YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – UEFA has offered to help settle a dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have unable to agree on a match venue for their Euro 2008 qualifiers.
Armenia – which is at odds with its neighbour over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan – said it was prepared to host games in the capital, Yerevan, and travel to Baku. Azerbaijan, however, refused to host Armenian players and called for a neutral venue.
“We understand that there are problems with security,” UEFA chief executive Lars Olsson said Tuesday on a visit to Yerevan.
Olsson said the dispute should not be politicized and that soccer’s European governing body was ready to set up a special commission to investigate the situation and mediate.
The soccer federations in ex-Soviet Moldova and Georgia have offered to act as hosts.
A ceasefire agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan was reached in 1994 after six years of fighting, and the enclave is now under the control of ethnic Armenians.
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