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| - The Armenian Football Federation (FFA) on Saturday called for sanctions against Azerbaijani club Qarabag after one of its staff apparently posted a hate message targeting Armenians amid the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. "Nurlan Ibrahimov, a PR and media manager of Qarabag FK, made a publication on his social media page, calling to kill all the Armenians, old and young, without distinction," the FFA statement read. "He also justified the fact of Armenian genocide committed by Turkey" in 1915 and 1916, says the press release, which calls for sanctions which may go as far as the exclusion of Qarabag from the Europa League. "Ibrahimov has already deleted his post but hundreds of users managed to see and save it," said the FFA, which submitted several complaints to FIFA and UEFA about the attitude of Azeri football officials through October. "Hate speech, calls for violence, xenophobia must be eradicated from football, adhering to the values accepted in the European football family." Qarabag lost 1-0 at Maccabi Tel Aviv in their Europa League Group I opener then went down 3-1 at home against Villareal. The Azerbaijani club, which are due to to play the Turks of Sivasspor on Thursday, was founded in 1951 in the city of Aghdam, located in Nagorny-Karabakh and today abandoned. Following the takeover of the region by Armenia in 1993, Qarabag moved to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. smr/bsp/dj
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