Speculation that has been floating around Bulgaria's football world for the past 19 years was finally addressed on August 25, when three former football referees talked openly about alleged corruption and match-fixing by top Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) officials. Unfortunately, the three did not submit any proof to support their accusations.

The target of the former referees Momchil Vraikov, Dimitar Dimitrov and Krassimir Yosifov were Borislav Alexandrov, head of BFU's referee committee, and his deputy Ichko Lozev.

At a news conference, Vraikov, Dimitrov and Yosifov said that they had been asked by Alexandrov to fix game results, but that they had declined. They named several games whose results they knew were fixed : last year season's Beroe (Stara Zagora) vs Spartak (Varna) and Lokomotiv (Sofia) vs Botev (Plovdiv) games.

"And this is only part of what has been going on. I am certain that half of the matches in every round are fixed," Vraikov told the news conference, as quoted by Sportni.bg.

Vraikov described how, in 2000, Alexandrov introduced him to an official from the Minyor (Pernik) football club who wanted Vraikov to help his team win its game refereed by Vraikov. "I said no, and when, later, Minyor won the game, that person asked me if Alexandrov had bought me a drink with the 5000 leva that had been given to [Alexandrov]," Vraikov said.

Dimitrov also told a story of his own, in which he refereed the Cherno More (Varna) vs Lokomotiv (Sofia) game. Before the start of the match, he received a phone call and was asked to blow the whistle "in the right direction". Lokomotiv won the game and Dimitrov received a sanction from BFU.

"Guess which was the right direction I did not take," Dimitrov said, as quoted by Sportni.bg.

Yosifov's experience was similar. "I refereed the second division game Svetkavitsa vs Dobroudja. Lozev asked me to help Svetkavitsa, but I refused, and this made them very nervous and I got sanctioned at the end."

The row surrounding Alexandrov started when another referee, Hristo Ristoskov, who was suspended by Alexandrov, sent a letter to BFU president Borislav Mihailov accusing Alexandrov of wrongdoing.

The letter was given to the media on August 19. It said: "I have decided to withdraw from the profession because of the attitude that Alexandrov has towards me. I have phone records proving that Alexandrov tried to influence me in refereeing a couple of matches from last year's season, but I stood my ground. Then the problems started. Ivan Lekov, a member of BFU's executive committee, also tried to blackmail me and offer me better positions on BFU's referee list so that I could referee Uefa games. I think it is my duty to inform you about all this."

Naturally, this made Alexandrov ask Ristoskov to show the phone records, which he failed to do when meeting with Mihailov on August 21. Mihailov decided to temporary suspend Alexandrov from his post and put his deputy Lozev in charge of all BFU referees. Following his suspension, Alexandrov offered no comment on the issue.

Lozev, on the other hand, was accused by Dimitrov on August 25 of damaging the image of Bulgarian referees abroad.

"[Lozev] had a special bag that he can hide underneath his coat when travelling abroad, where he use to hide the free chocolate and beer from the [business lounges at] airports. How can I respect such a person?" he said.

Dimitrov said that other referees who were ready to speak out against Alexandrov had been threatened to stop them doing so. This was the case with Angel Bekyarov, whose family was threatened, he said.

As such, the only referees who had something to say against Alexandrov were Ristoskov, Vraikov, Dimitrov and Yosifov, all of whom had been sanctioned by Alexandrov on the grounds of making mistakes in their respective matches.

The problem with the referees accusations is that Rrstoskov's unwillingness to show the phone records with Alexandrov's voice on them does not support their credibility.

As Mihailov said, "Once I have the phone records I will take action."