its Euro 2020 qualifying group but will have a second chance to advance through playoffs in March.

Mihailov played in England after the 1994 World Cup and later was elected to the UEFA executive committee for eight years until February.

FIFA has rules protecting soccer federations from government interference, including suspension as a possible punishment.