Dinamo Tbilisi wishes to thank every fan who travelled from Georgia to support our club for 90 minutes in Gabala, as well as the ones who encouraged us from Georgia.
We can not ignore the incidents yesterday at the Gabala City Stadium which local law enforcement authorities were unable to stem.
During the 90 minutes at the stadium there was a constant threat throughout the game, fuelled by uncontrolled groups of spectators carrying out provocative actions. There were offensive flags against both the club and country which were twice returned to the stands after being seized, as noted by the UEFA Match Delegate. Additionally, at the start of the second-half the Georgian flag was seen being burned in the east stand and after the match local fans smashed the windows of the Dinamo Tbilisi fans’ bus.
These facts have already been documented and will be submitted to the UEFA Disciplinary Committee for further proceedings. We hope that European football’s governing body will study the issues fully.
We hope the senior management of our opponents will adequately assess and condemn yesterday’s actions.
In addition, we want to thank the players who had the task of playing against a difficult backdrop, yet gave their all in trying to take the team into the next round.
Hopefully in the future similar incidents will not materialise during sporting encounters between the two neighbouring countries. Sporting competitions should not be encouraged to go beyond the principles they were initially created for.