Bulgaria's Lokomotiv fined for fans' racist behaviour

SOFIA (Reuters) - Lokomotiv Plovdiv have been fined 37,500 levs ($21,224) after fans made racial and discriminatory slurs during a league match against leaders Litex Lovech on Saturday, the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) said.

The BFU announced its ruling on Tuesday without giving further details.

Winless Lokomotiv, who are ninth in the 10-team Bulgarian league with two points from four matches, said they would appeal against the fine.

"We are extremely surprised by the heavy sanction," Konstantin Dumanov, a member of Lokomotiv's board, told local media.

"Neither the (match) referees nor the BFU's representatives mentioned any such incident. There's nothing in the media too... We will appeal."

Bulgarian soccer authorities have long been criticised by anti-racism campaigners, local media and fans for not cracking down hard enough on discrimination in sport.

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov, editing by Pritha Sarkar)