Vandalism and destruction at the Botev Plovdiv stadium before the game with Panathinaikos

Serious damage to her field Botev Plovdivjust a few days before hosting Panathinaikos in the return match for the 2nd qualifying round of the Europa League (1/8, 21:00).

On Sunday night (28/7), the Greens’ rivals were held to a 2-2 draw with Bulgarian league side Lokomotiv, in a highly eventful local derby marked by serious clashes between fans before kick-off.

In fact, the fans of the visiting team did not stay there, since as announced by Botev via its post, its fans vandalized and caused disasters in different parts of the field.

It remains to be seen if the hosts will have time to repair the damage, before welcoming the friends of Panathinaikos for the game next Thursday.

Botev’s announcement:



“On July 28, 2024, the first local derby was held in the city of Plovdiv, where visiting Lokomotiv fans had the opportunity to attend the renovated Hristo Botev stadium to support their favorite team. The management of our club did everything necessary to provide the necessary comfort and hospitality to its guests, believing that civilized and polite behavior – which we would like to impose as a rule in our meetings with our sporting rivals – would be applied.

We would like to emphasize that we have no complaint from the management, technical staff and players of Lokomotiv. We are convinced that they also feel discomfort and a sense of shame about what happened. It is important to remind all football fans of Plovdiv that the construction of the new “Botev” and “Lokomotiv” stadiums is financed from the state budget, while the sports facilities belong to the Municipality of Plovdiv. We want to believe that this ugly incident will be the last to shame the cultural capital of Bulgaria, calling on all concerned to condemn the unprovoked aggression and destruction,” Botev said in her statement..