AFFA vice president comments on Armenian provocation during Qarabag match

"The next provocation by Armenians during the Karabakh match shows that they want to take every opportunity they can. But they should already know that Azerbaijan has changed a lot," AFFA's vice-president, MP Rauf Aliyev said. According to Report, he noted that Azerbaijan is now a country with powerful economy, a strong army, an international authority: "It is already accepted in the world, except for Armenia, that Karabakh is the ancient land of Azerbaijan. All these achievements were possible owing to the successful policy of President Ilham Aliyev. First and foremost, Qarabag team represents Azerbaijan in the world. Successful performances of the team in the Champions League and in the Europa League play a major role in promoting Azerbaijan. Once again, I congratulate the Karabakh team on this victory and wish new successes. I urge the Azerbaijani community to always support the team."

Aliyev touched upon the provocation of Armenians during the Qarabag match: "They are well aware that Qarabag represents Azerbaijan everywhere and Qarabag means Azerbaijan. For this reason, they resort to provocations during the matches played by Qarabag FC. Qarabag FC management and fans have stopped the match, expressing their sharp protest against this provocation. Then the match continued. AFFA appealed to UEFA for this provocation of Armenians."

Notably, the unpleasant incident took place after the second goal of the Aghdam team. The flag of separatist regime of Nagorno Karabakh was brought to the center of the stadium by the drone. Seeing the conflict between fans and players, Scottish referee John Biton had to stopped the match. The match resumed from the 31st minute.