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FIFA: The decision banning Azerbaijani flags in Bursa stadium is connected with the instruction given by the Turkish government

20 October 2009 15:43 (UTC +04:00)

APA reports that Bursa governor has today made public the full text of FIFAâ€™s letter to the Turkish Football Federation. Turkish embassy sent the letter to APA. In the letter FIFA Secretary General JÃ©rÃ´me Valcke says to the official representative of Turkish Football Federation Ahmet Guvener.
â€œFIFA representatives in Turkey told us that the Turkish government gave instruction to the Turkish Football Federation and the local organizing committee in Bursa to distribute Azerbaijanâ€™s national flags to fans. FIFAâ€™s commissar and FIFA security officer once more says to the Turkish Football Federation and the local representation in Bursa that such a planned action means violating article 3 of FIFA regulations and article 26 of FIFA safety regulations and creating serious safety problem. Therefore, we demand the Turkish Football Federation to stop the action against Armenia. The flags distributed among fans should be collected outside the stadium. Political intervention in FIFA competitions is completely inadmissible and we will praise your interference with it. We want you to take into consideration that if the action with Azerbaijani flags will not stop, FIFA can do nothing but cancel the match. The information about it will be presented to FIFA appropriate committees for taking necessary decisions,â€ the letter said.

So, it turns out that FIFA passed the decision to ban Azerbaijani flags in the stadium basing on the Turkish governmentâ€™s instruction to the federation and the local organizing committee to distribute flags to the fans. But the Turkish government has not refuted the existence of the instruction to FIFA or the public. Turkish officials and the leadership of the federation did not state that in fact the decision was passed basing on the Turkish governmentâ€™s instruction â€œdistribute Azerbaijani flags among fansâ€. Everybody knows that there is no such an instruction. Actually, by keeping silence Turkey confirmed that it was interested in giving incorrect information to FIFA and banning Azerbaijani flags in the stadium.