A scandal erupted in Kazakh Atyrau football club caused by an interview of newly appointed head coach Ramiz Mamedov with azerifootball.com website.  Interviewed by Azerbaijani website, Mamedov claimed that Karabakhtsyan (Armenian by origin) is not player of Atyrau, sports.kz reported. “If it is not so I will have to talk to club’s leadership. If I work in Atyrau, not a single Armenian will play here,” he said

However, Kazakh football fans immediately responded to this statement, stressing that such conduct is unacceptable in Kazakhstan.

“We would like to inform Mr. Mamedov of Kazakhstan’s being a multinational country, where representatives of over 100 nationalities reside. They friendly live in solidarity under peaceful sun. Our team always had Kazakh, Russian, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Ukrainian and other players. Our club is supported by people of different nationalities.

Football is number 1 sport in the world. It is the most popular kind of sport. Football team is a visiting card of a city, region and all country!

Your attempt to determine players due to their national identity speaks for itself. It is unrespectable to make public statements about Karabakhtsyan. It is not important whether he is a good player or no. We do not care about your Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts, leave it in Azerbaijan. Now you are in Kazakhstan!!! There is no place to nationalism in our country. It is unacceptable in our city and our country.

You have lost respect of fans with your nationalist views. SPORT IS ABOVE POLITICS. SAY NO TO RACISM,” the statement reads.