The introduction of strong measures for admission of the football fans to stadiums, including verification of identity cards would solve the problem with sports hooliganism in Bulgaria, according to the Director of Gendarmerie Chief Commissar Zhivko Zhivkov.

Zhivkov believes that hooligans often provoke policemen during rallies and that issues related to such hooligan acts could be easily solved if Bulgaria applied measures already proven to work in other countries.

"When an individual is led out of the stadium for disorderly conduct, he is issued a restricting order in the next three or even five years. When such order exists, anytime when there is a match, he would need to prove that he is not at the stadium. This is a measure that is applicable along with other admission restrictions to make sure we know that those who do not deserve to be at the game are not there," Zhivkov said.

The Commissar further explained that in order to make such measures possible the Bulgarian stadiums must possess the necessary equipment and licensing.

According to Zhivkov, football games in Southwest Bulgaria were the riskiest as far as order was concerned.

"When participants of protest rallies that are held with official permission yell "Blood, we want blood", what message does this send?" Zhivkov concluded.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!