Only a Game?: Azerbaijan continues its pitch battle against playing Armenia in Baku
By Suren Musayelyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
While European football’s governing body, UEFA, still has to decide the venues for the two Euro-2008 qualifiers between Armenia and Azerbaijan, another draw put the two nations’ women together in an international tournament originally scheduled to be held in Baku.
National Team of Armenia
The women’s national teams of Armenia, Ukraine, Scotland and Azerbaijan have been drawn together in qualifying Group 7 for the European championships. Azerbaijan had been selected as the host for the matches from September 27-October 2 this year.
But Azerbaijan officially announced this week that it would refuse to act as host because it says it cannot guarantee the security of the Armenian team. This was after Armenia’s announcement that it was ready to send its team to play in Baku in compliance with UEFA regulations. Ukraine or Scotland may now host the tournament.
It is already one year since Azerbaijan refused to entertain Armenia’s men’s team for the match in the Euro-2008 qualifying group. The two matches are due to be played on September 8 and 12, but UEFA has yet to announce the venues.
Armenia’s football federation has stated its willingness to travel to Baku for the first leg and to play Azerbaijan in Yerevan. Azerbaijan refuses to play in Baku, claiming that political and sporting emotions would be inflamed by the sight of the Armenian flag being raised and Armenia’s national anthem played on Azeri soil.
Azeri football officials want the games played on neutral territory, such as Georgia, and even seem ready to incur UEFA’s anger by forfeiting the match in Baku if a solution is not found. The issue has been unduly politicized over the past year as politicians have joined the dispute.
Adil Aliyev, a deputy in the Azerbaijani parliament and a member of its standing commission on defense and security affairs, told Day.az last week that it was impossible to stage the match in Baku.
“I am sure that the Azeri government will consider the strong emotional factor and the impossibility to guarantee the security of players of the hostile team. But we can play them on a neutral ground – in Moscow, Rostov or Tbilisi,” he said.
“And our team can and must play in Yerevan. Of course, it will be a great psychological burden and risk for our players to play in a hostile territory, but playing our national anthem and raising our flag in Yerevan will morally compensate it in full.”
Azerbaijan captain Aslan Kerimov tells Azeri media that as a professional he is ready to play against Armenia anywhere.
He told Azerisport.com: “Professionally, I am ready to play in Yerevan, too. But from my citizen’s position I can say that the holding of these matches in Armenia and Azerbaijan is wrong. I think UEFA must think seriously before making the final decision.”
Ruben Hayrapetyan
Top representatives of the football federations of both countries failed to resolve the issue on the sidelines of a UEFA congress in Düsseldorf, Germany, in late January. Now UEFA must decide.
Fuad Asadov, secretary general of the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA), told Russia’s Sport-Express newspaper then that “the Armenian side would not be drawn into contact with them”.
“We hope the European football officials will make a sensible decision and will not allow the matches to be played in Baku and Yerevan,” he added.
President of the Football Federation of Armenia Ruben Hayrapetyan confirmed Armenia’s stance that the team is ready to play in Baku if security guarantees are provided by the Azeri state.
“The problem is not that the AFFA does not want or disagrees to hold a match in Baku, but that the state does not provide corresponding security guarantees,” he told Regnum.ru.
“It is a common knowledge that the Armenian authorities have provided security guarantees for holding the match in Yerevan, both in written form and verbally.”
Hayrapetyan said that the security guarantees applied both to the team and its delegation and to any fans of Azerbaijan who wished to travel to Armenia to support their team.
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