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https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/34279600/var-bulgaria-betting-scandal-suspended/

In football matches, we know that VAR technology is the most advanced today to help football referees in making decisions.
VAR uses video footage to analyze the course of the match and provide a replay.

But if VAR is operated by irresponsible individuals and only uses it for their own benefit, then this is a serious violation.

Reading the news on X and I found the news that a VAR officer was caught visiting an online betting site before the match started. 
This is an indication that there is fraud that will be carried out to generate a profit from the bets made.

The inappropriate action was carried out during the Parva Liga match between PFC CSKA-Sofia and PFC Lokomotiv Sofia yesterday evening (2nd April 2025).

What is your response to this news?
there are many frauds that continue to occur and this is done by some individuals or even plotters who are used to doing this.

Football is a business that moves a lot of money, and of course there are private interests involved, especially when it comes to the betting market, in this sense, many decisions made in matches can be questionable.

All i have to say here is that they also knows the rules of the game and are well aware that football of nowadays is done is a well transparent manner, which means any fault or error could be easily noticed and if such is coming form their own end, then they already know that they are playing with their own job, any decision taken by them can be viewed and rechecked upon to know if they really did a professional job there or not, i want to believe that the personnel gambling as shown was only doing that to catch up with his own fun over the match and not to manipulate result.

VAR officer supposed to focus on the match and not betting. He supposed to have been dismissed but probably no law or rules about it unless they see him manipulating.

I also read this on the news about it:


There should be a law against visiting betting sites when they are at work. It is very wrong.

He is just one out of a hundred officials who are into betting secretly and are using their position to influence games in their favor. He made the mistake of checking it while doing his job, and that is why he's being penalized.

Well, how about him placing the bets before stepping into the VAR room? Do you think he will not still try to influence the game in his favor if it is within his power?

With online casinos and platforms for betting, it is more difficult to know everyone that gambles.

It is in their right as long as they are not betting on the game that they are being VAR referee. This would not constitute nothing wrong but if these guys keep betting on the very game they are being referees then this is a huge offense and these guys can easily go to jail. However this is not the problem with such guys, referees I mean, the real problem with them is that they do not give a flying f*ck to judge any game with correctness and they are impacting games massively, I used to watch live PSG vs Aston Villa in Champions League this week and I think the referee made some decisions who made the game end 3-1 but from what I saw in the field the game should have ended at least 5-1 for PSG and I am nor fan of PSG nor fan of Aston Villa, this is my honest objective opinion and not subjective. Referees, many of them I would put into jail as the only solution to make football great again.

Yes, businesses that take advantage of their important position so easily manipulate the match according to what some parties want. Many VAR decisions are even controversial and also the referee is unfair and it can be seen how they conspire for a match that is ordered like this.

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Are you sure about that, but there should be rules about using personal devices to access betting sites, because this would be very controversial, especially since it is already known to many people.
The work of these individuals will be threatened and has even received a suspension and a deeper investigation into the case.
This makes public trust in technology that is said to be the most advanced technology today.

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It should be a fatal mistake, it should indeed be an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) of a job, let alone a VAR operator who must be fair in everything that is done and analyzed and they are bound by that rule.
If it was like this incident, it seemed like he was breaking all those rules.

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Everything can be manipulated at the moment, especially since there are many sophisticated devices that can support insiders to make and manipulate bets without being suspected,
but what the VAR official did was too careless and he thought it would not be known to others.

That's right. They're all doing it, just most are smart and get their friends and family to make bets for them. They don't do it at work, using their personal phone and in front of a camera.

Every few months there's someone caught betting either it's a player, or someone from the team like one of the coaches... I'm not even surprised to see this.

We agree that such things are not appropriate for a VAR official to do, although he may not be entirely to blame for his unethical behavior. There are indications of cheating - but this is not a surprise considering that there has been a lot of cheating in football for a long time. In every business - there is always a mafia, so is football which has so far become a profitable business for most people. I have never been surprised by cheating in football - but I never hope it to still happen in top football in Europe.

This is why you should only bet on professional leagues like EPL, Laliga, Seria A e.t.c. Such manipulation wouldn't work in those big competitions because all eyes are on them making it difficult to work away with whatever manipulation you did on a match. There should be rules that prevents VAR officials to bet on matches that they are officiating.

Associations cannot control actions, they can only set strict penalties for any defaulters. The referee in question has been suspended and can face more sanctions if the case is proven after investigations.

I think the rules covers betting all together. Players, managers and officials are not allowed to gamble on the outcome of any football match whether or not they are directly involved in that game. I could be wrong, but I think that is the current stance.

- Jay -

This is not surprising, I mean, athletes have been caught betting in their matches, and I also wouldn't be surprised if more VAR officers are gambling while working.

I wonder what they'll find during their investigation. When someone in that position is caught gambling like that, there could be a high chance that an organized operation looking to take advantage of that power is involved.

Yesterday was 10th April 2025 not 2nd.

Moving back to the discussion, TBH i am not aware that VAR officers are not supposed to gamble at all. I felt like they are restricted from gambling while officiating if that is the case as seen in the video he will be stripped of his position from FIFA. His intentions may be good, perhaps just checking his games if they are going as planned or he wants to place a new bet. The thing is no matter what he was trying to do he should have obeyed to the rules. Going against it will attract punishment.

I'm glad you mentioned he gambled before the match started, stating he didn't gamble on duty, do he's not guilty of any misconduct. He's a normal gambler like everyone and he's free to place his bets anytime he wishes as long as it doesn't interfere with his duties. Also it's possible he's not placing bets, but checking on running bets or just keeping himself engaged with other casino games before it's duty time.

This indication is just your conclusion, else show me the proof he made a bet during that period and won lots of money from it. You and I know very well that if that was the case, the storyline wouldn't just be about him using the casino before the match ensured. There might even be legal action against him by now.

Things are worse than we think.
We all know they are cheating and manipulating results, but doing it so blatantly while at work is crazy.
I think I can recognize one of the officers is using bet365 website, and nobody around him cares about that  ;D

Imo,  he was wrong in ALL contexts. Whether he was actively betting on the game he was part of or not. If he was, then he's wrong and even if he wasn't actively betting on the current game, then he could still be wrong because that means his attention is divided and he's not doing his work well.

This confirms that some if not most of these sports events are manipulated and there is something at the receiving end of those results that gets actual benefits. Corruption at all levels of officiating.

Of course there are some people who are constantly profiting from football game, because sometimes before an event will kick off. Some set of people can decide to have a private talk with the referee and as well the VAR on how they can be able to achieve a particular outcome in that particular event. And they can decide to offer them a huge amount of money, just so that they can get the outcome which they're expecting. And the referee will keep working hand in hand with the VAR, maybe if there's something that will require consulting  the VAR before the final decision will be made by the referee they will just turn off the screen I mean they won't even show the screen as they used to.at this point the referee will just make his decision, they will do it in such a way that it will not be too obvious.

Even if football is a business there are certain people who are expected to not take part it,,, take for example players who are participating in a game betting on that same game - it will only lead to people engaging in corrupt practices so that they can make the most out of the game.

The VAR in this case didn’t act professionally and if care is not taken this event might lead to him losing his job, because people could categorize this as insider gambling since he has informations that could give him an advantage over the others — this is if he was betting on the game that was currently being played.

When I first saw this picture I thought it was an application where you can see the match schedule, lineups for the game and other parameters, in this application has nothing to do with betting. But as I understand it he made a comment saying it was before the match had even started, essentially admitting his guilt. In any case, there is nothing wrong with it, because there is no evidence that it was a bet on this particular match. But the situation is unfortunate, because if he bet money on this match, whatever he does he will be biased towards this match

I don't know much about the conditions of service of these officials, but I don't see anything wrong with VAR officials betting on games they are not engaged in. But he was simply doing the right thing at the wrong time. Maybe he is addicted to gambling that was why he couldn't control himself. Their role is so important that they should give much attention to the games. Relevant authorities will investigate this behaviour to ascertain if he has committed a criminal offence.

I think they actually penalties for things like this. No matter what system for its structure you always find people that try to cheat the system or take advantage of it. Sometime ago I have also come across a discussion here where the player was caught trying to create certain scenarios to favour a predetermined bet setup. In the end he actually got caught and got suspended.

Sometimes actually depends on how serious the match is and that will tell how intense the punishment or penalty for something like this would be. Come to think of it, odds are usually larger when the match is an intense match like a world cup.

I hope the punishment is the same with the kind for a footballer who is discovered to have gambled on his football team.

Are you seriously saying this? How many times have we seen obvious bad decisions from VAR that they later apologized for? many times. Manipulation can go on right in front of our eyes, and there is nothing we can do about it other than accept an apology later.

This is why there are more than one VAR officials in a match in order to have a sound and balanced judgement of match concerns. If he's biased, would the other officials be biased with him? Even if he makes a wrong call, the referee would still have a look before making the final decision, so in that case his being biased might lead to unprofessional signals from him.

Even if there's a concern and he fails to raise it, other officials would still bring it to consideration and call the referee's attention to it.

It's a very serious violation that shouldn't be overlooked. People obviously don't know their boundaries, but I didn't know this can extend even to a trained VAR official? Like, what was he thinking? Was he not aware that there were security cameras everywhere in such a tech-advanced building?

"Play stupid games, win stupid prices" -- meanwhile, I don't know what the verdict will be for him, but I know for a fact that the jury won't take it easy with him since this is considered a felony
Infact, this is an indication that a lot has been going on in some major leagues that we don't know. I can't just believe that this official is the only one involved in this.

Even though it's not clear if those officials signed documents forbidding them from betting, it appear unethical for a VAR official to be visiting betting site prior to or during live match. Such behavior signal a possible conflict of interest even though he may not have done anything that shows an undue influence in his decision making as an official of the match. J like the fact that he was suspended at least to discourage others from doing same.

If this doesn't also rank among match fixing scandals, I wonder what we could call such an offense from a professional referee who should know better.
Should an investigation be carried out to know if the referee in question is being paid the right salary? Because I wonder what kind of financial situation this ref would have been in to jeopardize a career and reputation due to greed and get-fast-money schemes.

This kind of corruption is inevitable, there will always be people who abuse their position when given the opportunity. Just like players who might fix games, some insiders will exploit their access for easy profits. That's why strong monitoring systems are crucial to maintain a sport's integrity. Whether they're using insider information or are actually part of the regulatory bodies themselves, these bad actors must be kept in check.

i do not know how this can be considered as indication that there for sure would be manipulation of the game when he just placed a bet which is wrong in the first place yes but it doesn’t mean he will be committing fraud already unless of course he wins then maybe there could be a much thorough investigation but i don’t think this is a solid proof

He literally knew that the camera was in the room and could see him. But then from the image, he wasn't in anyway hiding his phone from the camera, which to me is a normal thing for then as vat officials in that sector. This isn't actually right as they have just one job. And if they loss focus trying to bet on the match, they may be wrong with their opinions. Though they don't have much jobs to do as the computer does most of the jobs app they do is check for mistakes in match while the system captures every action..

VAR referees are humans like you and I,  they have relatives, friends and well wishers, so they can as well have friends ,relatives who are into the betting industry and because they VAR referees happens to one or two relates to this person, now are they not allowed to visit these people? that's in that case.

On the other hands,  this people be influenced to take decisions that will benefit the businesses of friends or loves if situation that a VAR referees may in one or the business secretly has a he will benefit from such act or to some extent they paid to Rigg a match with their decisions, However, I believe the cental referee is their to take the final action on a case like this, except if all want to collaborate on this act.

We don't know what's actually happening in the room. But yes, they should definitely not bet because they may have some advantages when it comes to knowing the final results. But we can't assure such situation won't happen because if they see their advantage, I would say, they can easily be tempted to bet or tell their close relative or friend to bet on the team they see have high chance to win.
But on the note of the image, we can't give our judgment right away. As we don't know what's actually happening inside that room. Now, if you are the VAR officer, better be careful with what you do as they can easily take a snapshot these days and attach it as a proof of what you are doing. Lucky that the image is quite blurred, and you can't see what he's really doing on the phone.

I am how are they using it for their benefits? The VAR is just an machine and not a prediction machine. It will be highly difficult for them to use the VAR to manipulate the entire game so that they the operators can win.

This is not correct. Unless you can explain how the fraud happens or will happen here.

Obviously this “small” incident is really concerning because it involved someone who is so crucial to maintaining the impartiality of the game and who has an almost unquestionable resource in deciding such controversial football plays. However, as far as I am aware, this act has already been punished with the referee’s suspension and an ongoing investigation by Hawk-Eye Innovations, the company that oversees VAR operations in the Bulgarian First Division.

Such behavior not only compromises the integrity of the VAR system, but also erodes public confidence in the impartiality of football matches and for this reason I believe it will be severely punished as it highlights once again the urgent need for stricter supervision and enforcement of ethical standards among referees.

Football associations and governing bodies also need to implement rigorous background checks, ongoing monitoring and severe penalties for breaches of conduct because maintaining football’s credibility requires a collective commitment to transparency, accountability and ethical behavior from everyone involved in the sport.

But... unfortunately I have a feeling that this won't be the last news we'll read about this, not to mention so many others that we don't even know about.

VAR officers has literally no influence over a football match, because it is actually what happens that is been displayed during the VAR review, and as such they cant change a foul to either a penalty or vice versa, which still means that the football players, the goal keepers and the current referee on the game has a huge role to play in the success of a game, and not mere the VAR officer, because those individuals are just like the normal audience watching the live game on TV. So if a VAR officer is seen trying to place a bet during a live game, I think he has the right just as every other football audience to do so, inasmuch as it's not against it's code of conduct.

If it is not an offense for VAR officials to visit gambling sites during live matches there is nothing that we can do about it but if it is against the law and the official was caught looking up an a betting site, then he should be prosecuted. I don't think that it is appropriate for them to be looking on bets or placing bets when they are on duty for transparency sake, I hope that the VAR board will look into it, if it is not in the rules and regulations for their officials. It is very sad that sports players and officials will try to manipulate in a match to favor some perticular bets, this is not good for the reputation of gambling.

Aren't all personnel related to the matches not allowed to bet/gamble? Not sure if it's specifically limited to the match where they're stationed at or the entire tournament in general but afaik, it's not allowed. And if it is, it shouldn't be lol. Gambling can be one heck of a persuasive influence to do dumb shit especially in the position where you're holding the power to hold teams accountable for illegal plays.

Still, in this case, I'm pretty sure they can't touch the VAR results anyway? If I recall correctly, it's just machine-related recording stuff and they just review it. But still, even so, they still shouldn't be generally allowed though. It's just professional integrity (if I were to describe it).

This Is not a good sign for gamblers. However could he someway change the outcome of a bet?
If you know how sport gambling works you can be sure that this Is something nowadays normal (like many people love to gamble and so on at any level).
Personally I think that this Is the new normality. More people would like to gamble since its really easy to access.

You are right. I also think of a way he could have possibly manipulate but I saw none. I will just like to know the outcome of the investigation but I guess nothing would be seen. What I do not just like about it is that he is gambling or doing something else when he suppose to focus on the match. What he did is a distraction for him and that needs a suspension.

Honestly, I doubt that this would change the outcome of a bet, because whenever a goal is scored or there is any clear sign of danger of a goal, bookmakers close the market and wait for the referee's decision, so there was no way this guy could place a bet. Maybe he was placing bets on another game.

Obviously a VAR official should not be involved in betting because it would be a bad image because the VAR referee could be perceived as manupulation of the game, they should be independent neutral in any match, but with his caught through CCTV this is still a public question.

We can't deny that the Mafia in the minor leagues will always exist and the referees there may still be controlled by the Mafia.
That's why I never bet on the less popular leagues, plus there are negative news about this, so there is less confidence in betting on the minor leagues.

The top European leagues still maintain the integrity of the referees to remain neutral.

This is the reality of being a gambler, when people see you're a gambler, they think that you're a part of creating match fixing or not responsible with your job.

That's why many people not want to admit if they're a gambler because not all people will take it easy, instead they either ask to stop or not want to get close with gambler, hence many gambling addicts not recovered.

I don't see anything wrong if the VAR official access betting site while working, if he was chatting with his family, would he get the same punishment? it should be same because he use his working time for personal.

I'm sure he was just one of many more who did the same, and it's bad that he was caught committing the foul, when surely there were also those who did that too, either just to play or indeed something planned for his own benefit because VAR decisions often harm one of the teams and benefit the bettor if the result of the match turns out to be what he expected.

This and many more that has happened under the nose make me believe, referees are not the one's siding teams they officiate, when decisions are being meant to be conducted by VAR, sometimes the result comes out false, even when publicly what we all saw as the obvious and should be awarded isn't mentioned, VAR can be behind the calling.

But we can't tell if he was gambling on the exact match in which he was positioned as VAR.

This is not an excuse to go against the rules of FIFA. Unless he is disguising to be a professional when he is not. Not even sympathy will make a professional referee to disobey the rules because there are hundreds of referees who will find every opportunity to take his place. Having such job is rare and knowing how they are paid it is something anyone will want so why risk your future for unnecessary things.

A VAR referee with 5 to 6 years' experience earns about 2500/5000 euros in a single match they officiate. I know the league the said referees are working in is not really a top league but one day he may have the chance to officiate in a high league, nevertheless it is not possible anymore he just destroyed every opportunity for him. In the meantime, i don't want to assume it is something you can do since you have been finding excuses for his actions. 

Few weeks back, I saw a video somewhere that discussed about referees salary. If I'm to judge and go with what was said in that video, I honestly think their pay is nothing compared to what average players earned, but that isn't still an excuse at all. I want to believe that before anyone is accepted into the referee board, he/she must have read the guidelines and also passed the necessary test and exams.

Gambling or sports betting is highly prohibited in the sporting body for athletes and even those in charge. I even heard that the relatives of athletes are not also allowed to bet as well. The VAR official has broken the rules, so he his definitely getting sacked. If premier league could sack an official that said rubbish about his own officiating and how he hates a particular club, then sacking this one won't be a problem at all. In as much as nothing is perfect, there are certain things that are not just allowed in certain cases.

If the man is being accused based on that picture footage that you shared, then I think this is not a case I should take as a serious case because the footage isn't even bright or clear enough for us to tell if really it was a betting site he visited..
And on the other hand, him visiting a betting site does not mean on indicate that he has a bet on the match that is or was about to be played at that particular moment, it's very possible he simply visited to the site to see what or how gamblers are predicting the out com3 of the match through their bets.

So for me  personally, I find several lapses in this case, except the var officer was approached and his phone or device was looked into and it was discovered that indeed, he had a bet on the about to be played match, I see this case as the media simply clout chasing, farming clicks.

This is a very sad development, we were contending with players and officials that are involved in match fixing, now an addition has been added. VAR officials are crucial in decision making in a match to assist the referees, if they too are involved in match manipulation it means that it will affect betting negatively. Something that was created to bring credibility to football games is now turning to one of it's problems because of corrupt VAR officials. Corrupt players and officials who are caught should not only be made to pay fines or face ban, they should also be made to face jail term as a deterant to others.

I doubt if there is a sport that is completely corruption free at this age and time, they may not be obvious for the public to see but then deep down there are some corrupt practices that goes on there for some personal benefits and all of that so we cannot see this as the only one, just that it happens to be the one caught on camera and i think such persons compromised and shouldn't be allowed to officiate games like this as they may be partial at some point of their own benefit and interest. its still possible that for those who have not been seen could have placed a bet on the site before they set out to officiate the game and may not be known and this will definitely affect their sense of judgment and so such shouldn't be permitted often because it will only lead to partial judgments and corrupt officiating of games.


if it were possible these guys be checked for all of this before they go to officiate games so they don't get to allow that interfere with their minds while they re doin their job.

I do not need to share my personal opinion on this as I can just share what the official rules say which I think already speaks a lot for itself.


I do not think referees or any match officials should be gambling in time of the match but as per the rules, they could bet on another match from a different league. Though the FA is very sensitive about insider information being passed around to serve as an advantage in betting.

source (https://www.onlinebetting.org.uk/betting-guides/football/can-football-referees-bet.html#:~:text=Referees%20Are%20Not%20Allowed%20to,that%20they're%20involved%20with.)

I agree that they should maintain strict discipline while the game is one and if they want to do their betting it should be outside of the work time. However, in this case, the rule said "inappropriate activities". So even if the VAR official is sue or a disciplinary action is instituted against him, the rule doesn't specifically mention betting or gambling. If he has a good lawyer, he will win the case. In my estimation, this will become a problem and gain public attention if most of the VAR officials are caught on duty with their phones logged into a gambling website.

This kind of problem seems to have been happening for a long time and is no longer a public secret. Even most bettors already know this. But usually this often happens in small leagues or local leagues. That's the reason I very rarely or almost never bet on small leagues to avoid things like this.
I am not judging or accusing the minor leagues of doing so. And individuals like this would not dare to cheat like that in the major leagues that have stricter rules. Maybe things like this should be considered by the league that provides rules or penalties for related parties not to bet while on duty.

Do VAR referee is not allowed to place a bet on sports betting same with players and other official?

I don’t see this as a big deal if they are allowed to bet while the decision of this specific person is still in professional level. There’s multiple referee looking for this VAR in able to come up with the result.

As viewers perspective this is indeed alarming but they are still human that wants to enjoy betting assuming they are allowed to place bet.

This is a very wrong approach and should be penalized for doing that, who knows if he may he may rig the match for his favor and who knows how many people he has given the game asking them to bet on a specific team just because he wants them to win the game. I think he should be sanctioned and why did he do that at home than doing it at the room VAR room, I think he should be expelled for involving in a cheat.

Misconduct and favoritism is definitely the major feature that's restraining the free flow of the game. Those caught in the act or found guilty after carrying out an extensive investigation, they should be heavily fine and sometimes to an extent. In anticipating as a VAR official, what lend to visiting betting sites during live games? This is beyond what I can say because as they're caught, it means this is not the first time they've tried gambling, it's been a routine for them in the VAR room I presumed.

Why on earth will these VAR officials visits gambling sites during live games? It makes absolutely no sense if I'm to take down things. We know alot have happen but we can justify the fact to be good conduct, they acted weigh beyond measures and totally unprofessional in the system, I thought they're trained and ready for the job? It seems they don't find their jobs valuable.

Firstly, I don't think there should be an issue about the officer in charge of the VAR is irresponsible which could lead to a violation when the end decision of every match depend on the referee decision, and the last time I checked the clubs, or team that's playing the match can also write petition to FIFA against the referee or VAR officer if there's something shady about their decision.
Not to mention that the VAR officer only reviews the game footage from multiple camera angles to provide their result, and I believe those cameras can't be manipulated.

Addition to this you have said, i always tells that people should be very careful in dealing with the general public, not to even talk of when we all know that there is camera everywhere and nothing could be done hidden from such arena, including the players playing, everything that transpired could be track backward and we know the actual situation of what happened, he made a big mistake because he wouldn't have been gambling there while on duty, no matter what, his role was to set an eye on what is happening over the pitch and be able to concentrate more on it and nothing else.

That is the VAR brigade who got caught but imagine how many of them are doing this and they are not getting caught at all.

Per example here in Romania Superbet League1 VAR takes around 5-10 MINUTES almost every time and that is something ridiculous because they have the tech but they don't even give replays or anything during the VAR ...they just point the camera towards the referee and then we wait and that is very suspect in my opinion and I'm sure bets are being placed while Romanian VAR takes an eternity to check the goal/offside or red card.  :o

Yes I also assumed so as well, because for such acts to be revealed it's presumed that it has been occuring all the time or whenever there seems to be live matches and he could be doing in their favor. Again, this is not what they would hold a person responsible rather all that were active during the live matches because they also refused to exposed him for Betting on live match therefore their two or three should be extremely find.

Regarding the results of the investigation, I have seen in the latest news and the same media or from the source of origin, I did not find any news updates about the investigation of this case and even the name of the person in the photo was not mentioned.
It seems that they closed the case and did not forward this case to the media.

I believe that this news has given a bad performance to the referees in the league and of course there are many questions that need to be answered why there are no results of the investigation of the case even though it has been quite a long time.

It's terribly sad that purity has gone far away from the football world. Every section of officials down to players happened to be manipulated by the rich betting platforms that makes a no turning down offer to them for bigger profits. In absence of this close rapport between casinos and football officials, gamers would have earned more wins.

You know that everything is finished when you see that thousand opportunities in VAR are not even considered at all, I have seen a lot of cases where there were flagrant chances that needed VAR review and the main official didn't give a flying f*ck to check those, the VAR officials also need to be given more power, and do what is good for football, they need to have the power to call for a VAR chance, I mean like one of these flagrant ones to be checked despite the main official may say no, how come the main official does not want to review such flagrant cases, most likely because they are the most corrupted persons in the world and that is why.

This incident happened in the Bulgarian league, so you can see that it isn't much of a big news, who even remembers that football is played in Bulgaria, it is nowhere near any of the top leagues in the world. This incident also happened before kickoff, not during the game, however, the official has been suspended, and i believe he will lose his job for this, too bad.

Even if the intention of the var worker is not to cheat but just checking up his predictions, it's a fraudulent act by the var personnel, that's absolutely a bad moral behavior and he should be disallowed to enter the var room for some period of time.

Infact, this incident should alert the VAR sector to set up new rules and regulations on the var workers to not work with their personal phone or any other personal devices that can access the internet, if this had not been the rules, then it should be implemented right away, not only in Bulgaria league but in every sports out there.

It happened before the match started? Then why suspend the guy? I was thinking it happened during the match and not before the match. But the VAR supposed to have done everything at home and not do anything at work place. Some people might lose their work because they are gambling at work. But I do not think the VAT will lose his work because he would have lost his work but instead he was suspended.

Although it's still bad look as VAR referee to do betting when he's doing his job, it's not illegal to do that. It's also important to clarify if it was not an official VAR operator, but that's VAR replay operator. I see no problem with it, but it's kinda give bad image to the public.

You're right about being careful when it comes to something related to the public, but the person in the subject was sitting in a special dedicated room for VAR services, and he was gambling while he ought to be checking the available video cameras of the match. I believe he didn't know there was someone or a hidden camera in the room used to monitor their VAR operation.

This is a lesson for every gambler that gambling at work is never a good thing to do.

It's no indication of anything.
He was caught doing so before the game, there was no evidence of him betting on the game or the result and no evidence of him betting at all. Anyway, this is just ridiculous, on one side VAR official would be impartial and so on and not engage in gambling and then you have this massive add right next to them

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/04/13/x3u69.jpeg

That aside, here is a reply from reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1jqix80/comment/mlcnw1f/):


And since there is absolutely no follow up from this I think it was indeed blown out of proportion by some scandal newspapers.

According to the detail of the article, the VAR officer is checking a betting site before the match started which means they are still not working that time.

I doubt they are not aware with camera since most of the office usually has a cctv footage to monitor the official work.

I think he just caught off guard that someone check the CCTV replay and released the captured moment in the public. I’m interested to know whether there’s some malicious event happened on that match.

Thanks for the fairly accurate information, I forgot to search on Reddit because my search on Google only fell on the same news without any other Details of information.

Perhaps some newspapers are exaggerating this news for their own benefit.
and the application used by the referee is the Bulgarian Football Association App for live tracking.

But still this is against the rules because the referee is still using a personal phone when the match is about to start,
If you really have to check the score directly, there should be a special tablet provided so that you don't use a personal phone.

https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/04/14/xfGKv.png
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.bfu.app&hl=id&pli=1

There are things we might be seeing unprofessional but is not for some professional work because there rules might not be against it and if you check there is something we can say between this three persons because two person are not working judging from there screen considering what is visualizing on them, so they're not active but however the last official is the only one I see with an active screen, so it might not be wrong going online for gambling, perhaps that was the time PFC CSKA-Sofia and PFC Lokomotiv Sofia went on a half time break that he uses the time to wager the match.

I think that they got that image and perfectly knew that people would see what they wanted to see instead of thinking about it twice. There are many unknowns we cannot guess by simply looking at this picture, but our brains fill in the gaps and we become blind to any different representation of reality.

Although it may seem ironical, we tend to like stories that outrage us, or at least engage in discussions about them. Media know it well and exploit that vulnerability for their own benefit.

If it is happening in the very match they are officiating or to officiate, then it is very wrong that calls for scrutiny to avoid fraud and cheating in the game, but if its for already played match, then it's not relevant but even at that there should be a law governing the VAR during any ongoing match in other not to raise suspicion of any kind of fraudulent act .

The rate of Fraud  in matches  nowadays is becoming alarming and not hidden any more therefore the authorities  should put necessary measures to curtail these and find a lasting solution so that it will not be repeated because it will not be good for gambling.

Especially if we look at the news on only one of the same arguments, where there is no other news that explains in detail what is really happening.

Including me or people in this forum who immediately responded to the news brutally and of course judged the referee because he felt that he had done the wrong thing.
I also searched for other information but didn't find the details or the results of a full examination of what really happened.

Now that the purpose of manipulating the news has been achieved and many parties are angry,
of course, an incident like this is news like this that will make a noise and corner one of the parties to the news.

This is an irresponsible behaviour that needs to be looked into. If he’s caught on camera to have been engaging in a betting activity, he needs to be dismissed and that should serve as a warning to others who also secretly does that. There is no way he would be the only one doing things, many of them would have been involved secretly. Now this calls for a questionable investigation if they are not really exploiting with the position given to them as Video Assistant Referees to turn the match in their favours in order to win their bets.

There are many irregularities in football officiating but only few are known and not all actions are taken on the known one despite clear proof that it is not suppose to be so. I didn't see this news elsewhere before now, and I don’t think an action has been taken on this regards yet or it’ll just be left as if nothing happened which will in turn encourage others that don’t do it use the position for their own benefit.


Yes, many didn’t find out more how true the news could be, but as you said, the media knows how to get people’s attention and may have fulfilled their purpose on this. But every criticism in this topic is well appreciative in such that, if  a case like this really happened or it’s happening and we are unaware of it. The criticism should serve as the punishment people want FIFA to take on this regard if any official is found wanting.

If some individuals violate the rules as we are currently discussing, of course the relevant parties must take appropriate action so that no more violations occur.
But this case has been quite long and until finally there was no valid result of how the case ended and what the official statement from them was.

But if you violate the TOS that has been made, several sanctions need to be carried out, even dismissal if necessary to maintain compliance and sportsmanship.

And I think this is one the major issues with top class problems like this one, they will hardly let the general public know how the matter later ended.

It's also very possible that the VAR officer have some connections with some persons at the very top, and it's also very possible that this person's are the ones he's or was working for, and as such issue arises, they will find a way to sort it out within themselves so that the general public don't get any idea of how it all ended, whether the officer was sanctioned, dismissed or what ever.
So in the absense of this knowledge, it simply means that the issue has been swept under the carpet.

So, lets also consider that fact that it's very possible that the officer was working for some top dogs in the system, this is a good reason why no harm may come to him for the offence if truly he committed it.

If there is indeed any indication of a problem leading to the closure of such information,
the people involved will certainly be a threat when everything is traced, but the referee does not give any response, will only check.

However, what is certain is that when there is a violation, maybe the referee will only be suspended or even fired for using his personal phone while working.

And I think it is clear how this problem happened, there is no more information that needs to be reviewed because in the end there are no results given from related parties and even the latest news from this case is not found.
Cases like this are just a reminder that the possibility of fraud can happen to anyone and on any party.

Penalized for what? There's nothing wrong in non official VAR staff did it. It's not even illegal, and no penalty given to him following his habit doing betting when it's on free time as a replay operator. I know it's too much for him to do that when he's doing his job. Hopefully, he aware if he's wrong. Let's take it positive, he's looking for side income.  :D :