Soccer-Levski handed crowd ban, escape sanction over snowball

Reuters

SOFIA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Levski Sofia have been ordered to play their next home match behind closed doors following crowd trouble in their 3-0 defeat by bitter city rivals CSKA in a highly-charged Bulgarian league clash on Saturday. The Bulgarian Football Union's (BFU) disciplinary commission also fined the 26-times champions 23,000 levs ($14,827) on Thursday after Levski fans broke through fences surrounding the pitch and reached the stadium's running track. More than a 100 policemen were needed to prevent the fans from making their way to the playing surface. Two policemen were injured during clashes, the BFU said. The ban will affect Levski's home match against Beroe Stara Zagora on Nov. 7. The Blues, as Levski are known in the Balkan country, have already played two games behind closed doors this season after crowd violence marred their domestic league matches at Beroe and Litex Lovech. The BFU, however, has been criticised by local media and fans for failing to impose any sanction on Levski after a snowball hit CSKA coach Stoycho Mladenov. Mladenov collapsed on the athletics track surrounding the pitch after being hit by the snowball, thrown by Levski supporters, which forced the referee to halt the game for several minutes. "There's no punishment for the snowball because we didn't receive a medical document," the disciplinary commission's chairman Yuri Kuchev told reporters. Mladenov declared on Monday that he had a document proving his injury and would present it to the BFU on request, but he then made a U-turn two days later, saying he would not hand it over because he is "a man of honour". Some of Bulgaria's leading newspapers slammed the domestic soccer authorities with Trud daily describing the decision as "scandalous". "Oh, God, it's endless insanity," life-long Levski fan Georgi Minchev told Reuters. "I love football so much but I don't go to stadium anymore because it's so dangerous there. "This time, the CSKA coach was right. It seems like they want someone to be killed again!" The Eternal Derby, as matches between the two most popular clubs in Bulgaria are known, has a long history of crowd violence. A 30-year-old man was killed by a bomb in 2000 and hooliganism and arrests have been rife since then. (1 US dollar = 1.5512 Bulgarian lev) (Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; editing by Toby Davis)