This budding team has no opponents

STEPANAKERT, AZERBAIJAN: With the World Cup less than a month away, there is a budding national team in the disputed territory of Nagorno-karabakh with no one to play against. The ethnic Armenian team in the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh has the shirts and the shoes, and even practices five days each week on an artificial field a short distance from the centre of Stepanakert, the territory’s capital. But that’s about as far as the team goes.

“UEFA doesn’t let us participate anywhere,” said Artsakh defender Aram Kostandyan, who wishes he could inspire the younger generation of players and show them “why they are playing football.” The reason for the lack of opponents has nothing to do with sports and everything to do with politics.

The Nagorno-karabakh region, as it’s known by its Soviet name, is considered part of neighbouring Azerbaijan by the international community, located just north of Iran in the South Caucasus region. But since a six-year separatist war ended in 1994, it has been controlled by the local ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia.

Living in a state of frozen conflict, the de facto Republic of Artsakh — in reference to the name of the region before Soviet times - is unrecognized by international institutions and the people of the region are prohibited from taking part in most international activities under their national flag.

UEFA and FIFA have a general policy of not allowing teams into competition if they don’t represent an internationally recognised country or territory. That policy was weakened when Gibraltar and Kosovo joined FIFA in 2016 despite being only partially recognised.

The Artsakh national team has made several unsuccessful requests for UEFA membership, the last time in 2017.

Compounding political sensitivities is an Azerbaijani team playing under the name of Qarabag which made it to the Champions League this year. The team was previously based in Agdam, a town in occupied territory adjacent to Nagorno-karabakh that was entirely destroyed during the 1988-94 war.

Today, they are based in Baku, supported financially by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s government and with a fan base of refugees and their descendants.

“They represent one country, we represent another,” Artsakh coach Slavik Gabrielyan. “We see them using this name as a political statement.”