Bulgaria suspends three referees for poor officiating

Krasimir Popov, Dimitar Manolov and Ivan Mihaylov have been taken off the roster for an unspecified period, the BFU's refereeing commission said, less than a week before the start of the new Bulgarian league season.

"It's true that the three referees have been taken off the list," Nikolay Dzhuganski, who was appointed as the commission's chief last week, was quoted as saying by the local media.

"There are several reasons (for their suspension) with poor refereeing and lack of adequate reports in some matches among them," added Dzhuganski.

Bulgarian refereeing has come in for criticism in recent years and Litex Lovech coach Hristo Stoichkov has held the country's football authorities responsible for that.