Azerbaijan to turn to UEFA over Armenian provocation
By Vugar Khalilov
Gunduz Abbaszade, the spokesperson for Azerbaijan's Qarabagh football club, has stated that the club will file an official complaint with UEFA and the Olympique de Marseille football club due to provocation by Armenian fans, Trend reported on February 18.
"We expected something like this. The Armenian fans repeatedly resorted to provocations during the matches of Qarabagh. The shown provocative poster was immediately removed by the stadium's security service," Abbaszade said.
Armenian fans resorted to provocation and unfurled the Armenian flag during a UEFA Conference League match between Azerbaijan's Qarabagh and France's Olympique de Marseille football clubs.
Prior to the game, Qarabagh informed UEFA and Olympique de Marseille of a possible Armenian provocation, prompting UEFA to hire a new safety officer.
It should be noted that Armenians have repeatedly provoked the Azerbaijani football team in foreign stadiums. However, the national team handled all of these provocations with dignity. Despite UEFA's warnings and special preparations for the Marseille match, certain provocations were unavoidable.
"Those who come to the football stadium in Marseille with flags of illegal criminal entities not only violate FIFA rules but also work against peace in the Caucasus," Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy (ADA) Vice Rector Fariz Ismailzade wrote on his Twitter account.
The Marseille-Qarabagh match sparked a flurry of coverage in the French press. The game also alarmed France's largest Armenian diaspora in Marseille.
The conservative, right-wing newspaper Le Figaro described the game as "bitter" for Armenians before it began.
Meanwhile, some local media labeled the Europa League Conference match between Marseille and Qarabagh at the Velodrome Stadium 15 months after Armenia's bitter defeat by Azerbaijan in the 44-day war in 2020 as "extremely difficult" for the Armenian diaspora in Marseille.
In the UEFA Conference League playoff stage, the Azerbaijani Qarabagh football team was defeated at home by the French Olympique de Marseille.
The game, which took place at the Velodrome Stadium, ended in a 3:1 tie.
Olympique de Marseille's goals came from Arkadiusz Milik (41' and 44') and Dimitri Payet (90+2'), while Qarabagh's goal came from Kady (85').
Azerbaijan is again in 26th place with 17,000 points. If Qarabagh had at least a draw in France, the country would have overtaken Romania, which has 17,150 points in the rankings.
Instead, Scotland (34,500) is ninth, Denmark (26,975) is 15th and the Czech Republic (26,800) is 17th.
Russia (34,282) is 10th, Turkey (26,900) is 16th, Greece (26,700) and Croatia (26,650) are 18th-19th, respectively.
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