Ridiculous news

Never mix football with politics. Why are we even seeing a final at Azerbaijan. There's a real need to boycott this joke of a place for a final.

Picks stadium in Azerbaijan, picks stadium with 69 000 capacity, only allocate 6000 tickets for Arsenal & Chelsea each (Chelsea sold just 600), the trip is so expensive for every travelling fan, hope the stadium will empty for the embarrassment of the money grabbing uefa.

The fact that uefa picks a stadium where a player is not safe to play is simply a disgraceful act, imagine playing UCL final in a place where Salah or anyone else couldn't enter the country. joke.

For people who don't know Azerbaijan and Armenian relations, there are no diplomatic relations after territorial conflict.

Gurgen Margaryan, lieutenant in the Armenian army was in Budapest, Hungary, to participate in a three-month English language course which was part of NATO's Partnership for Peace program. On 19 February he was axed, while asleep, by his fellow participant, Azerbaijani Lieutenant Ramil Safarov.

Thats not cool. Those guys need to fix their relationship, that kind of hate can only bring sadness and trouble to the people involved.

I agree Baku was a bad choice but I can see also why because Azerbaijan is a growing regional economical mini power. They are already hosting F1 circuit, so hosting UEFA Final was supposed to be routine event. Ticket allocation sucks though.

As far as the politics: Armenians have ethnically cleansed Azeris from Karabakh region during 90s wars and that left the bitter taste. War that Azeri lost also because Russia backed Armenia. Destabilized region with ongoing disputed Karbakh only helps russian to hold on to their political influence. I am more on the Azeri side because they got majorily screwed and Armenians are banned same as Azeris are banned. Well, throughout the history, there were way more Armenians who lived in Baku than Azeris in Erevan, so Azeris got pissed and threw them all out after during Karabakh events. Mkhitaryan is one of those thrown out Armenian people too.

All the intricacies of the situation aside, there should only be one main point here. If a country is nominated or bids to host an international event, and does not allow athletes of certain nationalities to attend, they should not be permitted to host that event. End of story. This whole situation is incredibly out of line for every moral/ethical/sport-related reason one could think of.

All the intricacies of the situation aside, there should only be one main point here. If a country is nominated or bids to host an international event, and does not allow athletes of certain nationalities to attend, they should not be permitted to host that event.

yeah exactly, there is only the one point where any country with conflicts in it should not be able to be nominated and maybe they should use this case as a reason to have a backup stadium nominated as well.

The stadium being far away and being hard to travel to is not an excuse not to be able to be nominated, it is a global game which should be committed to spreading the game to countries that don't always have the opportunity to see high quality matches or finals. So many selfish comments about it being a London derby when the location was selected two years ago.

Let's face it, Micky didn't make any impact at all in the Premier League for United or Arsenal, so not a surprise decision from the Arsenal manager to be honest.

I agree. UEFA dropped the ball. They should have foreseen political situation like this might prevent a player from attending but then again how many Armenian players are playing top level football?

So, I think UEFA probably did foreseen it and remembered about Mkhitaryan ... It probably went like this : "oh there is this guy in Arsenal if you can call him top level" and said " well, they won't make it to the final anyway and if they do, then fck that guy anyway, not like he is a superstar" - because money trumps one regular footballer that can't travel due to politics. And again, I understand both sides. Baku is growing into caucasus- Dubai.

still better to have miki than iwobi.. who will be likely to play now..

New reports are saying that Azerbaijan actually allows Mkhitarian to come and gurantees 100% safety but he refuses and made his decision. Kind of like Britain with Brexit “ we made our decision”.

what does guaranteeing safety mean for them, how is that put in action, nothing was said about the how, which is the most important thing, what are they gonna do, surround him with bodyguards, put a bomb testing squad in before each room? creating a huge amount bad feeling in the air

Even if they guarantee his safety, how does it make the rest of the squad feel? there would be nervousness floating around in the days before a big final.. they did the best thing for the squad.

Well, i bet it will be much safer than Saturday Night after the match in North London. I am ready to bet on that fact. If squad feels comfortable playing there, i am sure they won't have any issues.

“This is a Class A event, if our purpose is to play political games around it it is something different, you are being paid as a
footballer not a politician, lets leave other issues aside,” he said.

“His problem is that he has visited a military occupied portion of
Azerbaijan which in doing so without permission from Azerbijani
government.

“This entails consequences including blacklisted by the government.
But he will be able to have security and safety guarantees.

“My message to Mkhitaryan would be: you’re a footballer, you want to
play football? Go to Baku you are safe there, if you want to play the
issue then that’s a different story.

“What I can guarantee is that the Azerbaijan government will do
everything what needs to be done and provide safety and security for
every fan, player and staff member coming to this game

What else do you expect? Escort with Navy Seals and helicopters guarding perimeter, because it is already quite close to that from what i read? You are just looking for excuses if we smash Arsenal in final, but don't worry we aren't any good.

I think this story has been overblown. I thought at first Azerbaijan was being unreasonable then I read more articles and it became clear that Arsenal exaggerated it along with Mkhitaryan who now seems like playing a victim here.

How safe was it for Manchester United when they went to Turkey Istanbul to play Galatasaray? I don't think they were offered this level of protection that Baku is offering.

“This is a Class A event, if our purpose is to play political games around it it is something different, you are being paid as a
footballer not a politician, lets leave other issues aside,” he said.
“His problem is that he has visited a military occupied portion of
Azerbaijan which in doing so without permission from Azerbijani
government.
“This entails consequences including blacklisted by the government.
But he will be able to have security and safety guarantees.
“My message to Mkhitaryan would be: you’re a footballer, you want to
play football? Go to Baku you are safe there, if you want to play the
issue then that’s a different story.
“What I can guarantee is that the Azerbaijan government will do
everything what needs to be done and provide safety and security for
every fan, player and staff member coming to this game

who's saying this? Source please.

Arsenal exaggerated it along with Mkhitaryan who now seems like playing a victim here.

imagine if Messi was not allowed to play there, would Barca exaggerate as well?
imagine if Hazard was not allowed to play there, would Chelsea exaggerate as well?

this not about the quality of the player, this is about UEFA being cunts. However Chelsea and Arsenal gave tickets back to UEFA along with the sponsors. As there are no hotels & Baku's airport can't handle more than 20% of the stadium capacity.

This would never happen in the champion league, this is another proof of UEFA focus on elite and disregard for "lesser" competition. :U

First statement was said by Azerbaijan ambasdor to yo to sky news . Easy google search will get you there

Here is a link to more detail from talkSPORT.

So my conclusion is this has been blown out of proportion just to make political noise and victimize himself. Man, disgusting behavior.

If Hazard was told that he is safe to come and also was guaranteed full protection to play and he still refused, then I would say to him to go Fock himself all the way to Madrid because we have a team and he has obligation to the team.

https://talksport.com/football/547273/henrikh-mkhitaryan-arsenal-baku-europa-league-final-azerbaijan/amp/

As far as location of the final : yes it sucks for the fans to travel but UEFA wasn’t bettting on them to make money. They are betting on affluent population of Middle East, Asia , Caucasus, russia and minor Asia to show up. That means more will be charged per ticket, and I have no doubt it will sell out. I am not traveling ... sooo I am not mad . lol

Also again where exactly you have read that he wasn’t allowed to play. I looked everywhere I can’t find it.

Why wouldn't he want to go to Azerbaijan to play in the Finals of the Europa League?

Armenia and Azerbaijan have a complicated relationship (read: hateful) due to a conflict in the early 90's concerning a territory which was part of Azerbaijan but ethnically Armenian. The Armenians of the region tried to secede through a referendum, but the government of Azerbaijan refused to recognize this referendum and rescinded the autonomy of the region, after which war broke out.

A case which symbolizes the ubiquity of Armenophobia in Azerbaijan is the murder of Gurgen Margaryan. Back in 2004, Gurgen (an Armenian soldier) was in Hungary to participate in the NATO Partnership for Peace Program. While there, an Azerbaijani participant of the same program axed him to death in his sleep. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in Hungary.

In 2012 however, Hungary agreed to extradite him in order to sit out the rest of his sentence in an Azerbaijani jail. When he arrived at the airport in Baku he was instead pardoned immediately by the president. He received a hero's welcome including back pay for the 8 years he served in a Hungarian prison and he was promoted to the rank of major and on top of it all he received an appartment from the government

No issues whatsoever

Yeah, I can imagine coming to country where they celebrate killing people from my country and if you actually kill someone, you're even national hero, very convincing, lmao, I'd gladly see you going to play there if you were Armenian, if you don't know anything about the conflict, go make some research before you talk nonsense.

My understanding of the situation is as follows:

Azerbaijan and Armenia have had an ongoing unoffical state of w ar going back thirty years, from which the most recent episode that k illed hundreds of people was only 3 years ago. As a result, tensions are still very high.

More than a normal w ar, it is one of those "e thnic" wars, where the e thnicity of a person matters just as much, or more so, than the nation that they come from. This makes things even more volatile. (And stupid, but that's a different argument).

Building on this, Armenians living in Azerbaijan were officially"encouraged" (and unofficially forced) to leave the country. The UN has reported that those who remain changed their names and do their best to stay under the radar, as identification as an Armenian would open them up to harassment and violence.

However, athletes of Armenian origin have competed in the country before. They were not welcomed, booed often, and received d eath threats.

Furthermore, the government of Azerbaijan, on a policy level, actively denies VISAs to those of Armenian heritage. They also "indoctrinate" h atred of Armenians in their education system with "no distinction being made between the country of Armenia and Armenians." The mayor of Baku, only ten years ago, stated:

"Our goal is the complete elimination of the Armenians. You [Germans], eliminated the J ews in 30's and 40's no? You should be able to understand us."

In case you were wondering if this is a position supported by many Azerbaijanis, this guy is now Deputy Prime Minister for the country. So, yeah. As a point of policy, they, like the Turkish nation, also deny the Ottoman g enocide of the Armenians.

The one case that stands out in my perspective in regard to this specific situation however, is something that happened in 2004. At a NATO Peace Conference, an Azerbaijani military attache m urdered the Armenian military attache in his sleep in Hungary. The entire conference/country was horrified, and the Azerbaijani attache was sentenced to life in prison in Hungary. However, six years later in 2012, he was extradited back to Azerbaijan on the condition that his sentence would be upheld. Instead, he was given a hero's welcome, promoted to major, and given back pay by the government that covered the duration of his imprisonment. This was such a blatant act of villainy that it put this conflict on the front pages of every paper - I remember reading about this myself when it happened.

TL:DR - the message is clear. The Azerbaijani government would rather not have Armenians exist at all, and is perfectly comfortable saying so and working towards that goal. For them to provide a "guarantee of safety" to Mhiky, while I doubt they would actually violate it, isn't exactly comforting. From both his perspective and Arsenal's, I have no objection towards their [Mhiky/Arsenal's] conduct whatsoever.

You are just looking for excuses if we smash Arsenal in final, but don't worry we aren't any good.
I think this story has been overblown. I thought at first Azerbaijan was being unreasonable than I read more articles and it became clear that Arsenal exaggerated it along with Mkhitaryan who now seems like playing a victim here.
How safe was it for Manchester United when they went to Turkey Istanbul to play Galatasaray? I don't think they were offered this level of protection that Baku is offering.

@Marcus

If you read my post here, you will understand why I would take issue with yours. Your first point I highlighted is just ridiculous and objectively not even relevant. At the end of the day, soccer is a game, that no one should be risking their lives for. To imply that Arsenal fans are making a big deal out of this as an excuse for what happens on the pitch may well be true for individual fans, but does a tremendous disservice to Mhiky, Arsenal as an organization, as well as the vast majority of people that are genuinely concerned for his safety.

I frankly do not understand how Azerbaijan could be described as the "reasonable" party here. I prefer to believe actions over words, and especially given on how the Azerbaijani government has often said one thing and done another when it concerns Armenians (see: the 2004 m urder/2012 extradition) I find their word to be suspect at best. And that was legally binding promise made to a foreign government, not a non-legally binding promise made to a super-corrupt organization that oversees kicking a ball.

While I appreciate an analogy, I'm not sure it's relevant. When United go play in Turkey, the Turkish citizens on a fundamental level do not want to g enocide white British guys. Maybe I'm wrong and Emre can clarify, he would know more than either of us, but that certainly is not my understanding. Hooliganism and political supporters groups are terrible things that the game would be better without. But what's going on in Azerbaijan is on a whole other level.

Most of my source material here is rooted in my own memory from these incidents occurring, and when I studied Armenia's global position in geopolitics (I have a polisci minor), although I did do some quick google searches for the exact quotes/dates of some occurrences. However, I am by no means an expert. There's a lot here that's unsaid, and by no means is Armenia a shining light of morality, they've done A LOT of shitty stuff too. But for this specific situation of Mhiky not feeling safe in Azerbaijan, it is not relevant to the discussion so I've left it out, but I encourage you all to look into this more, especially if you live in Europe, this is stuff you should know about.

EDIT: This post has blacklisted words. I'm not sure which ones they are, so I've made some formatting changed that should have fixed it, apologies if it doesn't read as well.

EDIT2: Apparently it was J ews? Okay?

EDIT3: This post was written this morning (12 hours ago) and I've only gotten it past the filter now. The discussion has evolved a bit but I honestly don't want to write anymore. If you guys have any question/comments they're honestly better off directed elsewhere as I'm not an expert. But if there's anything you want to address directly I will do my best to answer.

wow, the hatred between the two nations is unreal (did some reading out of interest). In fact, it's quite medieval, and I can't believe that extradition incident...it's a bloody disgrace. That's not "justice", according to a Azerbaijani high ranking official, but just straight up murder that brought multiple consequences, on a global scale. However, I won't jump down to any conclusions yet, because I'm not Azerbaijani, so a complete different picture might come into play if I'm bothered to read more about it.

Anyhow, fuck football, for this matter, I'm actually quite glad that Mikhy isn't going to take any risk in visiting that country. Under the circumstances, it's best to risk not attending one Europa league final, when he already has experienced it (and won) with us back in 2017*.

I agree with everything @SunFlash just said, and @quizky too.

• UEFA made a cunt decision
• Its perfectly normal and expected from Mikhi and Arsenal to take extreme precaution.
• Who the heck care if he does not make any impact if he comes? What matters is this kind of politic has NO place in football. UEFA made the choice that violates just that