If anything good came out of the latest “Eternal Derby,” we’d like to know what it is.
Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia’s 3-0 win over local rivals Levski Sofia was marred Sunday when fans knocked out one of the coaches with a snowball thrown from the stands early in the first half.
Fans of host Levski Sofia started throwing snowballs from the stands onto the field shortly after kickoff. It didn’t take long for a snowball to strike CSKA Sofia head coach Stoycho Mladenov, knocking him to the ground, according to the BBC.
“They (Levski fans) began to throw snowballs at us from the start of the game,” CSKA assistant coach Anatoli Nankov said. “We informed the fourth official, but he said that their behavior was normal.”
After the game, Mladenov claimed that the snowball’s impact knocked him unconscious.
But the head of Levski’s national fan club has accused Mladenov of exaggerating the extent of his injuries.
“Children play with snowballs, but I haven’t heard of anyone who has collapsed,” Vladimir Vladimirov said. “It was disgusting to watch, his over-acting was so poor.”
The snowball incident overshadowed other crowd disturbances. After CSKA scored its third goal, Levski fans reportedly tried to storm the field, but riot police prevented them from doing so.
There often are bad fireworks when the two biggest clubs in Sofia, Bulgaria, meet in the “Eternal Derby.” Judging from Sunday’s events, we only can conclude that some things never change.
Thumbnail photo by Facebook/CSKA (Sofia)
