Uruguayan soccer club to reject Azeri sponsorship

PanARMENIAN.Net - All candidates for the post of president of Uruguayan soccer club Peñarol announced they would refuse a possible sponsorship of Azerbaijan, Prensa Armenia reported.

According to the Armenian National Committee of Uruguay, despite their differences all the candidates agree that the discriminatory conditions Azerbaijan proposed to the Argentine club San Lorenzo earlier this year were unacceptable.

In July, in exchange for a lucrative contract with the club, Azeri officials demanded "there couldn't be ethnic Armenians" in future executive committees of San Lorenzo club.

The current president of Peñarol seeking re-election, Juan Pedro Damiani, said that in case of a similar proposal "we will act the same way as San Lorenzo" and added that "it strikes me that Atletico Madrid could accept this sponsor."

Marcelo Areco, another candidate, described the conditions imposed by Azerbaijan to San Lorenzo as "unfortunate and shameful". Ricardo Rachetti described as "outrageous" any proposal that intended to discriminate any person. Ignacio Ruglio said that "regardless of the size of the organization making the offer, no one can impose discriminative conditions" and finally Edgar Welker, current Vice President of the club, said that "accepting conditions of this nature would be really unfortunate."