Henrikh Mkhitaryan has refused to travel with the rest of the Arsenal squad today to Azerbaijan for the Gunners’ Europa League clash against Qarabag on Thursday evening, the Daily Star reports.
Mkhitaryan has remained in London due to political conflicts between his native country of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Qarabag head coach Gurban Gurbanov believes Arsenal have “saved” Mkhitaryan – who captains his country of Armenia – from the pressure of playing in front of a large Azerbaijan crowd.
There have been long-standing political tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia over who owns the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh territory.
When playing for Borussia Dortmund back in 2015 Mkhitaryan also did not travel with the rest of the squad to face Azerbaijan Premier League side Gabala despite being told by UEFA at the time that he would be granted a visa for the trip.
Mkhitaryan said at the time:
I didn’t want politics to interrupt the sport but we could not do anything on this issue.
Gurban Gurbanov believes that Mkhitaryan has been ‘protected’ by Arsenal.
But Arsenal Football Club tried to save this player but it is not a matter for us if he is coming or not.
If Henrikh Mkhitaryan would come to Azerbaijan it is not the first time, but until now a lot of Armenian sportsmen came to Azerbaijan but it is the choice of Arsenal that they didn’t send (him).
Arsenal may be afraid that in front of 60,000 Azerbaijani fans, Mkhitaryan has some pressure and that is why they didn’t send Mkhitaryan.
