The head coach of the Azerbaijan national football team, Fernando Santos, issued a statement today.

According to Offsideplus.az, the Portuguese specialist addressed two issues that have been troubling him, through an official announcement on the AFFA website.

The 70-year-old coach first spoke about goalkeeper Shahruddin Mammadaliyev, who was sent home from the national team’s camp before the friendly match against Belarus on March 25. Santos stated, “Today, I encountered two false reports in the media. Rejecting these rumors, I want to clarify the situation for media representatives and the football community. During the national team camps, I receive daily medical reports on the players’ physical conditions and their readiness for training or matches. The only player who was deemed unfit by the medical team for the match against Belarus was Shahruddin Mammadaliyev. We had a conversation with the goalkeeper, and after that, he was released from the camp, and Elirza Mushtabazadeh was called up in his place. Throughout my coaching career, I have never put a player on the field if they were diagnosed as ‘unfit to play.’ Rza Jafarov, on the other hand, was in good health and performed very well after coming on the field.”

Santos also commented on reports that he would not call up Elvin Jafarquliyev and Shahruddin Mammadaliyev to the national team again. He said, “I have never made such a statement, either officially or informally. The information circulating about this is false and completely untrue. On the contrary, the players I mentioned know that I always rely on them when calling them up. Regarding Elvin, I only spoke about him after the Haiti match in a press conference when a journalist asked, ‘Will you punish the player?’ My response was, ‘Making mistakes is human, and we should not punish the player for that.’ I have always trusted them, and as long as they remain healthy, I will continue to do so.”

It is worth noting that this is the first time that Fernando Santos has issued such a statement during his 9 months as the head coach of the national team.