UEFA monitors status of Nagorno-Karabakh region ahead of Qarabag Europa League opener

September 20 – UEFA says it is “monitoring the situation and is in close contact” with Azerbaijan authorities in case matches are affected by the historic territorial conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region which has just flared up again.

Azeri side Qarabag are due to host Molde in the Europa League this week as well as Bayer Leverkusen in November and Swedish club Hacken in December

Three years ago, when the military dispute last took place, UEFA required club and national teams from Azerbaijan and Armenia to seek neutral venues for games.

The same year UEFA banned a former official of Qarabag for life for incidents of a non-sporting nature and racist behaviour on social media.

Nurlan Ibrahimov was the club’s press officer but made comments about Armenians, which he subsequently deleted.

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