Valeri Petrovski, 43-year old football referee was brutally assaulted in his car outside his home in Sofia in the early hours of March 7 2008. According to Bulgarian news agency Focus, at about 6.40am Petrovski was waiting in his car for his wife to come downstairs, reading a newspaper.

At about that time two unidentified men attacked him with baseball bats and iron boxes and was found by his wife in helpless condition, broken knees and covered in blood. He was taken to Pirogov emergency hospital with serious injuries on the head. According to his relatives, Petrovski had not received any threats on the phone before the attack.

His daughter Martina Petrovska told Focus that the incident was directly connected to his job as a football referee. His wife Diana Petrovska told Focus that her husband used to work in a security guards company and also said that his referee job was the reason for the attack against him. She accused the ambulance for being late more than 40 minutes which according to her could have been fatal for Petrovski. She was considering filing a complaint against the medics, for being late, Focus said.

Petrovski was supposed to referee the game between Montana and Chavdar (Byala Slatina) in the second west devision of Bulgarian football championship on March 8. Following the incident Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) issued a statement condemning the attack calling it “a barbarian act that is unacceptable”. BFU said that the incident should not be linked to Petrovski 's work as a football referee. 

Petrovski has more than 90 games in first and second devision. He started as a referee in 1996. In 2005 he moved to second devision, where incident with referees are not rare. In 2006 Petrovski himself was attack by a drunk fan during a game between Dounav (Rousse) and Naftex (Bourgas).
 
The year 2006 was the time when another attack against a football referee happened. Hristo Ristoskov was attacked outside his home in Sandanski, southern Bulgaria by three still unknown men. In 2004 Dimo Momirov, now retired referee, was attacked in front of his house near Varna on the Black Sea. One of the most vicious attacks happened in 2002 in Veliko Turnovo, central Bulgaria where football referee Anton Gotsev was attacked on his way to the city stadium. His nose and leg were broken.