FC Anzhi Makhachkala - de ploeg van Guus Hiddink, Mbark Boussoufa , Mehdi Carcela en Samuel Eto’o - mag van de UEFA geen thuiswedstrijden in de Europa League in hun eigen stadion afwerken omdat het volgens de UEFA te gevaarlijk zou zijn in de regio. De clubleiding vecht die beslissing aan met een open brief.
Makhachkala is gelegen in de Noord Kaukasus waar het al jaren onrustig is door aanslagen van Islamitische terroristen. Anzhi komt pas in de tweede ronde in actie tegen de winnaar van het duel tussen Honved Budapest en Flamurtari Vlora.
De clubleiding is het niet eens met de beslissing van de Europese voetbalbond en heeft in een open brief Michel Platini & co opgeroepen om op die beslissing terug te komen.
Open brief FC Anzhi
For attention of UEFA President Michel Platini
Dear Mister President!
I`ll not make a secret of that we were deeply sorry and surprised to know the UEFA decision about the ban on hosting the Europa League matches with participation of Anji in our home stadium of Makhachkala.
Not just the fact of the taken decision made us worry. Usually in such cases the UEFA representatives hold negotiations with the administration of the national federation and the Club, send the commission to verify whether it`s possible or not to hold matches in a city.
Unfortunately in this case nothing of the above-mentioned was done.
Anji hosts its home matches of the Russian Football Championship or the Russian Cup games in Makhachkala for more than 20 years. During this time no incident of any seriousness was marked in our stadium.
The stars of the European and World football – Roberto Carlos, Samuel Et'o, Yuri Zhirkov and others enjoy playing for Anji in Makhachkala under the leadership of Guus Hiddink.
Millions of our fans were waiting for European Cup match in Makhachkala as a real festival. The owner of Football club Anji invests multi million finance in the reconstruction of the stadium, building of a new ultra-modern football arena in the city, Youth Football Academy, construction of 7 football centers throughout the whole republic, Anji is announced “Territory of Peace” and we consider conducting the Europa League on the territory of Dagestan will correspond to our motto, for the good of Peace and Security.
After such a decision made by UEFA – what shall we do with all these projects? There is just one question left – maybe we`d better stop this initiative, maybe all this is useless for the football development and formation of healthy life-style, solution of the citizens` social problems. As UEFA actively promotes the improvement of the social situation in different countries through the prism of football development.
Once the conclusion comes to mind – such decisions of the UEFA Executive committee contradict the values claimed by UEFA.
We do know that UEFA and you personally, dear Mr President, uphold the principles of humanity, philanthropy and good in your activity. Let`s preserve all these principles in our issue together with the basic principle of UEFA – Fair Play.
All that we do – we do for football fans all over Europe, Russia and for our native Dagestan. Due to the fact that the main reasons for taking decision “About the ban on conducting the UEFA Europa League 2012/2013 matches on the territory of Dagestan” were the questions of the teams` and the fans` security, Football Club Anji is ready to provide all necessary documentary guarantees from the due state bodies.
We hear our fans` heart beats. We know exactly these hearts believe in justice. This means it`s not yet late to take a truly balanced and wise decision.
We believe in your wisdom, Mr President.
Best wishes,
Sincerely yours,
Aivaz Kaziakhmedov
FC Anji General director
