Month: April 2015

Armenian Players Stayed at Home to Avert Risk

PR Card

Soccer is the most popular game in the world. This game is actively played by many countries throughout the world and has many passionate fans throughout the world. There are many soccer leagues, which take place in different parts of the world. Europa League, one the popular football leagues, featured in various newspapers and sports magazines for many reasons. In one of the league matches, Borussia Dortmund won the Azerbaijani club Qabala by 3-1 in Baku. But the gripping news is that some safety concerns made one of the Dortmund players to miss the game.
It is said that Henrikh Mkhitaryan missed the game as feared that he would be arrested by government authorities by the Azerbaijan – the country where that particular game was conducted. Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a member of the national football team of Armenia, which wages war with Azerbaijan. Due to these political issues, the player thought that he would face any kind of problem during his visit to the country.
Soccer playersMost importantly, it has to be noted that the player took this decision of staying at the home, even after getting safety assurance from the Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry and support from UEFA. Henrikh Mkhitaryan said that he did not want to take any sort of risk. The fact is that on many occasions in the past, national and local politics of the country have dictated the participation of players and athletes in various events. In the previous year, UEFA has worked hard to separate the Ukrainian and Russian clubs from the club matches, when there was a rivalry between the two nations.
In another incident, a player called Adnan Januzaj received death threats after he announced that he would play for Belgium rather than Serbia or Kosova. Various news reports said that Januzaj was severely cautioned not to enter Balkan territory again. Mkhitaryan, though stayed at home, was watching the game thoroughly and supported his team. He also posted his support message on the Twitter. There was a fans-bullying incident happened in the league match, which forced UEFA to take strict disciplinary actions against the concerned players.
Though sports regulatory authority has taken severe measures to curb the politics in the soccer games, they never seem to be any decrease in the untoward incident.