England players subjected to racist abuse and Nazi salutes in Bulgaria as game paused twice

England players subjected to racist abuse and Nazi salutes in Bulgaria as game paused twice UEFA has a three-step protocol to tackle racism, and two of these have been triggered after Tyrone Mings was abused England's Euro 2020 clash with Bulgaria has TWICE been stopped after vile racist chanting was directed at the Three Lions players at Stadion Vasil Levski. UEFA has a three-step protocol to tackle racism, and two of these were triggered in the first half in Sofia after Tyrone Mings and Raheem Sterling was subjected to abuse. Mings was heard telling an official: "Hey, did you hear that?" as the abuse started prompting Gareth Southgate to inform referee Ivan Bebek. An announcement was then made over the loud speaker demanding the racist chanting stop after Bebek paused the game. A UEFA delegate said: "Because of racist behaviour which is interfering with the game, the referee has indicated he may have to suspend the match. Please be in no doubt that the game may be suspended and abandoned if racist behaviour continues."The second step of UEFA's protocol requires players of both teams to momentarily leave the pitch while another announcement is made. This didn't happen on Monday, but the game was paused twice. The final and third step will see the game abandoned. Bulgarian captain Ivelin Popov was seen speaking to supporters in the stand at half time, demanding they stop the racist chanting to prevent the match from being abandoned. Some Bulgarian fans were then seen leaving the stadium. Meanwhile FA Chairman Greg Clarke had a brief chat with Southgate on the touchline, but the details of this conversation are not yet known. England lead Bulgaria 4-0 at the break, with Marcus Rashford, Ross Barkley (2) and Sterling all getting on the scoresheet. Ahead of the international break several England players announced they would be prepared to walk off the pitch in the Three Lions' Euro 2020 qualifiers this week if they suffered racist abuse. The president of the Bulgarian Football Union made an official complaint to UEFA following this declaration, accusing England players of being "offensive" and "unjust". Borislav Mihaylov wrote: "What I can say is that I don't think we have a problem."In the Bulgarian championship, we have a lot of players of different ethnicities and skin colour. I don't think that we have this big problem like, for example, England do." e added: "What I meant was that in the Bulgarian championship we've not had such problems while there have been incidents in various levels of English football involving racism, which I consider something normal because it's a big country with a very diverse population. "But we don't have this problem in Bulgaria, I can assure you of that."