The early October match was halted by the police for 15 minutes following the appearance of the drone carrying a flag. The football club originates from Agdam, a now-ruined ghost town labelled the Hiroshima of Caucasus. It has not played in its hometown since 1993 due to the Nagorno-Karabakh war.
In a recent response to a parliamentary question, Minister for Internal Security François Bausch assured CSV MPs Nancy Arendt and Paul Galles that the investigation is ongoing.
The police are continuing their lines of inquiry and are due to pass their findings on to the public prosecutor's office within the next several weeks. He added that UEFA/ the National Football Information Point (NFIP) had not given police any prior warning to prepare special safety measures ahead of the match, as all parties involved had assumed supporters would be peaceful. However, as NFIP was created under an EU directive, Azerbaijan is consequently not a member of the association, which made exchanging information difficult.
Europa League: Armenian separatists claim responsibility for droneThe minister also revealed that when Luxembourgish police representatives attended the UEFA Stadium and Security Conference in September, at no point was it communicated that previous FC Qarabag matches had been marked by drone interruptions.
Referring to the incident at hand, Bausch explained that 30 further police officers were quickly deployed to the stadium once the drone carrying the Armenian separatist flag flew over the stadium and the situation risked escalation. The police have not yet been able to locate the drone or those responsible for operating it. Unfortunately, camera footage has not helped the investigation much either due to the poor quality of the footage.
