Brawl in Masazir: footage shows the Danish club's supporters started it - PHOTO - VİDEO
A brawl broke out on 11 August in front of the Bank Respublika Arena in the settlement of Masazir, between supporters of the football clubs Sabah and Aarhus — the two teams that met in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League.
As 1news.az has already reported, the Absheron District Police Department has opened a criminal case under the relevant article of the Criminal Code. Those involved have been detained and brought into the proceedings, and the investigation is continuing.
The official statement goes no further than that: neither the article nor the number of those detained has been disclosed. Surveillance camera footage reviewed by 1news.az, however, gives a fuller picture of the sequence of events.
The footage shows two buses carrying supporters of the visiting club pulling up to the stadium. Some of the arrivals get out — several of them stripped to the waist — and move towards a group of young Sabah fans standing some distance away. Judging by appearance, a substantial part of that group are teenagers.
The visitors close in, gesture at those opposite them, including obscene gestures, and shout something in their direction. According to witnesses, some of the Danish club’s supporters were heavily intoxicated.
After this provocation the group of young men moves towards the Aarhus supporters; an altercation begins between the two sides and turns into a brief scuffle. The footage does not make it possible to establish whether anyone sustained injuries, or how serious they were; the police provide no such information.
Judging by the recordings, then, it was the Danish club’s supporters who approached first and who began the verbal and gestural provocation.
It is to be hoped that the investigation will be comprehensive and that the conduct of both sides receives a legal assessment — including those who initiated the contact, and not only those who responded to it.
A comparison is also in order. In European practice, away supporters detained for disorder outside a stadium as a rule face the harshest consequences: stadium bans, expedited court proceedings, deportation, and UEFA disciplinary sanctions against the club. Had a similar episode occurred abroad involving Azerbaijani supporters, it is hard to imagine the inquiry being confined to the host side alone. The same principle — equal strictness towards guests as well as hosts — would be useful here too, not least as a warning to future visitors.
As a reminder, on 11 August Sabah defeated Denmark’s Aarhus 4:0 in the return leg of the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and advanced to the play-off round.
This article was updated after the editorial office obtained surveillance camera footage.
