UEFA fine Levski for fans' racist slurs (from Yahoo! sport)
Sun 30 Apr, 7:04 PM
SOFIA (Reuters) - Levski Sofia have been fined 35,000 euros (24,000 pounds) by UEFA for racist behaviour by some of their fans during the UEFA Cup quarter-final home leg against Germany's Schalke 04, the Bulgarian club said on Sunday.
Levski fans booed and whistled visiting coloured player Gerald Asamoah before and during the March 30 match which Schalke won 3-1 to qualify for the semi-finals 4-2 on aggregate.
Club owner Todor Batkov has been banned for two matches for making remarks about English referee Mike Riley after the match. Batkov also has been fined 3,200 euros.
UEFA imposed a further fine of 6,400 euros on Levski for their owner's comment.
"The sanctions are tendentious," said Levski chief executive Konstantin Bazhdekov. "We will discuss the situation and we will decide on Monday if we are going to appeal."
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This is a step forward from Uefa indeed. £24,000 isn't much, even to a smaller club like Levski, but it's a lot more significant than those insulting and rediculous fines imposed on the Spanish clubs whose fans have engaged in racism. It's good to see that Uefa are listening to Fifa about getting tougher on racism and the fact that clubs are soon going to be punished with points deduction is a very good thing which will be a big leap forward to getting rid of the disgusting biggotry which still runs in the game.
British football doesn't have a bad reputation of racism any more but it's still there. Spain and Italy both have big problems still, so I hope the helmets (not the real fans) buck their ideas up now that they know they could really suffer in the leagues. It's also more of an incentive for the real fans to stop the racism themselves. I'd rather everyone just realised that the colour of someone's skin isn't important without the threats and punishments, but if that's what it's going to take, then so be it.