'The BFU referees commission has taken away Svetoslav Stefanov's refereeing license until the end of the season for making errors during the match between Litex and Belasitsa,' a union spokesman said.

Litex snatched a 1-0 victory against Belasitsa Petrich on Wednesday after scoring the penalty. Litex are currently third in the domestic championship and Belasitsa are striving to get out of the relegation zone.

The referees commission has also given what the spokesman described as a 'last warning' to referee Hristo Ristoskov after he was deemed to have made errors during Wednesday's match won 2-0 by Slavia Sofia against Marek Dupnitsa. Assistant referee at the same match Emil Vangelov was banned for six games.

The referees commission said in a statement that it had been worried by recent refereeing errors.

'Through these punishments the commission is showing that it will not tolerate those who do not apply the rules of soccer,' the statement said.

Last month referee Dimitar Dimitrov and linesman Krassimir Kerezov were banned for four and two matches respectively and the fourth official, Ivan Dobrinov, was given a warning.

The officials failed to award a penalty to Cherno More Varna after sending off Lokomotiv Plovdiv's Ivan Paskov for an off-the-ball foul on a Cherno More player in the penalty area.

The match, which ended 1-1 on February 9, will be replayed on March 13. The Bulgarian championship has been marred by widespread accusations of bias among referees.

There has also been a growing number of threats and violence levelled against referees.