SORT OUT YOUR OWN RACE ISSUES, BLAST BULGARIANS

KRASIMIR BALAKOV, Bulgaria’s head coach, has given England a broadside and told them to concentrate on their own issues with racism rather than focusing on other nations. The build-up to tonight’s Euro 2020 qualifier has been dominated by concerns about England’s black players potentially being abused. The amount of coverage, though, has irritated the Bulgarians with Borislav Mihaylov, the president of the football union, labelling comments ‘derogatory’. Balakov, whose side have gone 10 matches without winning, was initially reluctant to answer questions on the subject but when pressed during a press conference, he turned the spotlight on the issues that are ongoing in England and insisted tonight’s fixture would pass without issue. ‘This is not a topic I would like to discuss,’ he said. ‘I would like to speak only about football matters and I would like the game to be a celebration of football. I will ask to respect the rules in order for everyone to enjoy the game. ‘What I can say is that I don’t think we have a problem in the Bulgarian championship. We have lots of players of different ethnicities and skin colour. I don’t think we have as big a problem like, for example, England do. We don’t have this problem in Bulgaria, I can assure you of that. ‘In the Bulgarian championship we have not had such problems while there have been incidents in all levels of English football involving racism. I’d like to focus on football because we are all civilised Europeans and we are all working for this sport.’