Georgia: European Soccer Bosses Avoid Georgian-Russian Face-off

In a move apparently dictated by political pragmatism, European soccer officials made sure teams from Georgia and Russia would play in different qualifying groups during the 2012 European Championship.

Azerbaijan and Armenia, the South Caucasus's most bitter rivals, were also separated to prevent political tensions from possibly spilling over onto the soccer field, the Panarmenian news agency reported on February 7. Georgia and Russia engaged in a brief, but bitter five-day war in 2008 over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia.

As a rule, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) groups teams through a blind draw. Azerbaijan and Armenia, which remain at loggerheads over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, found themselves in the same group in 2008, but refused to play against one another in a qualifying match. Seeking to avoid a repeat of such a problem, UEFA officials announced they would not place Azerbaijan and Armenia, or Georgia and Russia, in the same group for 2012 qualifying.