Azerbaijan Player Misses Penalty Intentionally

By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Qarabag midfielder Elvin Mamedov made a rare sporting gesture in an Azerbaijan top flight match when he deliberately missed a penalty against Inter Baku on the orders of his club’s head coach.

The spot kick was awarded in 90th minute after the referee believed that the Inter goalkeeper had brought down a Qarabag player.

After Mamedov deliberately sent the ball wide, the opposing players were seen applauding the sporting gesture showed by Mamedov. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C218fLtNJbs)

“The head coach Gurban Gurbanov told me that I should miss,” Mamedov told www.azerisport.com.

“This was a show of fair play from us. There was nothing out of the ordinary. If it really was a penalty, I would not have missed the target.”

League leaders Qarabag went on to win the match 2-0.

(Reporting By Dmitriy Rogovitskiy, editing by Pritha Sarkar)