New details emerge of provocation planned by Armenians during Sweden vs Azerbaijan football match

Chairman of the Swedish Azerbaijanis Congress Emil Mirzoyev has revealed new details of the possible provocation that the members of the Armenian community in Sweden wanted to cause during the EURO-2024 qualifying match between Sweden and Azerbaijan in Stockholm, Report informs.

The chairman told Report that Armenians have prepared new banners for the match: “This information has been passed on to us since day one. We have submitted the information to the law enforcement agencies, and we are still in contact with them. The photo I sent you is the latest banner made by Armenians. They want to hold an illegal protest at the stadium. Of course, as members of Congress, we will oppose this and try to prevent setting up those posters because such cases are against Swedish law. Only the flags of the host country and Azerbaijan can be in the stadium.”

Mirzoyev said that the Armenians bought about 100-200 tickets for the match in order to carry out their smeary deeds: “They want to come to the stadium with so-called 'Artsakh' flags and display a banner with the inscription 'Open the road to Lachin'. I talked to the police yesterday. They are serious about this issue. Neither we nor the Swedes want any incident during the match. That's why the local fans are on our side. This is football, and shouting political slogans is illegal. We have also made a statement to the Swedish press regarding this, asserting that Armenians are behaving aggressively and are preparing for actions contrary to diaspora activities. In Sweden, Facebook materials are considered official documents. Therefore, the local police should react to it and investigate the issue.”

He added that they are trying to raise the issue in the Swedish Football Federation: “Together with the ambassador of Azerbaijan in Sweden, Mr. Zaur Ahmadov, we had a meeting with the national team and AFFA board on Saturday. We have informed both and our legendary football player Igor Ponomarev that there will be a meeting of the Swedish Football Federation today. We want AFFA to raise this issue in that meeting and prevent possible provocation. It goes without saying that it is not illegal to make a banner, but you cannot take it to the stadium.”

Firuz Abdulla, the chairman of the Press and Public Relations Department of AFFA, emphasized in his statement to Report that all preventive steps have been taken over possible provocation: “UEFA was informed when these talks first started to emerge. We have regularly been in contact with the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Sweden. The ambassador himself met with us. AFFA informed the local law enforcement agencies about the issue.”

The match to be played today at the Friends Arena in Solna district of Stockholm will kick off at 10:45 p.m. Baku time (6:45 p.m. GMT+4).