UEFA Euro 2020: Baku deports Russian commentator back to Moscow

Mikhail Mosakovsky, commentator for Матч-ТВ (Match-TV), which is accredited to Euro 2020, wasn’t allowed to cross the border at the airport in Baku and was deported to Moscow in the plane via which he had arrived. Mosakovsky was supposed to provide coverage of the June 12 Wales-Switzerland match in Baku. The commentator had visited the Republic of Artsakh a few years ago, and last year he visited Armenia.

“I wasn’t allowed to enter Azerbaijan. I was supposed to be the commentator for the Switzerland-Wales match. When the Azerbaijanis saw the seal of Armenia in my passport, they asked me to wait, and then escorted me to the plane departing to Moscow. They didn’t answer any question. They didn’t look at the document on confirmation of my accreditation that the Football Federation of Azerbaijan had given. I returned via the same plane. I will immediately say that, yes, I have visited Karabakh. I went there to attend a football tournament a few years ago. If this is the reason and not the seal that was placed on the Armenian border last year, I have nothing to ask the Azerbaijani border guards. I have questions for the organizing committee. The power structures check all the applications for accreditation. If anyone is in the black lists, why isn’t there any information about this? Baku confirmed my accreditation. I am included in the lists for tomorrow’s game and have an invitation from the Football Federation of Azerbaijan,” Mosakovsky wrote on Telegram.

Baku will also host the Turkey-Wales (June 16), Switzerland-Turkey (June 20) matches and one match of the quarter-final (July 3) of the group stage of Euro 2020.