Levski Sofia handed crowd ban after fan violence

SOFIA (Reuters) - Levski Sofia have been ordered to play their next home match behind closed doors after hooliganism marred their 1-0 defeat at bitter city rivals CSKA in the Bulgarian league on Friday.

The punishment, handed down by the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) disciplinary commission on Tuesday, will affect Levski's home game against Lokomotiv Plovdiv on Nov. 6.

The 26-times Bulgarian champions were also fined 6,000 levs ($4,286) for the incidents, which led to 44 arrests and resulted in two policeman being injured.

Hundreds of Levski supporters clashed with riot police just after the end of the "eternal derby", as matches with CSKA are known in the Balkan country, with Levski's national fan-club chairman Vladimir Vladimirov among those detained.

Levski coach Georgi Ivanov was given one-match ban and he was fined 500 levs after he was sent off by referee Tasko Taskov in the dying minutes of the match.

Ivanov, who is also Levski's sporting director, resigned after the defeat but will continue to conduct the team's training sessions until a replacement was found.

CSKA were fined 5,000 levs ($3,571) after their fans threw objects and invaded the field after the winning goal. The Reds have been warned they would receive stadium or crowd ban if there was any further crowd violence.

(1USD = 1.40 levs)

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov)