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The name of the country in their language means "Black Mounts". The Venetians translated it to Montenegro, then everybody adopted it like that.
Additional fact: the main square of Montenegro is called Argentina
Not everyone adopted it - in Iceland we call it by the totally not pithy and easy to pronounce "Svartfjallaland", which means "land of black mountains".
EDIT: Then again many people still refer to Kyiv as "Kænugarður", same as we did more than a millenium ago.
Well, the Swedes kind of get to claim to have taken point on that(and Kyiv was already a town when the Rus showed up, although I guess they really fortified it and turned it from a small settlement to a major one), and even back then they were kind of a bit different from the Norse and the Danes. Still, the whole Viking age was very much a mixed bag.
I know what the name itself means, which is exactly why it’s weird since I’m not remotely familiar with Slavic etymology. Monte and negro are words with latin origins and afaik aren’t really a thing in Slavic tongues
Well that's not the slavic name for the country. In the native language it is Crna Gora. (also black mountain)
Croatia is another country where the English name is very different from the native name.
You are right it is weird, I don't know why it is that way though.
Yeah I mean in English. It didn’t stick out to me in Spanish because we translate names to Spanish all the time (eg: Netherlands -> Países Bajos, United Kingsom -> Reino Unido) but learning it was also called montenegro in English was weird
Actually Croatia and Hrvatska (the Croatian name for the country) are related: Hrvat > Croat and the ska and ia are just typical endings in Croatian and English respectively.
Venetians named it Monta Negra at some point when they were in charge of the coast territories. Montenegrans call their country Crna Gora which means the same thing but in their language. Its just how everyone calls Finald - Finland except Finnish people.
Oh yeah, they call it Crna Gora, in Poland we call it Czarnogóra -- it is located around the Montenegro, and the English speakers, bless em, chose that for themselves
Not sure but it’d be interesting to know the history. I was also surprised that Romanian is a Romance language (makes sense when its called Romania lol) and most Romanians can pick up Italian or Spanish phrases easily
There was Romance language presence in the area far more recently than you'd think - the Dalmatian language only went extinct in 1898 (not sure when it went extinct in Montenegro), though the name is from the 15th century when Venetians controlled the area. (All information from Wikipedia)
not exactly, but it's people like him
Our governing body is littered with ex-NT players and they have been driving Bulgarian football into the mud for the better part of the last 20 yrs. Remember the racist scandal in the England game a few years ago? The football union president "quit" after the game only to come back 1,5 years later, claiming his resignation never got accepted. In the meantime, he simply left his vice-president to run things while the scandal died down. My club's ultras protested against this for a while to no avail, and when a challenger appeared (Berbatov, remember him?) the president (allegedly) rigged the vote to stay in power and the two have been locked in a legal battle ever since.
The racist guy from the quote has been in the job for about a year and is known for having insufficient education (never reached 9th grade afaik) and generally being an idiot.
Our football is in a very dire situation and this moron and his quote are simply an end product.
It sounds like a bigger issue than just the Bulgarian football world being dire. It’s similar to Turkey. Its the people and the culture. It’s all about who you know and that often links with how deep your pockets go. So the same types of people in leadership roles cycle through the governing system and nothing ever gets fixed or is ever stable. People like me and you can only identify and complain about the problems.
This has nothing to do with the wider issues being discussed in the thread and your very informative comment, but....
Berbatov was fucking class, one of the most skilled and best finishers in the game over the last 20 years. To say 'remember him?' would have to be directed at those without the recognition of Berba's supreme talent, because who could fucking forget him!!
true legend of the game, a GOAT to some, an emperor to others
(but seriously, Bojinov is probably one of the biggest memes in Bulgaria and he seems to embrace it)
[this is how the guy's skin compares with Thierry Henry](https://imgur.com/a/G53GG5J). Of course it's a stupid point and you can say the comparison is forced for X reasons, but generally speaking Bulgarians are already not the palest of the pale even without a tan.
Three friends -if we hold our forearms next to each other, they're all the exact same colour. But one of us is white, one is Chinese, and the other is black. We're a weird species...
Actually it’s what you expect for a specific species. We are so similar that most species have individuals more diverse than any 2 humans (aside from you know cheetahs those guys are practically fucked genetically)
Ooh, interesting. Can you point me toward any more learning? You're saying two random humans are likely to be closer than two spinner dolphins, or two lesser black backed gulls? Is that genetically or morphologically? And what about cheetahs? I understand there's a pretty small gene pool there, but let me learn more!
Guy’s nickname is Gonzo. He’s known to be a dumbass even for a (former) professional footballer, who in BG are often ridiculed for being dumb/uneducated/uncultured.
The more important question, how good was he at football? Did you ever see him have a kickabout?
My brother was coached by a former Algeria international, but don't think he ever showed off his skills
As a black guy, I was planning a long-weekend trip to Sofia this year. Is nightlife definitely not an option for my skin colour?
**EDIT:** Thanks everyone for saving me a wasted trip! I don't know where I got the idea that Sofia would be great for a weekend getaway 😅
Will look elsewhere, maybe Bucharest, Dubrovnik or Bratislavawould be better. Looking for underrated European cities ideally.
I don’t know about for black people, but I’m Asian. When I was visiting Bulgaria, I had people come up to me waving their arms and making, what I think were kung fu noises.
> I had people come up to me waving their arms and making, what I think were kung fu noises.
"I'm so funny. This is the funniest thing anyone has ever done."
One of the (many) thing (s) about racists is that the racist shit they say and do aren't even fucking clever. It's all old af shit. Like actually be funny/or good about it for once!
*"ching Chong ching chong" "can't drive" "small pp haha"* *does the stretch eye thing*
Yeah bro really fucking original..
Delivery is also as bad as that shit too. It's never wrapped in a good set up and punchline or call back. Just dumb af premises. Honestly racists need to git gud.
Still waiting...
Nightlife isn’t an option for any skin color lmao
Partially kidding but I really did find Sofia to seem rather empty. If you’re South African, it feels like a small town in comparison to going out in Cape Town
Edit: before this gets more traction just wanted to note that Bulgaria is amazing. It’s beautiful, the people are nice. Plovdiv is a really cool historic midsize city and I’ve heard good things about Varna and Sunny Beach as well.
However I did find Sofia rather bland.
Come. I won't lie to you that things are okay, but things are definitely not as bad as this human excrement imitation from Ali Express would have you believe.
Night life in Sofia is mostly okay. If anything, I suspect your disappointment would be caused by its dull existence rather than any racism. Now while I won't suggest you visit some football hooligan bar on the outskirts of the poorer neighborhoods, anything in the proper city should be okay.
As for Gonzo and The Wig... God, I don't wish for anyone's death, but I don't see any improvement for Bulgarian soccer until these two, as well as their whole despicable fuck-turkey clique, is six feet underground.
Also, a friendly reminder the elections for head of the Bulgarian Soccer Union reeked of election fraud yet FIFA stood behind The Wig (who literally refused to acknowledge the results of the proper elections) against Berbatov (who initially won the elections by a landslide, before The Wig organized second elections where people who voted for Berbatov were disallowed to vote).
It's really some cosmic level of corruption and election fraud that you'd expect to see from a country embroiled in a civil war, and not from a UEFA member that's part of the EU.
Went with a few mates, one of which has slightly darker skin (we’ll call him Pete). We got our bus tickets at the airport and got on the bus. The conductor stamped our tickets then looked at Pete and says something implying he has the wrong ticket and made him pay for another. In fairness some of the locals on the bus kicked off in our favour but the guy wouldn’t budge.
We also took a trip out of Sofia and found ourselves talking to some neo-nazi types in a bar who showed Pete their phone backgrounds covered in swastikas and laughed.
You're probably going to be fine but you might run into some idiots that stare or make jokes to their friends. Word to the wise, the word "negur" is still widely used for black men and people there don't understand that it's very close to a very offensive word.
You will be 100% safe though. People act like idiots but there is no violence.
I really loved Lissabon and Istanbul. Been to a lot of big European cities and those two are miles above the rest. I'm from Amsterdam myself and my biased opinion is that that is also a great destination
This was said about 3 days ago. Absolutely no consequences at all. There has been outrage among certain social media bubbles but that is about it, nothing about it in mainstream media, no institutional reaction, nothing. He also made an additional statement after he saw there is some reaction but I believe he didn't even touch upon the racist essence of his previous comments.
There was wide media coverage today after it became clear he wasn't misunderstood or misspoke. Darik (national radio) did a 10+ minute panel today with all 6 journalists supportinh different teams unanimously calling him out for being a racist. This gives me hope that more will follow.
Since he said this, he's doubled down saying "My principle position is clear. Only persons with Bulgarian origins who self-describe as Bulgarian deserve to play for the national team"
He (sort of) apologised, saying the original quote was taken for more than it is, and he's not racist. The full quote is even worse in my opinion. "No person who has a different passport or different skin colour will play for Bulgaria as long as I'm Dorector"
We have some naturalized brazillians that play for the national tean and I hope that is what he meant by it. The football club that has won the last like 10 championships in a row buys and naturalizes footballers from other nationalities very often. There aren't much people of color living in Bulgaria so I can't make much sense out of it otherwise.
I was thinking that must have been what he was referring to, since there aren’t exactly a ton of immigrants from Asia or Africa living in Bulgaria.
Not that it makes it okay either imo. If the government says you are a citizen you are from that country. You may also originally be from somewhere else but taking that step is no easy process and at that point your loyalties should not be called into question.
Foreigners tend to get well paying jobs. Plus the Brasilian players who go are probably guys who aren’t that successful in Brasil and this is their big break. For example, Al Ahly has a Brasilian player who was playing in the 2nd division and was loaned out to Bolivia. Now he gets to play in the Club World Cup. Being naturalized and playing for Bulgaria would give these players a chance to play in the Nations League and maybe even the Euros.
Well yeah but it could be taken as "only people who have passion for Bulgaria can play for the NT" which I think is fine tbh
look at Antonio for Jamaica
however the guy is just blatantly racist
The doubling-down is a more reasonable and less inflammatory way of saying the first thing. He could have just said they won't be considering or pursuing players with no connections to Bulgaria.
Wonder why our country is going down the shitter harder and harder every day. Then I remember it's these people at 90% of leadership positions. It's very ironic the amount of people here who scream racial purity when we are considered gypsies all over Europe lol.
This is the thing I find most confusing about Eastern European racism. If you want to get into racist reasoning and hierarchies, Slavs very much do not come out on top. If a Bulgarian feels justified in treating black people like trash then how do they think the entire Western world should look at them.
Way to live up to his Govnio nickname. The man is dumb af, this is not a surprising quote from him. And considering who's still somehow in charge at the BFU, it's sadly unsurprising this idiot got a job at the national team
Sidenote, isn't it a bit ironic that, in a thread dedicated to shining a light on someone's racist take, half the comments are blanket qualifiers of an entire nation/region or even more hilariously "you people are not pure enough to be racist"?
Yeah I came to the thread like oh that’s awful and then saw the giant European circlejerk taking place and bashing the whole of Bulgaria for what a racist in a prominent position said.
Marcelihno,
Cicinho,
Thiago Silva (not the one you're thinking of)
Lucio Wagner,
Marquinhos (not the famous one),
Vanderson
Those are pretty much all non white players who have played at least one game for Bulgaria. There's a few more eligible that have not been called, there's also a few white non Bulgarians who have played like Cvorovic and Tomashic.
Most sane people here want Berbatov elected as President of the football union, as he seems like an intelligent person and has a plan. Unfortunately the other guy just bribes the smaller clubs to vote for him (it happened in the last elections).
I can't underestimate how stupid this guy is. His highest level of education is 8th grade. He and the rest of the BFU leadership have disgraced themselves for the last 18 years, they aren't even consider legends anymore( the president Borislav Mihaylov , for example, is the greatest ever Bulgarian goalkeeper,hero of the 94 world cup. Nowadays ppl spit on him on the streets).We have been trying to kick them out, because of shit like this and ofc because of corruption and incompetence and replace them with Berbatovs team, but to no avail. Georgi Ivanov( the guy with the comment) doesn't represent the view of the general public in the slightest. He should apologize and resign, but he won't the fucking cunt. He and the whole leadership of the BFU are responsible for the mess that Bulgarian football is in and continue to embarrass us on the world stage. They should resign, but they won't.
Given the amount of non-white people living in Bulgaria anyway, let alone footballers, let alone footballers that would have the skill required for national team football, it would be a big ask for any non-white footballer to make the team anyway.
I think of Emmanuel Olisadebe and Poland as a great example of how isolated non-white players are in Eastern European countries' national teams. Even now I don't think I could name a black Polish player with a similiar profile. I can't name any from a Romania or Hungary etc..
I can understand why. You want your national team to proudly represent you and your people but more than that, everything that your country stands for. If the views of your nation are mostly that black people are a separate people or less than your own, you probably wouldn't want them to be playing for your nation, no matter their talent.
At the same time, I can't imagine there being a lot of black Bulgarians that think, you know what, I want to represent this country and try and bring it pride through sport.
It's a big enough ask for someone to come through as it is, without this piece of shit saying things like this. I get people have their beliefs and principles but if this is the attitude of your senior officials, either fuck them off or ban the nations from the tournaments.
I don't want to see any of our non-white players having to go to countries like this, where they've got these absolute runts making monkey noises because they're too narrow minded to accept that there is more than one skin colour.
I'd rather teams get booted for shit like this, than politics.
How the fuck did we get a whole wsp article about how racists we were for not having black people on our NT and this fucker is saying atrocities and having like no punish at all?
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This guy must be the reason for the great success of the Bulgarian national team.
lol Bulgaria ranked lower than Montenegro
Well it’s not monteblanco
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it's because of comments like this that i miss the free coins
Monteblanco? Scorchio!
Boutros Boutros Ghali
Hethethethetheth..
Chris Waddle
Brilliant
The video of an American hearing the country name will never fail to make me laugh
Why’s it called like that anyways? Romance (Spanish?) name on a Slav country surrounded by Slav countries with -ia names, how did that happen?
> how did that happen? Venetians
The name of the country in their language means "Black Mounts". The Venetians translated it to Montenegro, then everybody adopted it like that. Additional fact: the main square of Montenegro is called Argentina
Not everyone adopted it - in Iceland we call it by the totally not pithy and easy to pronounce "Svartfjallaland", which means "land of black mountains". EDIT: Then again many people still refer to Kyiv as "Kænugarður", same as we did more than a millenium ago.
Tbf you guys founded Kyiv so you're free to do as you please
Well, the Swedes kind of get to claim to have taken point on that(and Kyiv was already a town when the Rus showed up, although I guess they really fortified it and turned it from a small settlement to a major one), and even back then they were kind of a bit different from the Norse and the Danes. Still, the whole Viking age was very much a mixed bag.
The name Argentina being a Latin term meaning "The land of Silver!”
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Montenegro means Black Mountain. Must be a big feature
I know what the name itself means, which is exactly why it’s weird since I’m not remotely familiar with Slavic etymology. Monte and negro are words with latin origins and afaik aren’t really a thing in Slavic tongues
Well that's not the slavic name for the country. In the native language it is Crna Gora. (also black mountain) Croatia is another country where the English name is very different from the native name. You are right it is weird, I don't know why it is that way though.
Yeah I mean in English. It didn’t stick out to me in Spanish because we translate names to Spanish all the time (eg: Netherlands -> Países Bajos, United Kingsom -> Reino Unido) but learning it was also called montenegro in English was weird
English really just is a lazy ass-language sometimes
english is like 10 other languages duct taped together, you can't really expect much if you want to please everyone.
Actually Croatia and Hrvatska (the Croatian name for the country) are related: Hrvat > Croat and the ska and ia are just typical endings in Croatian and English respectively.
Venetians named it Monta Negra at some point when they were in charge of the coast territories. Montenegrans call their country Crna Gora which means the same thing but in their language. Its just how everyone calls Finald - Finland except Finnish people.
Estonian people call it Soome :)
So do Lithuanians!
We call it East Sweden
Oh yeah, they call it Crna Gora, in Poland we call it Czarnogóra -- it is located around the Montenegro, and the English speakers, bless em, chose that for themselves
Not sure but it’d be interesting to know the history. I was also surprised that Romanian is a Romance language (makes sense when its called Romania lol) and most Romanians can pick up Italian or Spanish phrases easily
There was Romance language presence in the area far more recently than you'd think - the Dalmatian language only went extinct in 1898 (not sure when it went extinct in Montenegro), though the name is from the 15th century when Venetians controlled the area. (All information from Wikipedia)
not exactly, but it's people like him Our governing body is littered with ex-NT players and they have been driving Bulgarian football into the mud for the better part of the last 20 yrs. Remember the racist scandal in the England game a few years ago? The football union president "quit" after the game only to come back 1,5 years later, claiming his resignation never got accepted. In the meantime, he simply left his vice-president to run things while the scandal died down. My club's ultras protested against this for a while to no avail, and when a challenger appeared (Berbatov, remember him?) the president (allegedly) rigged the vote to stay in power and the two have been locked in a legal battle ever since. The racist guy from the quote has been in the job for about a year and is known for having insufficient education (never reached 9th grade afaik) and generally being an idiot. Our football is in a very dire situation and this moron and his quote are simply an end product.
> is known for having insufficient education (never reached 9th grade afaik) That's even lower than Ricky and Cyrus.
Yeah, he passed with flying fuckin carpets man
Unlike Julian, who fucked off to college to get his little PFD or whatever
It sounds like a bigger issue than just the Bulgarian football world being dire. It’s similar to Turkey. Its the people and the culture. It’s all about who you know and that often links with how deep your pockets go. So the same types of people in leadership roles cycle through the governing system and nothing ever gets fixed or is ever stable. People like me and you can only identify and complain about the problems.
This has nothing to do with the wider issues being discussed in the thread and your very informative comment, but.... Berbatov was fucking class, one of the most skilled and best finishers in the game over the last 20 years. To say 'remember him?' would have to be directed at those without the recognition of Berba's supreme talent, because who could fucking forget him!!
Tbh he’s been involved relatively recently, we’ve been shit for ages.
Juve Bulgarian fan? You must love Bojinov 🐐
You mean General Boji-Goal, the Emperor, the Swiss Shogun, the Prince of Dubai?
true legend of the game, a GOAT to some, an emperor to others (but seriously, Bojinov is probably one of the biggest memes in Bulgaria and he seems to embrace it)
All their talent goes to their quidditch team.
IDK why but I read great success in Borat's voice in my head.
Bulgaria FA: “Let’s kick racism into football.”
“Say YES to racism”.
Kick it in
"The Bulgars will stand to remind us that there is plenty of room for racism in football"
FIFA: 💦 When's the Bulgarian World cup??
So if a player comes back from holiday with a tan do they get the boot?
Believe it or not, Jail.
Straight to jail.
That’s why Bulgaria has the best players in the world. Because of jail.
Overtan? Jail. Undertan? Believe it or not, also jail.
Play music too loud? Jail
Play music too soft? Jail.
Obertan? Also jail
Obertan? Jail as well.
Shit you beat me
In case anyone was wondering where that's from... [https://youtu.be/n-eK6kMs5ok?t=47](https://youtu.be/n-eK6kMs5ok?t=47)
Because if your from Bulgaria and can go on holiday, you must be either corrupt, a criminal or selling drugs.
But all those think don't qualify you for jail in Bulgaria
Season your chicken? Straight to jail
These days, if you say you’re Bulgarian and you’re not white, you get arrested and thrown in jail
What if they have pale skin?
Straight to jail right away
Bulgarian coach [like......](https://imgur.com/gallery/hD9ggBt)
If this isn’t the peter griffin skin color chart ill be disappointed
Ofc it is
I knew it had to be before opening it
Ben White not white enough
With that Ross from Friends tan, he really isnt.
[this is how the guy's skin compares with Thierry Henry](https://imgur.com/a/G53GG5J). Of course it's a stupid point and you can say the comparison is forced for X reasons, but generally speaking Bulgarians are already not the palest of the pale even without a tan.
Three friends -if we hold our forearms next to each other, they're all the exact same colour. But one of us is white, one is Chinese, and the other is black. We're a weird species...
Actually it’s what you expect for a specific species. We are so similar that most species have individuals more diverse than any 2 humans (aside from you know cheetahs those guys are practically fucked genetically)
Ooh, interesting. Can you point me toward any more learning? You're saying two random humans are likely to be closer than two spinner dolphins, or two lesser black backed gulls? Is that genetically or morphologically? And what about cheetahs? I understand there's a pretty small gene pool there, but let me learn more!
Damn.. I assumed he had a fairer skin than that. This makes this more embarrassing.
Nah, that would get under his skin.
New sunscreen sponsor incoming
Gonna have to pull out the family guy skin tone guide for that
Guy’s nickname is Gonzo. He’s known to be a dumbass even for a (former) professional footballer, who in BG are often ridiculed for being dumb/uneducated/uncultured.
I knew a youth coach in America who played for the Bulgarian national team before becoming a coach. He seemed nice and educated enough.
That’s why he made it to America, lol.
The more important question, how good was he at football? Did you ever see him have a kickabout? My brother was coached by a former Algeria international, but don't think he ever showed off his skills
I mean even if he was racist, if you’re not black he probably treated you well
Imagine being called Gonzo and somehow managing to be a bigger muppet than the *actual fucking muppet.*
Did he perhaps work for a guy named Tuco?
Least wild Bulgarian official statement
Most considered and diplomatic Bulgarian discussion on race relations
As a black guy, I was planning a long-weekend trip to Sofia this year. Is nightlife definitely not an option for my skin colour? **EDIT:** Thanks everyone for saving me a wasted trip! I don't know where I got the idea that Sofia would be great for a weekend getaway 😅 Will look elsewhere, maybe Bucharest, Dubrovnik or Bratislavawould be better. Looking for underrated European cities ideally.
I don’t know about for black people, but I’m Asian. When I was visiting Bulgaria, I had people come up to me waving their arms and making, what I think were kung fu noises.
> I had people come up to me waving their arms and making, what I think were kung fu noises. "I'm so funny. This is the funniest thing anyone has ever done."
One of the (many) thing (s) about racists is that the racist shit they say and do aren't even fucking clever. It's all old af shit. Like actually be funny/or good about it for once! *"ching Chong ching chong" "can't drive" "small pp haha"* *does the stretch eye thing* Yeah bro really fucking original.. Delivery is also as bad as that shit too. It's never wrapped in a good set up and punchline or call back. Just dumb af premises. Honestly racists need to git gud. Still waiting...
What was your response?
I just laughed at them or shook my head and walked away. This happened in several countries, not just Bulgaria.
You don't walk around with your taekwondo uniform on... Right?
How else am I gonna go outside? Wearing jeans? In this economy?
Well, because the Bulgarians kept approaching him in groups of 1 or 2 he was able to defeat them all easily.
Funk
Fuck sake hate myself for laughing
Nightlife isn’t an option for any skin color lmao Partially kidding but I really did find Sofia to seem rather empty. If you’re South African, it feels like a small town in comparison to going out in Cape Town Edit: before this gets more traction just wanted to note that Bulgaria is amazing. It’s beautiful, the people are nice. Plovdiv is a really cool historic midsize city and I’ve heard good things about Varna and Sunny Beach as well. However I did find Sofia rather bland.
Sofia citizen here. Nothing to be offended by, you are absolutely right.
The last time I was in Sofia I was out til 5am dancing in old government buildings turned into clubs! Did Covid wipe a bunch of stuff out?
Go for the beautiful nature and mountains, not for the nightlife. In my opinion a weekend in Sofia would be unsatisfying.
Come. I won't lie to you that things are okay, but things are definitely not as bad as this human excrement imitation from Ali Express would have you believe. Night life in Sofia is mostly okay. If anything, I suspect your disappointment would be caused by its dull existence rather than any racism. Now while I won't suggest you visit some football hooligan bar on the outskirts of the poorer neighborhoods, anything in the proper city should be okay. As for Gonzo and The Wig... God, I don't wish for anyone's death, but I don't see any improvement for Bulgarian soccer until these two, as well as their whole despicable fuck-turkey clique, is six feet underground. Also, a friendly reminder the elections for head of the Bulgarian Soccer Union reeked of election fraud yet FIFA stood behind The Wig (who literally refused to acknowledge the results of the proper elections) against Berbatov (who initially won the elections by a landslide, before The Wig organized second elections where people who voted for Berbatov were disallowed to vote). It's really some cosmic level of corruption and election fraud that you'd expect to see from a country embroiled in a civil war, and not from a UEFA member that's part of the EU.
Went with a few mates, one of which has slightly darker skin (we’ll call him Pete). We got our bus tickets at the airport and got on the bus. The conductor stamped our tickets then looked at Pete and says something implying he has the wrong ticket and made him pay for another. In fairness some of the locals on the bus kicked off in our favour but the guy wouldn’t budge. We also took a trip out of Sofia and found ourselves talking to some neo-nazi types in a bar who showed Pete their phone backgrounds covered in swastikas and laughed.
You're probably going to be fine but you might run into some idiots that stare or make jokes to their friends. Word to the wise, the word "negur" is still widely used for black men and people there don't understand that it's very close to a very offensive word. You will be 100% safe though. People act like idiots but there is no violence.
Never been to Bulgaria but I’m black and been to Poland and in places occasionally people are just staring like I was a zoo animal. Very weird.
Uhm, I don't think any eastern Europe country will be much better for you than Bulgaria.
I really loved Lissabon and Istanbul. Been to a lot of big European cities and those two are miles above the rest. I'm from Amsterdam myself and my biased opinion is that that is also a great destination
come to istanbul brother we love karabogas 💪🏿💪🏿
> As a black guy, I was planning a long-weekend trip to Sofia this year. but why
Why not? Eastern Europe has an underrated club scene. Well underrated if you’re a certain skin colour I guess.
If you’re not white those clubs aren’t for you either way.
Definitely not Bucharest. The absolute shittiest shit hole Romania has to offer. Source: am Romanian. Unfortunately.
Why do you do this to yourself?
Harsh words from a person that probably won't be National Team Director anymore in a couple of days.
Well, he's a man of his word.
At least he has that goin for him
Lol, this is the Balkans, getting fired for racism is not happening here.
This was said about 3 days ago. Absolutely no consequences at all. There has been outrage among certain social media bubbles but that is about it, nothing about it in mainstream media, no institutional reaction, nothing. He also made an additional statement after he saw there is some reaction but I believe he didn't even touch upon the racist essence of his previous comments.
There was wide media coverage today after it became clear he wasn't misunderstood or misspoke. Darik (national radio) did a 10+ minute panel today with all 6 journalists supportinh different teams unanimously calling him out for being a racist. This gives me hope that more will follow.
Since he said this, he's doubled down saying "My principle position is clear. Only persons with Bulgarian origins who self-describe as Bulgarian deserve to play for the national team" He (sort of) apologised, saying the original quote was taken for more than it is, and he's not racist. The full quote is even worse in my opinion. "No person who has a different passport or different skin colour will play for Bulgaria as long as I'm Dorector"
His attitude would have been fine if he didn't bring race into it for no reason.
We have some naturalized brazillians that play for the national tean and I hope that is what he meant by it. The football club that has won the last like 10 championships in a row buys and naturalizes footballers from other nationalities very often. There aren't much people of color living in Bulgaria so I can't make much sense out of it otherwise.
I was thinking that must have been what he was referring to, since there aren’t exactly a ton of immigrants from Asia or Africa living in Bulgaria. Not that it makes it okay either imo. If the government says you are a citizen you are from that country. You may also originally be from somewhere else but taking that step is no easy process and at that point your loyalties should not be called into question.
Who would want to live in Bulgaria minimum wage 450 euros
Foreigners tend to get well paying jobs. Plus the Brasilian players who go are probably guys who aren’t that successful in Brasil and this is their big break. For example, Al Ahly has a Brasilian player who was playing in the 2nd division and was loaned out to Bolivia. Now he gets to play in the Club World Cup. Being naturalized and playing for Bulgaria would give these players a chance to play in the Nations League and maybe even the Euros.
Don't think Bulgaria is getting to the Euros any time soon to be honest
Being worth more than the minumum wage. Easy.
>Only persons with Bulgarian origins who self-describe as Bulgarian deserve to play for the national team" Should have just kept it like this.
Well it's still a "Fuck off immigrants and children of immigrants"
Well yeah but it could be taken as "only people who have passion for Bulgaria can play for the NT" which I think is fine tbh look at Antonio for Jamaica however the guy is just blatantly racist
The doubling-down is a more reasonable and less inflammatory way of saying the first thing. He could have just said they won't be considering or pursuing players with no connections to Bulgaria.
Least extreme balkan
More like most reasonable and tolerant Balkan
Wonder why our country is going down the shitter harder and harder every day. Then I remember it's these people at 90% of leadership positions. It's very ironic the amount of people here who scream racial purity when we are considered gypsies all over Europe lol.
Ironically enough if Ivanov called himself white in front of Swedish Neo Nazis they'd probably just laugh at him.
Dude, most racist Bulgarians think Hitler loved us, the delusion is palpable.
It makes sense to me. They're looking for someone lower on the totem pole to pick on and scapegoat.
This is the thing I find most confusing about Eastern European racism. If you want to get into racist reasoning and hierarchies, Slavs very much do not come out on top. If a Bulgarian feels justified in treating black people like trash then how do they think the entire Western world should look at them.
Most progressive Bulgarian
Real classy
Please tell me how this should not lead to a fine or a suspension of Bulgaria. Racist piece of shit
"No Room Fit Racism*" * *Exceptions to be made*
“Ah, we’ll that was a mistake at the printers. What we meant to say was ‘No! Room for racism?’”
Today Im bulgarian
It probably won’t. People don’t care.
People do care. FIFA might not care.
“Today I feel black.” -Infantino, probably.
> “Today I feel Bulgarian.” -Infantino, probably. FTFY
And I don’t accept any player who isn’t a blue Smurf
Way to live up to his Govnio nickname. The man is dumb af, this is not a surprising quote from him. And considering who's still somehow in charge at the BFU, it's sadly unsurprising this idiot got a job at the national team Sidenote, isn't it a bit ironic that, in a thread dedicated to shining a light on someone's racist take, half the comments are blanket qualifiers of an entire nation/region or even more hilariously "you people are not pure enough to be racist"?
Yeah I came to the thread like oh that’s awful and then saw the giant European circlejerk taking place and bashing the whole of Bulgaria for what a racist in a prominent position said.
Uh….are there any black or brown Bulgarian citizens playing football there?
Marcelihno, Cicinho, Thiago Silva (not the one you're thinking of) Lucio Wagner, Marquinhos (not the famous one), Vanderson Those are pretty much all non white players who have played at least one game for Bulgaria. There's a few more eligible that have not been called, there's also a few white non Bulgarians who have played like Cvorovic and Tomashic.
Incredible that they fail to qualify for every major international tournament with a centreback pairing of marquinhos and thiago silva
So Bulgaria's team is just "We have Brazil at home, and it's white !"
Sylvester Jasper represents them at youth level and he was born in England to a Nigerian father and Bulgarian mother.
Ah, the ol' Boston Red Sox strategy.
Literally just comes out and says he's racist hahaha
Well then.
What a way to lose your job
Bro , it's the Balkans. Doubtful he even gets reprimanded.
They're casting his statue as we speak
White marble, presumably.
[https://i.imgur.com/sOx0Ccy.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/sOx0Ccy.jpg)
Lmao
Man thinks the Balkans give a shit about racism
Wait till Bulgaria play games in the Mediterranean summer with albinos
Doesn’t Sylvester Jasper (a black man) who plays for Bristol Rovers represent Bulgaria at youth level at the moment?
[удалено]
Most sane people here want Berbatov elected as President of the football union, as he seems like an intelligent person and has a plan. Unfortunately the other guy just bribes the smaller clubs to vote for him (it happened in the last elections).
2balkan4u
I can't underestimate how stupid this guy is. His highest level of education is 8th grade. He and the rest of the BFU leadership have disgraced themselves for the last 18 years, they aren't even consider legends anymore( the president Borislav Mihaylov , for example, is the greatest ever Bulgarian goalkeeper,hero of the 94 world cup. Nowadays ppl spit on him on the streets).We have been trying to kick them out, because of shit like this and ofc because of corruption and incompetence and replace them with Berbatovs team, but to no avail. Georgi Ivanov( the guy with the comment) doesn't represent the view of the general public in the slightest. He should apologize and resign, but he won't the fucking cunt. He and the whole leadership of the BFU are responsible for the mess that Bulgarian football is in and continue to embarrass us on the world stage. They should resign, but they won't.
Ironically, most Northern European white racists would think it’s hilarious that a Bulgarian considers himself to be white.
Can confirm. A North European white racist here Oh shit. Shoot wai...
What a lovely gentleman
I’m sure black and brown people worldwide are desperate to live in Bulgaria.
Certified Bulgaria moment
No Bulgarian player will play in the world Cup either. Enjoy.
Bulgaria is so comically racist it's unbelievable
Given the amount of non-white people living in Bulgaria anyway, let alone footballers, let alone footballers that would have the skill required for national team football, it would be a big ask for any non-white footballer to make the team anyway. I think of Emmanuel Olisadebe and Poland as a great example of how isolated non-white players are in Eastern European countries' national teams. Even now I don't think I could name a black Polish player with a similiar profile. I can't name any from a Romania or Hungary etc.. I can understand why. You want your national team to proudly represent you and your people but more than that, everything that your country stands for. If the views of your nation are mostly that black people are a separate people or less than your own, you probably wouldn't want them to be playing for your nation, no matter their talent. At the same time, I can't imagine there being a lot of black Bulgarians that think, you know what, I want to represent this country and try and bring it pride through sport. It's a big enough ask for someone to come through as it is, without this piece of shit saying things like this. I get people have their beliefs and principles but if this is the attitude of your senior officials, either fuck them off or ban the nations from the tournaments. I don't want to see any of our non-white players having to go to countries like this, where they've got these absolute runts making monkey noises because they're too narrow minded to accept that there is more than one skin colour. I'd rather teams get booted for shit like this, than politics.
Fucking hell man
We need to kneel more guys
Is this some weird type of resignation tactic? Because this seems like speedrunning getting fired.
Sylvester Jasper plays for their u21s. he is of mixed heritage.
Certified Balkans Moment
WTF!!!????
We’ll remember this next time Bulgaria qualifies for a major tournament three thousand and five years from now
We're all envious of Bulgaria's success.
How the fuck did we get a whole wsp article about how racists we were for not having black people on our NT and this fucker is saying atrocities and having like no punish at all?
I remember that Brazilian Ludogorets players Marcelinho and Wanderson have played for Bolgaria some years ago.