The actions of a group of football fans, whom everyone wants to disown, have rocked Bulgarias football establishment. Ironically, the press should have been writing about on-pitch events this summer but, sadly, Bulgaria will miss Europes biggest sporting event, the Euro 2008 football championship in Austria and Switzerland.
On May 17, a group of football fans attacked a rival group of fans with stones and almost destroyed another clubs bus. Strangely, the fans responsible were not supporters of either team.
On May 17, the new champions from CSKA Sofia played their last game of the season in the resort town of Sandanski, near the Greek border. The local team, Vihren, had already managed to secure its position in Group A next season. The game was supposed to mark a happy ending to the championship for both sides, neither of whom had anything to win or lose.
During the match some CSKA supporters found themselves attacked with stones and rocks, not from Vihren fans, but from a group wearing black and white t-shirts, the colours of Lokomotiv Plovdiv players.
According to reports from Bulgarian-language media, the attack was so vicious that some CSKA fans were covered in blood. Others sustained serious head injuries. CSKAs bus and a number of nearby motor vehicles were also attacked. The referee suspended play for a few minutes when CSKA players asked their coach to remove them from the pitch. Police intervened and arrested 45 people who were due to attend court on May 22-23. Two of the suspects had criminal records.
CSKA won the match by 2:1 but, sadly, the result was irrelevant by that point. The violence prompted reactions from all sides, including Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.
Obviously Lokomotivs fans exploited the fact that their team was playing in Blagoevgrad against local side Pirin at the same time as the Vihren-CSKA game. The distance between Blagoevgrad and Sandanski is just 63km, hence they were able to attack CSKA fans.
The history of both sets of supporters should have raised alarm bells among organisers of the May 17 matches. On April 12, for example, CSKA had entertained Lokomotiv Plovdiv in Sofia. CSKA won the match by 2:0 but, attention focussed more on what was happening on the stands, not the pitch. CSKA fans took advantage of their status as the home team. They taunted Lokomotiv fans and provoked a confrontation. CSKA fans had organised an ambush right in front of the sector where Lokomotivs fans were supposed to watch the game. On this occasion police had intervened quickly and, thankfully, matters were resolved when they detained four visiting fans for 24 hours. No CSKA fans were arrested.
Since this was the seasons last game between the two teams, no one anticipated subsequent events in Sandanski.
After the incident in Sandanski Konstantin Tityanov, head of Blagoevgrad police department, told Bulgarian TV channel Kanal 3 that he did not know that the two clubs fans had apparently arranged a rendezvous over the internet.
Once the incident was over, denunciations began. First to wade in was the official fan club of Lokomotiv Plovdiv. On May 18 the fan club issued a statement in which it decried the actions of the hooligans. What happened in Sandanski was an act of insane people who had nothing in common with thousands of Lokomotiv Plovdivs supporters, the statement read.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, CSKA clubs reaction was more emotional. Club president Alexander Tomov called the incident attempted murder and demanded serious sanctions against the attackers. Tomov also asked Interior Minister Mihail Mikov to intervene personally.
On May 20, Lokomotiv Plovdiv issued a declaration condemning the attack and its perpetrators. This was a response to media speculation that Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev had decided to make an example of the hooligans by banning the club from participating in next seasons championship.
This had to be decided on May 19 when the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) gathered to discuss the incident. BFU decided to follow its procedures by the book and wait for police to finish their investigation. If any guilt is proven we will impose sanctions on the club, BFU said in a statement. BFU also recommended that all football clubs be assigned a police officer to ensure co-ordination among clubs, fans and police. The organisation also called for amendments to current legislation and additional safety requirements at football stadiums.
Beside laying out future steps that had to be taken by others, however, BFU failed to come up with any other measures. Lets face it, everything happens with money, General Vassil Vassilev, head of the BFUs committee for order and stadium security, told private broadcaster Nova TV after the BFU meeting.
The Sandanski incident showed a disturbing new development in Bulgarian football hooliganism. The country has a history of such violence but fights have traditionally occurred during club visits at either stadiums or train stations. On this occasion fans actually travelled to find their rivals, suggesting a well orchestrated act. The incident showed that police can no longer merely examine match schedules and plan their response accordingly. It also showed the need for a long-term strategy to fight football hooliganism and shift societys perceptions.
Lets not hide behind personal data protection law. We should pin the pictures and the names of the football hooligans on stadium walls, Vassilev said.
He also suggested gathering registered football hooligans together during matches and banning them from leaving the country when their teams played abroad.
