Moscow police avert brawl between Azeri, Armenian soccer fans – paper

Zerkalo, Baku
20 Jan 05

Excerpt from Vuqar report by Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo on 20
January headlined “We defeated the Armenians” and subheaded “So far,
only on the football pitch”

Azerbaijan proved yesterday that it is superior to Armenia, but only
on the green pitch so far. In a quarter-final match of the
Commonwealth Cup, Neftci beat Pyunik 2-0 at Moscow’s Dinamo
arena. Giorgi Adamia and Vidadi Rzayev were the goal-scorers.

A lot depends on motivation in such tense matches. The game showed
that our footballers were more eager to gain a victory than their
Armenian counterparts. Neftci footballers and coaches, as well as the
club and the management of the Association of Football Federations of
Azerbaijan [AFFA], who had urgently flown to Moscow, realized that
they had no right to lose THIS MATCH [capitals as published]. Some of
the fans recalled the well-known match of principle between Iran and
the USA, and gloomily joked that if the game is lost, they MAY NOT
RETURN HOME [capitals as published].

However, to the joy of all Azerbaijanis, Neftci finally showed its
class. Regrettably, we could not obtain full information about the
match which none of our TV stations broadcast. According to our
information, there was a clash during the first half between the
fans. A trick by the Armenian fans provoked the clash when they placed
their banner in front of the Azerbaijani flag. Naturally, our fans
could not tolerate such daring behaviour by the Armenian fans. The
police intervened in time and separated the instigators. The timely
intervention of the police prevented a mass brawl for which both sides
had prepared. The match was already in full swing by that time and
the referee intervened in time to prevent sporadic clashes between the
footballers.

[Passage omitted: Details of the game]