The president of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) has resigned on Tuesday after the prime minister urged him to quit following racist abuse from Bulgarian fans towards England players during their Euro 2020 qualifier

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov called for former goalkeeper Borislav Mihaylov to step down after Monday’s match was temporarily halted by the referee to tackle abuse from the crowd.

“Today, the president of the Bulgarian Football Union Borislav Mihailov submitted his resignation, which will be presented to the members of the Executive Committee at the meeting on Friday,” the BFU said in a statement.

“His position is a consequence of recent tensions: an environment that is detrimental to Bulgarian football and the Bulgarian Football Union.”

The BFU announcement which made no mention of racism came only a couple of hours after a BFU spokesman said that Mihaylov would not resign because the state had no right to interfere in football.

“The football union cannot be held responsible for the hooliganism of a group of people,” BFU’s spokesman Hristo Zapryanov had said earlier.

Monday’s match, which England won 6-0, was stopped twice because of racist behaviour by home fans, which included Nazi salutes and monkey chants.

The Vasil Levski Stadium was already subject to a partial closure for the match after Bulgaria were sanctioned for racist behaviour during Euro 2020 qualifiers against Kosovo and the Czech Republic.

Mihaylov, a former Reading goalkeeper, played at three World Cups for Bulgaria and has been member of Uefa’s executive committee since 2011.