April 11 – The head coach of Cherno More and manager of the Bulgarian national team, Ilian Iliev, lost his self control and launched into a verbal attack on a television journalist live on-air, following his club’s draw against CSKA Sofia.
Iliev verbally attacked sports journalist Velislava Milanova for her comments regarding Cherno More’s performance in one of the team’s previous matches.
“Your colleague Velislava, I don’t know what her name is exactly, commented in the previous match that we were tired, we were an old team, etc. Let your colleague concentrate on her work. Let her watch clips and not comment on our game. Let her concentrate on her work, not on who was tired and who wasn’t. This is shameful! A journalist in a media outlet commented that we were tired! How did she find out? This is shameful!” ranted Iliev.
“I didn’t want to comment on today’s match, but I came to say exactly that. It’s shameful for such people to give explanations about who played how. We are the people who evaluate our players. I can make my players kick the ball into throw-in, but it’s not her job to give an assessment. Let’s concentrate and everyone does their job.”
A day later the Association of Sports Journalists in Bulgaria reported that the coach had spoken personally to journalist Velislava Milanova and had apologised.
Later, Ilian Iliev used the Diema Sport broadcast to publicly apologise.
“I am taking this opportunity in front of the camera to apologize to Velislava Milanova for yesterday’s words that I addressed to her. I apologise, I also called her on the phone and apologised and she accepted my apologies. Every journalist has the right to comment on everything. We are not narcissistic in our club. On the contrary, we are our biggest critics and I accept any criticism, especially at a time like this, and not only. I called the girl, apologized to her, I also called her husband. It was a mistake on my part to comment, especially after such a tense match and more nerves,” said Iliev.
Contact the writer of this story, Aleksander Krassimirov, at moc.l1744694360labto1744694360ofdlr1744694360owedi1744694360sni@o1744694360fni1744694360