Bulgarian Caller Says He 'Feels So Bad' About Racially Abusive Football Fans

15 October 2019, 14:31

The caller, who is originally from Bulgaria, told Shelagh Fogarty that he thought it was wrong to treat guests to his home country in the way that they were by some Bulgarian football fans.

Athamas, from Redbridge, said: "I feel so bad for what happened. I'm Bulgarian, I've lived here for over twenty years, I've got loads of Bulgarian-British friends as well, and I used to live in Bulgaria and we've never done this.

"Yesterday, we had the English football team - they were guests in our country. It doesn't matter if you don't like someone or you like them, they're guests and if for just one day, you have to respect them. It's a football game, let the best team win.

|I know they were losing, they were not happy but there is no reason not to be happy with the English football team. The Bulgarian football players, they didn't play properly so you have to be able to actually behave properly."

Shelagh Fogarty asked: "Do you think that the men that were shouting the racist abuse and making the Nazi taunts, they're not really interested in the football, are they?"

He replied: "No, they just probably bored and they want to go and use some alcohol or something else."

He later added: "The thing that they done is bad for their football team."