Euro-2012: UEFA spares Armenia, Azerbaijan repeated “qualifying trouble”
A deliberate pre-arrangement by European soccer’s governing body has spared Armenia and Azerbaijan the trouble of potentially facing each other again in a qualifying campaign despite the fact that Sunday’s blind draw, it seemed, had put them into one group.
At the Euro-2012 qualifying draw ceremony held in Warsaw, Poland, Azerbaijan was put in Group A from the sixth-seeded pot – minutes later the “Polish ambassadors” of the tournament co-hosted with Ukraine drew Armenia from the fifth-seeded pot into the same group, which triggered the earlier announced UEFA mechanism to keep the two regional archrivals apart. Eventually Armenia was placed in Group B. But for that crucial decision, Armenia would also have faced Turkey in the qualifying campaign commencing September.
Armenia and Azerbaijan that warred in 1992-1994 and are still locked in a bitter dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh caused trouble to UEFA after failing to agree on the match venues in the Euro-2008 qualifying campaign in which they had been inadvertently drawn together in one qualifying group. Before the start of the Sunday draw, UEFA explicitly decided to keep the two South Caucasus rivals, as well as recent war foes Georgia and Russia apart irrespective of the result of the draw.
“It’s precisely because we don’t want to mix sport and politics,” said UEFA president Michel Platini explaining the decision. (It took no special UEFA intervention to keep Russia and Georgia apart, though.)
The UEFA decision eventually also meant that Armenia avoided playing Turkey, its rival in the World Cup 2010 qualifying group. Those matches played in Yerevan and Bursa in 2008 and 2009 were used by the governments of the two estranged neighbors to pursue what was quickly called ‘soccer diplomacy’. (The outcome of the fence-mending diplomacy built around soccer still needs to be determined by the parliaments of Armenia and Turkey, now pondering the ratification of two protocols signed by Yerevan and Ankara).
While sparing Armenia the trouble of playing politically sensitive games in 2010-11, the UEFA draw has also offered the nation a relatively convenient set of competitors – as already defined by some soccer experts – including Andorra, FYR Macedonia, the Republic of Ireland, Slovakia and Russia.
Armenia, involved in UEFA Euro and FIFA World Cup qualifications as an independent nation since 1994, has so far played each group member except for Slovakia and the Republic of Ireland.
In previous official matches Armenia played successfully against Andorra (beating the European soccer dwarf five times against one draw) and has a record of one victory, one draw and two defeats against FYR Macedonia. The group’s top-seeded nation Russia has a record of two victories over Armenia. All of Armenia’s future rivals except Andorra are rated higher in the current FIFA rankings list.
So far Armenia (ranked 102nd on the current FIFA list of more than 200 soccer nations and 45th in Europe) has failed to score major achievements in qualification tournaments. The nation, however, has scored a few memorable victories against such European stalwarts as Northern Ireland, Poland and, in the most recent campaign, over Belgium.
The qualifying competition for Euro-2012 (to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine) comprises six groups of six teams (groups A-F) and three groups of five teams (groups G-I). Sides in each group will play one another on a home and away basis, with qualifying matches scheduled according to the international match calendar between September 2010 and November 2011. The nine winners and the best runner-up qualify directly for the final tournament. The eight remaining runners-up contest play-off matches.
Full results of the Sunday draw in Warsaw are available on UEFA’s official website at www.uefa.com
At the Euro-2012 qualifying draw ceremony held in Warsaw, Poland, Azerbaijan was put in Group A from the sixth-seeded pot – minutes later the “Polish ambassadors” of the tournament co-hosted with Ukraine drew Armenia from the fifth-seeded pot into the same group, which triggered the earlier announced UEFA mechanism to keep the two regional archrivals apart. Eventually Armenia was placed in Group B. But for that crucial decision, Armenia would also have faced Turkey in the qualifying campaign commencing September.
Armenia and Azerbaijan that warred in 1992-1994 and are still locked in a bitter dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh caused trouble to UEFA after failing to agree on the match venues in the Euro-2008 qualifying campaign in which they had been inadvertently drawn together in one qualifying group. Before the start of the Sunday draw, UEFA explicitly decided to keep the two South Caucasus rivals, as well as recent war foes Georgia and Russia apart irrespective of the result of the draw.
“It’s precisely because we don’t want to mix sport and politics,” said UEFA president Michel Platini explaining the decision. (It took no special UEFA intervention to keep Russia and Georgia apart, though.)
The UEFA decision eventually also meant that Armenia avoided playing Turkey, its rival in the World Cup 2010 qualifying group. Those matches played in Yerevan and Bursa in 2008 and 2009 were used by the governments of the two estranged neighbors to pursue what was quickly called ‘soccer diplomacy’. (The outcome of the fence-mending diplomacy built around soccer still needs to be determined by the parliaments of Armenia and Turkey, now pondering the ratification of two protocols signed by Yerevan and Ankara).
While sparing Armenia the trouble of playing politically sensitive games in 2010-11, the UEFA draw has also offered the nation a relatively convenient set of competitors – as already defined by some soccer experts – including Andorra, FYR Macedonia, the Republic of Ireland, Slovakia and Russia.
Armenia, involved in UEFA Euro and FIFA World Cup qualifications as an independent nation since 1994, has so far played each group member except for Slovakia and the Republic of Ireland.
In previous official matches Armenia played successfully against Andorra (beating the European soccer dwarf five times against one draw) and has a record of one victory, one draw and two defeats against FYR Macedonia. The group’s top-seeded nation Russia has a record of two victories over Armenia. All of Armenia’s future rivals except Andorra are rated higher in the current FIFA rankings list.
So far Armenia (ranked 102nd on the current FIFA list of more than 200 soccer nations and 45th in Europe) has failed to score major achievements in qualification tournaments. The nation, however, has scored a few memorable victories against such European stalwarts as Northern Ireland, Poland and, in the most recent campaign, over Belgium.
The qualifying competition for Euro-2012 (to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine) comprises six groups of six teams (groups A-F) and three groups of five teams (groups G-I). Sides in each group will play one another on a home and away basis, with qualifying matches scheduled according to the international match calendar between September 2010 and November 2011. The nine winners and the best runner-up qualify directly for the final tournament. The eight remaining runners-up contest play-off matches.
Full results of the Sunday draw in Warsaw are available on UEFA’s official website at www.uefa.com