In the early stages of the tense affair, Mladenov collapsed onto the athletics track surrounding the pitch after being hit by the snowball thrown by Levski supporters, forcing the referee to halt the game for several minutes.
After the match, won 3-0 by league leaders CSKA, Mladenov said he lost consciousness and called for soccer authorities to expel Levski from the top division.
However, Levski fans, who were lambasted in local media following the ugly incident, said Mladenov had conducted a theatrical tumble.
"Children play with snowballs the whole winter but I haven't heard of anyone who has collapsed," Vladimir Vladimirov, the head of Levski's national fan club, told local media on Monday.
"It was disgusting to watch, his over-acting was so poor."
Mladenov said on Monday that he had a medical document, proving his injury, and would present it to the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) if they requested it.
"They (Levski fans) began to throw snowballs at us from the start of the game," CSKA's assistant coach Anatoli Nankov said. "We informed the fourth official but he said that their behaviour was normal."
Levski, 26-times Bulgarian champions and one of the country's two most popular clubs along with CSKA, have a history of fan violence and racism at their matches, leading to a number of stadium bans and heavy fines in recent years.
Earlier this month, Levski were fined 19,000 levs ($12,327) after fans mocked one of the anti-racism campaigns launched by European governing body UEFA in a Bulgarian league match.
Last October, Levski fans burst into coach Ivaylo Petev's news conference shortly after the start of his unveiling presentation and made him take off the club's shirt before showing him the exit because they believed he supported CSKA.
Levski fans caused more trouble after CSKA's third goal on Saturday when they broke through fences surrounding the pitch and reached the running track, forcing more than a 100 policemen to prevent them from making their way to the playing surface.
"It was a spontaneous act," Vladimirov said. "Believe me, if we wanted to invade the pitch, no one could've stopped us."
The BFU's disciplinary committee will discuss the snowball incident on Tuesday.
($1 = 1.5413 levs)
(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by John O'Brien)
Share
