SOFIA, Bulgaria — England’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria was temporarily halted during the first half of the Group A fixture in order to warn supporters that the match could be abandoned following racist chanting in the Vasil Levski Stadium.
Match referee Ivan Bebek instructed the stadium PA announcer to broadcast the message — the first step in FIFA’s three-step protocol when dealing with such incidents — after England defender Tyrone Mings complained of being the subject of racist chanting in the 22nd minute.
England manager Gareth Southgate then alerted the fourth official, Mario Zebec, who passed the information on to the referee.
The message, delivered in both Bulgarian and English, called for a stop to “racist behaviour” with the warning that the game could be abandoned if there were further outbreaks.
The match then continued, but play was stopped again on 41 minutes, when Southgate was involved in another lengthy discussion with the referee.
On this occasion, play resumed without a further announcement on the PA system.
Bulgarian captain Ivelin Popov was seen talking to fans through the metal fence at the break and a number of people were seen leaving the stands.
England player Tammy Abraham said last week that he and his teammates would walk off the pitch if racist chanting happened while playing for their country.
However, Raheem Sterling and Southgate subsequently insisted that the squad would “place faith in UEFA” by leaving the match officials to take the lead if any incident occurred.
Step one of the three-step protocol involves a message played over the PA system, with step two seeing the referee take the teams off the pitch for a period of time.
If the players return to action and another incident of racist behaviour occurs, the game is then abandoned as the third step of the protocol.
This game took place in Sofia with 5,000 seats closed as UEFA punishment following racist behaviour during Bulgaria’s previous home Euro 2020 qualifiers against Kosovo and Czech Republic.