site.btaUPDATED Bulgarian Football Union President Mihaylov Heard in Parliament in Connection with Violent Protests Last Week

The President of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU), Borislav Mihaylov, was summoned Tuesday for a hearing by the Parliamentary Committee on Children, Youth and Sport in connection with the incidents before and during the European qualifier on 16 November between Bulgaria and Hungary. The hearing lasted just over two hours and Mihaylov was accompanied by BFU General Secretary Borislav Popov and Deputy General Secretary Hristo Zapryanov.

The Bulgaria-Hungary match was played without an audience in Sofia, after attempts to move the match to stadiums in other cities. Nevertheless, football fans of different teams gathered outside the National Stadium in Sofia to protest and demand Mihaylov’s resignation as BFU President. The protest later turned violent, leading to clashes with the police. Mihaylov's resignation was subsequently demanded by Kiril Petkov of Continue the Change and GERB leader Boyko Borissov. 

Mihaylov and Popov provided the full timeline of events before UEFA's decision to play Thursday's match in Sofia without spectators. UEFA's statement was also racalled that, if possible, the match should be played outside Sofia. At the hearing there were representatives of the Ministry of the Interior and the Sofia police.

"Yesterday [Tuesday] we sent out the whole timeline, you're all familiar with it, and everything is described there. All the information comes from the competent authorities, from Facebook, from security research, over 3,500 fans from far-right factions from Hungary were expected," the BFU President said. The BFU cannot become a scapegoat to paid protests and someone's desire to find a scapegoat, he said, adding that the organiser [of the protest] is known. Things could have led, if there were spectators, to destruction of property and the subsequent termination of the match. "But that's not the most important thing - we have to organise the match without any risk to health and life. Swastikas are not that important - we will be fined some amount. But I am proud that we have managed to save lives," Mihaylov said. 

Borislav Mihaylov stressed that the BFU had a bad experience from four years ago, when the match with England was stopped several times because of racism and how a group of fans entered the stadium under the benevolent gaze of the police. That is why the BFU wanted to avoid that such a thing from happening again, he went on to say. 

However, the discussion drifted away from the main topic and lost its good tone at the end, when MPs, both from and outside the Parliamentary Committee, asked for Borislav Mihaylov's resignation. Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria MP Kristina Petkova said that the increased media presence shows the high public interest in the issue

“I haven’t come here to become a scapegoat and obviously nobody wants to see the facts. Nobody is looking at the facts and it’s obvious that a scapegoat is needed,” Borislav Mihaylov said, adding that he is the scapegoat and subject to an attack. “I am a scapegoat because of a group of people who have been wanting to become bosses at all cost over the past two years and a half. They’re constantly instigating things and are financed by others who are behind them. There are also people who turned this protest from peaceful a not so peaceful one,” the BFU President said.  

In the last few years, Bulgarian football is entangled in the bilateral quarrels between Mihaylov and Dimitar Berbatov, Mihaylov’s main opponent for the position of BFU President.

The Parliamentary Committee’s members from the Vazrazhdane party also demanded Mihaylov’s resignation. Mihaylov responded by saying: “Don’t be asking for resignations, because you have done nothing for football”.