Slavia regain home advantage

The Bulgarian Football Union (BFU)'s appeals committee has revoked PFC Slavia Sofia's two match home ban.

Ban revoked
Slavia had been ordered to play two home matches at a neutral ground and had been fined €2,500 after violent incidents marred their home tie against PFC Cherno More Varna, but the BFU has quashed the ban and reduced the fine to €1,500.

Unpleasant incident
The problems happened after 57 minutes of the match when Slavia physio Ivan Ivanov was seen to run on to the pitch and hit Cherno More's Vladimir Gerasimov as he grappled with Slavia's Yordan Petkov moments after Dimitar Rangelov had scored what proved to be the only goal of the game for Slavia.

Initial sanctions
Ivanov was subsequently sent from the dugout by the referee although it later transpired that he was not even eligible to be on the bench in the first place. The Bulgarian football authorities therefore decided that Slavia will have to play their next two home matches at least 80km away from Sofia.

'Justice triumphed'
However, after an appeal, the BFU have decided that Ivanov invaded the pitch in order to prevent further trouble and revoked the ban. "I am happy that justice triumphed," said Slavia chairman Ventsislav Stefanov.