Brussels (AFP)

F91 Dudelange - Qarabag, or when a trivial football match turns to the diplomatic incident: Thursday in Luxembourg, a drone with a flag of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh has completely derailed the Europa League match.

30th minute of play. While the Luxembourgeois, led 2 to 0, see the three points flying, it is precisely towards the sky that the eyes are raised in the stadium Josy-Barthel.

The object of all attention? An unmanned drone from the roof of the nearby tennis club, according to the newspaper L'Essentiel, which carries a flag of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, attached to Azerbaijan but with an Armenian majority.

Originally based in Agdam, a town in the region but deserted since the bloody conflict of the 1990s between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Qarabag club has since played in Baku.

The referee interrupts the meeting quickly after the appearance of the machine and sum the teams back to the locker room.

But Azeris, stung by provocation, seize the ball and improvise a shooting session with the drone, without succeeding in shooting down the machine.

Qarabag's supporters then invaded the pitch, while the pilot of the drone continued to taunt them by lowering the craft a few meters, before making it suddenly rise.

In the stands, begin to shoot "Anything!" frustrated.

- Official apologies -

Present at the match, the Luxembourg Minister of Sports Dan Kersch seizes the microphone of the speaker and apologizes for this "political provocation".

"It is spontaneous that he (Minister Dan Kersch) took the initiative to apologize for the incident," said Friday with AFP a member of his cabinet.

"He tried to calm down the reaction of the opposing players so as not to mortgage Dudelange's arrival there (in Qarabag) for the second leg (12 October) and allow the match to resume," he added. this official.

But during the match, on the Qarabag English Twitter account, the club publishes a video of a rider brandishing an Azeri flag, accompanied by an unambiguous legend: "The #Karabakh is one of the old historical regions of Azerbaijan !! ".

About twenty minutes later, on the same social network, Dudelange tries to appease the spirits.

"We apologize to our guests from Azerbaijan, we have nothing to do with this provocation, we will clarify that," says F91.

The drone finally moves away, and the match resumes after about thirty minutes of interruption. Dudelange finally bows 1-4.

On social networks, early rumors report an action sponsored by Armenian nationalists.

A track that is confirmed shortly before midnight, when a group claims the facts on its Facebook page.

"This action was led by our young people in Belgium," wrote the First Armenian Front, according to the transcript carried out by the newspaper Luxemburger Wort. In the photo accompanying the publication, four men pose with a drone and a flag of the separatist region.

"With this campaign, we wanted to show the greatest number of people that Qarabag does not belong to Azerbaijan," continues the FAF on the social network.

An investigation was opened by the Luxembourg police.

Friday noon, the perpetrators had "not yet arrested," said the police at AFP.

The case has been extensively commented in the media of the Grand Duchy.

"At the kickoff, the F91 had statistically 91% chance to join the sixteenth (finals of the Europa League, ed) ... the final whistle, we do not care," said Le Quotidien.

"The sport was secondary tonight," adds Luxemburger Wort.

The eyes are now on UEFA, which should open an investigation into the incident.

© 2019 AFP