Worldwide soccer video games might once more be affected by the territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia that reignited on Tuesday.
Norwegian group Molde was travelling on Tuesday to Azerbaijan, two days forward of a scheduled sport within the Europa League towards Qarabag.
As Molde gamers and officers have been in transit, Azerbaijan launched what it referred to as an “anti-terrorist operation” concentrating on Armenian army positions within the Nagorno-Karabakh area.
“We’re on our approach and with a stopover in Warsaw for gasoline now, earlier than heading for Baku, that’s our plan,” Molde spokesman Per Lianes wrote in an e-mail to The Related Press.
UEFA mentioned it’s “monitoring the state of affairs and is in shut contact with the host affiliation” of Azerbaijan.
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The newest battle follows rising tensions this month within the area that was the scene of a separatist battle that began within the Eighties and a six-week battle in 2020.
Nagorno-Karabakh and sizable surrounding territories have been below ethnic Armenian management since 1994. Azerbaijan regained the territories and elements of Nagorno-Karabakh itself in 2020. That battle ended with an armistice that positioned a Russian peacekeeper contingent there.
Three years in the past, UEFA required membership and nationwide groups from Azerbaijan and Armenia to search out impartial international locations to host their dwelling video games in worldwide competitions till the battle stopped. Months later, Baku hosted 4 video games on the males’s European Championship.
Qarabag can be set to host Bayer Leverkusen in November and Swedish membership Hacken in December of their Europa League group.
Azerbaijan can be set to play Cyprus within the Ladies’s Nations League in Baku on Friday. Armenia hosts Kazakhstan in the identical competitors subsequent Tuesday.
UEFA determined in 2007 for safety causes to separate groups from Armenia and Azerbaijan in all its competitors attracts. That was after the 2 males’s nationwide groups have been unable to play qualifying video games for the 2008 World Cup after they have been drawn in the identical group.
Worldwide video games nonetheless have supplied a stage for statements of nationwide and ethnic delight.
Final week, Armenia’s European Championship qualifier was paused as a result of a drone carrying a breakaway flag was flown above the gamers.
In December 2018, a fan carrying the Armenian flag ran onto the sector to disrupt Qarabag’s Europa League sport at Arsenal.
Qarabag was once more affected the subsequent season in Luxembourg when a drone flew over the sector carrying an Armenian flag throughout a sport towards Dudelange. The drone angered Qarabag gamers who tried to hit it with the ball. Play was halted for greater than 20 minutes.
Final week, UEFA opened a disciplinary case into the newest flag-carrying drone incident when Armenia hosted Croatia. The drone was applauded by some followers in Yerevan.