UEFA Suspends Azerbaijani Soccer Team Official for Anti-Armenia Comments

UEFA announced Wednesday it has temporarily suspended a staff member of Azerbaijani club Qarabag for anti-Armenian comments.

UEFA said Qarabag media officer Nurlan Ibrahimov faces potential charges of “racist and other discriminatory conduct” and “violating the basic rules of decent conduct.”

Ibrahimov had called for the killing of “all the Armenians, old and young, without distinction”, according to the Armenian Football Federation (FFA).

An interim ban will prevent Ibrahimov from working at Qarabag’s Europa League game on Thursday at Sivasspor.

The social media post in question came amid the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“The Qarabag FK official, Mr. Nurlan Ibrahimov, is provisionally banned from exercising any football-related activity with immediate effect until the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body decides on the merits of the case,” European football’s governing body said.

UEFA also said Ibrahimov had violated the basic rules of decent conduct.

It’s the second UEFA disciplinary case involving Qarabag since start of Nagorno-Karabakh war in September.

UEFA reprimanded more than 20 players and officials from the club for making military salutes at a Europa League playoff game in Poland.

The Armenian soccer federation had called on UEFA to remove Qarabag from the competition for Ibrahimov’s comments.