UEFA temporarily suspend Qarabag media manager for 'racist and discriminatory conduct'

Paris: UEFA announced Wednesday it has temporarily suspended a staff member of Azerbaijani club Qarabag for “racist and other discriminatory conduct” targeting Armenians. The side’s PR and media manager Nurlan Ibrahimov had called for the killing of “all the Armenians, old and young, without distinction”, according to the Armenian Football Federation (FFA). 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. Qarabag were founded in 1951 in the city of Aghdam, located in Nagorno-Karabakh and today abandoned. Following the takeover of the region by Armenia in 1993, Qarabag moved to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. They have gone on to become the country’s leading club and appeared in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2017-18. After losing in the third qualifying round of this season’s competition, Qarabag dropped into the Europa League, in which they are due to play the Turkey’s Sivasspor away on Thursday.