Chelsea’s trip to Qarabag marred by racist incident during Youth League match as Azerbaijani side send apology

Qarabag moved quickly to apologise for the abuse, with a club spokesperson stating: “We are sorry about this incident. It does not reflect the values of our club. We will investigate it thoroughly.”

UEFA, meanwhile, will wait for the referee’s report before taking any action against the Azerbaijani side. Qarabag were previously reprimanded by UEFA, who banned a former club official for racist behaviour.

In November 2020, UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body opted to ban Nurlan Ibrahimov, who had previously acted as the club’s press officer, from exercising any football-related activity for life. Ibrahimov had allegedly made discriminating comments about Armenians, which were subsequently deleted.

The Football Federation of Armenia had called for Qarabag to be expelled from European competition, while the club itself had it opened an internal investigation into the matter. UEFA also fined Qarabag €100,000 for the incident.