PASSIONS and protest have followed the Bulgarian Parliament's approval of harsh penalties for hooliganism, including the use of foul language, at sports events.

By the Public Order At Sports Events Act, approved on October 14, sports hooligans face fines of 200 to 500 leva or police remand of between 10 and 15 days.

Fans who get involved in fights will be taken into custody for 10 to 20 days, or fined 500 to 1000 leva. The penalty will be the same when property is destroyed in an act of sports hooliganism, specifically for acts such as breaking up the seats in a stadium, or damage to public transport vehicles. The act incriminates violent behaviour in and outside stadiums, before, during and after competitions.

Hooligans may be banned from sports events within Bulgaria and abroad for a period of one to two years.

The owner or user of a sports facility faces a fine of 1000 to 4000 leva for failing to appoint a security officer. Tickets for a match must be sold in a way so that fans of rival teams occupy separate sections of a stadium.

Pubs and liquor stores near a stadium will be forbidden to sell liquor on the day of a match.

Among controversial provisions of the act is a ban on foul language and vulgar gestures - swearing will carry a penalty of 500 leva. Also outlawed is intrusion on to the playing field.

Kettledrums and whistles are forbidden, but may be brought to the stadium if special permission is given by the police. Fireworks are banned.

During sports events, fans may wave banners with handles no longer than a metre. A complete ban was put on bringing plastic bottles, suitcases, and pets to the stadium. Children younger than 14 will not be allowed into stadiums unless accompanied by an adult. Those older than 16 will be held criminally liable for acts of hooliganism. Where hooliganism is committed by someone younger than 14, their adult companion will be held liable.

In Parliament, the law was received with misgivings by some.

Bulgarian Socialist Party MP Lyubomir Panteleev proposed an amendment removing the use of foul language from incrimination, but was defeated.

"We're going to make a caricature out of Parliament again. Let the people speak," Panteleev told the House.

Those who sponsored the bill said that it had become necessary because there had been, in the past three years, several disturbing incidents at football matches.

There was a need to harmonise Bulgaria's legislation with other law and order legislation, and with that of the European Union.

A national information database is to be set up in the Interior Ministry to record the names of all perpetrators. This database will be used, among other things, to prevent known football hooligans attending sports events abroad.

In an interview with Bulgarian-language daily Standart, the chairman of the CSKA football club fan club, Dimitar "Ducce" Angelov was quoted as saying that the act was necessary.

He welcomed its provisions for the creation of a register of people who systematically breached the peace.

However, Angelov said, many of the provisions of the act would not be able to be applied in practice.

"Most of them are nonsense. What is the point of fining people 100 to 300 leva for carrying bombs, firearms, and other types of weapons, while imposing a 500 leva fine for a harmless curse?"

Bombs, he said, could cause serious damage. "They tear off fingers, cause injuries and even death, while words do not make holes."

"Given the situation in the country in which we are living, it is absolutely normal for people under the stress to which they are subjected. They go to the stadium in order to ease the negative emotions they have accumulated during the working week while trying to make a living."

If the October 17 match between eternal football rivals Levski and CSKA is anything to go by, much remains to be done to throw oil on the troubled waters of footballers and fans alike.

The match ended in a 2 - 2 draw, leaving CSKA ahead with 25 points and Levski second with 23 points. But the score when the final whistle blew was hardly the whole story of the match.

Levski players were fined 3000 leva each by the Bulgarian Football Union for showing insulting gestures to spectators. CSKA were fined 1000 leva because their fans threw squibs.

Interior Minister chief secretary Boiko Borissov, in an interview with Bulgarian National Television's morning show the day after the match, said that seven fans had been detained for throwing smoke devices and small objects after the match.

Elsewhere, it was reported that 10 people had been detained for various forms of hooliganism after the match.

Borissov said Interior Ministry staff had worked late escorting fans to residential districts until midnight. He thanked Sofia municipality for extending the working hours of public transport.

However, Borissov lashed out at Bulgaria's politicians for failing to heed appeals that the match be played earlier in the day. "We had proposed that the match finish at 5pm, and Sunday was a lovely sunny day. But the children went back home after dark."

According to Bulgarian-language media reports, post-match incidents included Levski fans throwing stones at a bus full of CSKA fans. Smoke bombs were also reported to have been thrown.

In an incident prior to the match, police ordered a group of fans not to take a banner into the stadium - because it called for the release of the Bulgarian medics in Libya convicted of allegedly deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV. The police officers' reason was that the banner had nothing to do with football.

As the spirit of protest took hold, it was reported that those who opposed the new law would fight it by uttering curses in languages other than Bulgarian.

During a match between Botev Plovdiv and Pomorie played on October 17, fans shouted obscenities only in English. The idea is reported to have come from graduates of the English Language and French Language high schools in Plovdiv. Supposedly, Botev Plovdiv fans are learning curses in Italian.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria has sent a request to the foreign ministry of Croatia asking that football hooligans who were involved in clashes with Bulgarian fans during a recent World Cup qualifier not be allowed to travel to the return match in Sofia next year. In fighting ahead of the match, several people were injured, including 11 Bulgarians, of whom four were hospitalised.