Arsenal is expecting UEFA to give an update sometime today with regards to the sort of security planned for Henrikh Mkhitaryan ahead of the Europa League final in Baku.
The club wants assurances that Mkhitaryan’s safety is guaranteed due to the political tensions between his home nation of Armenia and the hosts of the Europa League final, Azerbaijan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have a history of conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region and under normal circumstances, Mkhitaryan would not even be granted a visa, however, the Azerbaijan authorities have confirmed that he will receive a visa without any issues.
Arsenal has been in constant contact with UEFA over the situation and wants clarity on what sort of additional security will be provided in addition to the clubs own arrangements.
They want Mkhitaryan to have the same freedom of movement as his teammates without any worries over his personal safety and it is expected that UEFA will address these concerns at some point today.
It has to be said that UEFA and the Azerbaijan FA must have been aware that this situation had a high chance of happening at least a couple of months ago. Arsenal has been among the favourites to reach the final for some time now and that no contingency planning has been put in place is absolutely shocking.
This whole debacle could have been avoided, holding the tournament in a nation so far away from countries that were likely to be fielding the finalists was a bad call to start with and to compound that with appalling treatment of the fans and then to allow one of the finalists preparation to be distracted because of the host country political history is negligent in the extreme.
Will UEFA learn from this mess?
Of course not.