Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov ’embarrassed’ by racist fans during defeat to England
Written by News on 16/10/2019
England players Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford and Tyrone Mings were subjected to racist abuse in Sofia on Monday and Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov is “embarrassed” by his fans’ actions.
Popov bravely confronted his own supporters at half-time in an attempt to get them to stop their racist abuse and was subsequently praised for his courage by Rashford on social media after the game.
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The Bulgarian Football Union president Borislav Mihaylov has since resigned from his role and UEFA have opened disciplinary proceedings against Bulgaria following the racist chanting.
Speaking after the match, Popov said: “Of course I feel embarrassed.
“We are 11 v 11, it doesn’t matter your colour, it’s no problem, we are all the same, we are one very big family in football, everybody and only we, if we are together, can we stop these bad things.
“It was important that I spoke like this because it’s a very big problem for everybody, for our federation, for England and if they said more bad words, even one more time, then maybe they would finish the game.
“We would have such a big punishment and this is no good for Bulgarian football because if some other players want to come here, they hear what is said and how they speak bad, then this is no good for everybody. But when you start to speak to them, afterwards they understand. I think in the second half was better.”
The midfielder, who has 88 international caps, does not understand why the Bulgarians are racist as teams they support also contain black players.
Popov continued: “I don’t want it to be like this, it’s not good for us, the federation and our country. How do I feel? I don’t feel good because we didn’t play well, we lost 6-0 and also this what happened was terrible.
“It must stop. In this country, we have a team like Ludogorets, who have players from every country, I never [heard] this sort of problem in the Bulgarian championship and I don’t know why they made like this because many fans are fans and supporters of English football.
“There are fan clubs from Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester, it’s incredible and I don’t know why they made this. For me, it’s incredible, a surprise.”
(c) Sky Sports 2019: Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov ’embarrassed’ by racist fans during defeat to England
