By Alexander Krassimirov
April 27 – The disciplinary committee of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) has punished CSKA Sofia with a fine of BGN 37,500 (€18,750) for a swastika flag which was flown by the fans during the match against Lokomotiv Sofia last weekend.
The case was discussed by the committee at an exceptional meeting, after initially, the delegate at the game had not seen the flag with Nazi symbols.
The case was not discussed in the regular meeting of the Disciplinary Commission and Levski Sofia fans reacted immediately, saying that they would refer the case to UEFA. In Bulgaria Levski has received a number of sanctions following a series of racist incidents and the fans were furious that CSKA was not punished at the meeting, claiming that the club was receiving preferential treatment.
According to the Bulgarian FA’s Disciplinary Rules, a 37,500 lev fine is the minimum that can be levied for “racism, discriminatory or derogatory words or actions concerning race, gender, color, language, religion or origin.”
The BFU however still did not look into the case of CSKA Sofia player Tony Silva, who was insulted and called a “monkey” by CSKA Ultras.
The day after the incident Portuguese winger publicly announced that he does not consider the actions of the fans as racist. Whether he was coerced into this statement by the club is unclear. The tyres of his car were slashed while he was in training on the same day.
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