The statement came from Gabala Football Academy Deputy Director Nail Karimov, Offsideplus.az reports quoting Report. He spoke about the damage caused to Gabala by the postponement of the Youth League:

 "For a year, there have been no official matches in the U-19 team group. We have been motivating our players for the Youth League and preparing them for the away match against Northern Macedonia's Shkupi. From now on, it will be difficult to motivate the children. A deposit has also been made. The club has also suffered financially. "

Karimov added that they would criticize UEFA on the issue, but the world is not over yet: "There will be a way out of this situation. Maybe it would have been better. It will probably not be possible to get back the part of the deposit we paid for the trip." It will be a financial loss for the club. We were ready to go. The material is the last side of the issue. The main thing is that the players were well prepared and motivated. It will be more difficult for them to go through this period. "

He said UEFA had allocated € 25,000 for the tour teams, but that the money was paid after the game . The game is usually held and the payment is made a month after the trip. At present, the club has not been paid anything. "

The club official did not rule out that they will apply to UEFA because of the damage: "Probably there will be an appeal. The decision was made last night. We have not yet made a final decision, we are thinking about it."

He recalled that the European Football Association held a meeting on the tournament last week due to problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic . They said they would look into the matter. Then they sent us a letter saying that they would discuss it in the UEFA Executive Committee. As a result of the discussions, this decision was made. UEFA made such a decision because it was not interesting. "

According to Karimov, the cancellation of the Youth League will not affect the activities of Gabala's U-19 team . We have played 5 friendly matches since the winter break. Two more are planned. "

According to the deputy director, the only effect of the abolition of the UEFA Youth League is that the players will have some frustration: "We will try to overcome this frustration. We do not keep our U-19 team and academy for this competition. Training in all age groups has continued since the beginning of the season. Our ultimate goal is to train a player for the main team. We do that. We hope that at the beginning of next season, in preparation for the summer, 2-3 more players will be involved in the main team. As this goal, training continued, the budget planned at the beginning of the season has already been allocated. "There was no need for special training for the Youth League. In any case, our training is done in this way, it is taken seriously. Whether the competition will be held or not will not have any effect on the speed of the academy."

It should be noted that Gabala's U-19 team had to face Northern Macedonia's Shkendija in the 1/32 final of the UEFA Youth League on March 4.