Bulgaria Detains Five Fans After Racist Chants at England Game

(Bloomberg) -- Bulgarian authorities detained five soccer fans on Friday for indecent behavior, raising the total number of those arrested in connection with Monday’s soccer match against England to 11.

Police have identified a total of 16 people as having been involved in the incident but they are still looking for five of them, according to an emailed statement.

Racist chanting interrupted the country’s Euro 2020 qualifier game. Bulgaria’s top soccer official stepped down after the match drew sharp criticism from the U.K. and elsewhere as television footage showed groups of black-masked fans shouting bigoted epithets against the visiting players. The Union of European Football Associations also opened disciplinary inquiries against both teams.

As many as 78 people have been detained this year during soccer games across Bulgaria, some of whom have been investigated for drug possession and hooliganism, police said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Slav Okov in Sofia at sokov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Irina Vilcu at isavu@bloomberg.net, Andras Gergely, Piotr Bujnicki

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