DBasia.news – In the match against Bulgaria in the 2020 European Cup Qualifiers, Tuesday (10/15) AM, British national team player, Raheem Sterling, commented on the racial action of the Bulgarian team supporters. He made the statement after receiving racial harassment from the home team’s supporters.
In the match, it was recorded that the referee had stopped the match twice because of racist singing that was continually brought up by Bulgarian fans. This is in accordance with FIFA regulations which stipulate that a match must be stopped if there are racial indications or chants.
Previously, UEFA had sent sanctions against Bulgaria to clear part of the stands from the Natsionalen Stadion Vasil Levski, home to Bulgaria. This followed an act of violation when they played against Kosovo and the Czech Republic. As a result, around 5,000 seats had to be vacated.
However, Raheem Sterling stated that the sentence was not a deterrent effect for Bulgarian supporters. As racial harassments still occured in the match against England.
“The match had already taken action to reduce the stands as a consequence of previous racial harassment from Bulgarian supporters, but that was not enough to deal with the problem,” Sterling said, as quoted by Mirror.
For this reason, Sterling hopes that UEFA as the parent of European football will take another step that can be more assertive than before.
“The strongest action must now be taken by UEFA to ensure a clear message about intolerance for racial cases,” Sterling added.
England themselves won with a score of 6-0 in the match. The Three Lions also made sure to qualify for the European Cup 2020. Meanwhile, Bulgaria had perched by being the caretaker.