Azeris urge Europe’s football body to ban Karabakh FC from Armenian league
Ekho, Baku
1 Dec 04
Text of E. Aliyev’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 1 December
headlined “AFFA protests at the Karabakh team’s participation in the
Armenian championship”
The secretary-general of the Association of Football Federations of
Azerbaijan (AFFA), Fuad Asadov, has sent a letter to the UEFA chief
executive, Lars-Christer Olsson, asking the European body to
investigate the participation of FC Lernain Artsakh from Xankandi
[Stepanakert] in the Armenian championship.
The point is that according to the well-known Russian weekly magazine
Football, the team from the self-styled republic played in the second
division of the Armenian championship this year and won the right to
play in Armenia’s first division next year.
“We have addressed UEFA twice. In our letters, we alerted UEFA to the
fact that FC Lernain Artsakh is playing in the Armenian
championship. This is completely illegal because Nagornyy Karabakh is
an integral part of Azerbaijan and teams from one country cannot take
part in the championship of another. This runs counter to the
principles of UEFA and FIFA,” Fuad Asadov told Ekho.
After AFFA’s letters, UEFA addressed the Armenian football federation
which started denying the information. The secretary-general of the
Armenian federation, Armen Minasyan, whom Fuad Asadov met in
Switzerland, denied the reports as well.
“Minasyan told me: ‘Do you really think that we don’t know the laws of
international football organizations?’ However, the material published
in Football proves that the Armenians lied, which is quite typical of
them. I hope UEFA will look into the issue and ban this team from
playing in the Armenian championship,” he said.