[WBA-Josh]

It's turning out to be a bad 24 hours for the country.

First there was the racism on the pitch from some of the fans in the stadium last night against England's black players. That was followed up by the Prime Minister ordering the resignation of the Football Union's (their version of the FA) President, who has obliged by resigning this afternoon and now Reuters has reported that less than an hour after the resignation, Bulgarian Police raided the Football Union headquarters. It seems to be about corruption.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-soccer...KKBN1WU202

Crikey.

[drewks]

Well, the racism thing is bad enough - but you can probably conclude that the country is 30 years or so 'behind the times' in certain areas, including this one.
UK football was probably just as bad in the 70s /80s.

Equally, football governing bodies have IMHO always had a certain level of corruption. Sepp Blatter, anyone?

I'm not condoning anything regarding Bulgaria by the way, I'm just saying that maybe a lot of this rubbish was going on here, and elsewhere, a few years ago.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

In the circumstances, kicking them out of international competition until they've cleaned up their act might well be a kindness. No one wants to see innocent football fans pay for the wrongs of crooked suits and racist thugs, but there comes a point when the problems are so endemic that UEFA have to punish the bad behaviour, force a member nation to turn a new leaf, and incentivise anti-racism and anti-corruption initiatives until they're ready to return.

[Arcane Astral Aeons]

it goes on and the powers that be are more interested in their big fat salaries that stamping out this scourge on OUR game
i would like to point out one thing i noticed last night
i know the coverage was from the Bulgarian Television,but why oh why were they giving these prats t.v coverage?
really makes no sense.
and the commentary from old hoddle and good old clive was nothing short of ludicrous
they did little more than(also)give these dickheads coverage every conversation was about..the racism

time these caveman countries were booted out.....sooner the better

i`m not an England supporter but well done for the stand they took
unfortunately this won`t be the end

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

i know the coverage was from the Bulgarian Television,but why oh why were they giving these prats t.v coverage?

I think there's an argument to be made that capturing this stuff on camera is a powerful tool in fighting against it, not least because it lets the world know unequivocally what's going on. Some of the Bulgarians were trying to deny or downplay the incidents after the match, but when pictures of your fans sieg-heiling are going viral across the globe, those denials fall ludicrously flat.

Public image matters for nations as well as celebrities.

[Beefy 1965]

It gets worse as the English Fan that passed away in Bulgeria was a Baggie ...
Family finding hard to get the body home ...

England fan who died on Monday night in Bulgaria was a West Brom fan. Terrible news to hear, thoughts are with his family and friends! Here is a go fund me page to get him flown back home - https://gofundme.com/f/get-spray-back-ho...hare-sheet
Time to bring one of our own back home #WBA #AlbionFamily

[WakeyTerrier]

Nobody should go to watch a football match and not come home but what I don’t get is why people don’t take out insurance. £10k to bring his body home when £10 would have covered that with a simple insurance policy

[Blue Baggie]

Without entering a political debate, Bulgaria IMO is not 30 years, but 50 years behind the times.