Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny says the Europa League final match should not have been awarded to Azerbaijan given the political disputes that will prevent Henrikh Mkhitaryan from travelling with the Arsenal squad next week.
The Armenian is set to cheer on his teammates from home after Arsenal felt the midfielder’s safety was not guaranteed for the final against Chelsea.
Currently, there are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan because of a longstanding conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Having considered all the current options, we had to take the tough decision for me not to travel with the squad to the #UEL Final against #Chelsea […] pic.twitter.com/3CPrTvLquy
— Henrikh Mkhitaryan (@HenrikhMkh) May 21, 2019
And Koscielny is adamant Azerbaijan was the wrong choice to host the final.
“I am not very happy,” Koscielny told BBC Radio 5 Live (via Telegraph). “First because we need to leave one player here, because he can’t play in the final.
“I think Uefa needs to know about the different problems they can have with the politics in the country. When one country has a problem with another they should not give the final to that country.
“For us it is difficult because we want to have Micki with us. He is an important player for us.”