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SOFIA, March 15 (Reuters) - Bulgarian referee Nikolay Yordanov has been banned for two months after making mistakes in the champions Litex Lovech’s 2-1 win at Pirin Blagoevgrad on Saturday.

Yordanov’s ban, imposed by the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) on Tuesday, came after a furious protest from Pirin over his failure to penalise Litex’s Brazilian winger Doka Madureira for a head-butt on Anton Kostadinov early in the second half.

Soon after the incident, Doka scored Litex’s equaliser and he also assisted Senegalese striker Pape Diouf’s winning goal five minutes from time.

“The punishment is rather symbolic,” Pirin’s chief executive Emil Nakov told local media. “They should ban such referees for life.”

Leaders Litex also complained, saying Yordanov failed to award what looked an obvious penalty during the hard-fought victory over relegation-threatened Pirin.

In 2008, Yordanov was suspended for four matches after making a series of blunders in a game that ended a 33-match unbeaten league run for then-champions CSKA Sofia.

Yordanov became Bulgaria’s second UEFA referee to be banned this season after Angel Angelov was suspended until the end of the season in November.

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; editing by Martyn Herman) To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com

Labels: Bulgarian, errors, Match, referee, Reuters, suspended, Yordanov

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP)—Police say several people have been injured in overnight clashes between football fans and police after the Sofia derby between archrivals CSKA and Levski.

Sofia police chief Valeri Yordanov said Sunday that 16 police officers were among those injured. Several buses and trolleys have been damaged and many shop and car windows smashed.

Riot police had stormed the Georgi Asparuhov Stadium at halftime of the derby and forced 3,500 CSKA fans to leave after crowd trouble had marred the game. CSKA won 3-1.

Sofia deputy mayor Ivan Sotirov said 27 fans had been detained for hooliganism. He added that city officials were considering scheduling all future football games in daylight to reduce violence.

Labels: Bulgarian, clash, Football, police