Mkhitaryan to Miss Europa League Final for Political Reasons

Mkhitaryan to Miss Europa League Final for Political Reasons

The choice of Baku as host of the Europa League final provided Arsenal with further grounds for discontent Tuesday when one of the teamchr("39")s most talented players pulled out of the game for political reasons.

After holding lengthy talks with Arsenal, Henrikh Mkhitaryan said he would not be traveling to Azerbaijan for next weekchr("39")s final because of concerns about the tension that currently exists between the country and his native Armenia.

"Itchr("39")s the kind of game that doesnchr("39")t come along very often for us players," Mkhitaryan said on his social media channels, "and I must admit, it hurts me a lot to miss it."

UEFA, European soccerchr("39")s governing body which organizes the Europa League, reacted by saying it had received assurances about Mkhitaryanchr("39")s safety in Azerbaijan "from the highest authorities in the country" and that a "comprehensive security plan" had been given to Arsenal.

And the Azerbaijan government had previously said it would allow Mkhitaryan to play in the May 29 final against Chelsea.

The Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan called it an "unwarranted decision" by Mkhitaryan and Arsenal, saying there was "no reason whatsoever to put in question the seriousness of these guarantees provided by Azerbaijan."

Nagorno-Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan which has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. Some neighboring districts are also under the control of those ethnic Armenian forces. International efforts to settle the conflict have stalled.

"We at all times put the sport as something very separate from these political issues and of course the same issue is again with Mkhitaryan," Azerbaijan Sports Minister Azad Rahimov said last week.

Arsenal has already criticized the decision to give Baku the final, having received - like Chelsea - only 6,000 tickets by UEFA and because of what the club says are "extreme" problems that fans face just getting to the match.