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Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov condemns racist chants: 'It's embarrassing - what happened was terrible'

Ivelin Popov was praised by England forward Marcus Rashford - Getty Images Europe
Ivelin Popov was praised by England forward Marcus Rashford - Getty Images Europe

Bulgaria captain Ivelin Popov has outlined why he stayed behind to appeal to home fans to stop aiming racist chants at England players and has labelled the behaviour as “embarrassing”.

Popov was praised by England forward Marcus Rashford for trying to stop the racism that threatened to result in the abandonment of the Euro 2020 qualifying game in Sofia.

Rashford posted a message on twitter that read: “Been told what the Bulgaria captain did at half-time. To stand alone and do the right thing takes courage and acts like that shouldn’t go unnoticed. #NoToRacism.”

Popov, who plays for Russian club FC Rostov and has 88 caps for Bulgaria, said: “It was important that I spoke like this because it’s a very big problem for everybody, for our federation, for England and if they said more bad words, even one more time, then maybe they would finish the game.

“We would have such a big punishment and this is no good for Bulgarian football because if some other players want to come here, they hear what is said and how they speak bad, then this is no good for everybody.”

Popov confirmed that he initially received an angry reaction from the fans he spoke to, but believes his words may have helped calm them down after half-time.

“This is normal because the first half was 4-0, they were very angry and were saying to me ‘don’t speak to us’. But when you start to speak to them, afterwards they understand. I think in the second half it was better.”

Bulgaria coach Krasimir Balakov claimed he did not hear the racist chanting, but the prime minister, Boyko Borissov, has forced the president of the country’s football federation, Borislav Mihaylov, to resign.

Popov insisted that racism amongst Bulgarian football fans must be eradicated, saying: “Of course I feel embarrassed.

“I don’t want it to be like this, it’s not good for us, the federation and our country. How do I feel? I don’t feel good because we didn’t play well, we lost 6-0 and also what happened was terrible.

“It must stop. In this country, we have a team like Ludogrets, who have players from every country, I never heard of this sort of problem in the Bulgarian championship and I don’t know why they did this because many fans are fans and supporters of English football.

“There are fan clubs from Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester, it’s incredible and I don’t know why they made this. For me, it’s incredible, a surprise. In every big city they have fan clubs, like in Sofia, they have several fan clubs for every big English club.

“We are 11 versus 11, it doesn’t matter your colour, it’s no problem, we are all the same, we are one very big family in football. Only we if we are together can we stop these bad things.”