An extremely severe sanction was imposed by the Disciplinary Committee of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) on the young goalkeeper of Lokomotiv (Gorna Oryahovitsa) Alexander Stoyanov. The goalkeeper has been suspended from competing for a period of two years due to brutal physical aggression against the main referee during a match.
The ugly scenes unfolded after Stoyanov attacked the referee with martial arts techniques and a leg in the air, and after the referee fell, he also inflicted subsequent blows on him. Our football headquarters specified that the imposed two-year disqualification is the maximum possible amount of punishment provided for in the Disciplinary Regulations for such a type of offense.
Serious sanctions for the coaching staff as wellThe disciplinary measures for the team from Gorna Oryahovitsa do not end there. The assistant coach of the “railroad players“ has been fined nearly 400 euros (about 800 leva) and will not have the right to lead the team from the bench in the next two official matches.
Stoyanov's teammates – Svilen Veselinov and Stefan Chukurliev, who also received red cards during the same tense clash, have been sanctioned with a two-match suspension.
The scandalous incident and the subsequent wave of penalties have put Lokomotiv (Gorna Oryahovitsa) in a serious crisis, and the club's management will still have to deal with personnel problems in the squad.