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| Red card |
Azerbaijanis protest the "championship being taken away from Tractor Sazi through lies"
On May 15, the events at Tabriz Stadium, described as "a disgrace unseen in world football history," caught the attention of global media. In response, Azerbaijani social media users launched the "Red Card for Lies and Discrimination" campaign to voice their protest.
Campaign participants shared red card images on social media, highlighting the false information given to the Tractor Sazi team. They used the "red card" as a symbol to protest "the lies and broken promises of the government to Azerbaijan, as well as injustice, assimilation, and Turkish hostility."
English-language outlets such as The Huffington Post, Star Newspaper, and Al Arabiya, as well as prominent media outlets from Turkey and Arab countries, covered the events at Tabriz Stadium.
Turkish media evaluated the events with phrases like "Injustice was done to the Turkish team in Iran, Tabriz turned into chaos" and "The championship of the Turkish team, Tractor, was taken away through deceit in South Azerbaijan."
The Huffington Post highlighted the confrontation between Tractor Sazi fans and security forces in Tabriz, with the headline "Ethnic tensions spill onto Iran's football fields." The Guardian, without mentioning the protests, published a photo of head coach Antonio Oliveira, who had mistakenly believed Tractor Sazi was the champion, with the caption "Before joy turned into pain."
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Güneydə “yalan və ayrı-seçkiliyə qırmızı kart” kampaniyası