UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has defended the decision to host the Europa League final in Baku in an interview with German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel.

Axar.az reports that the controversy over Baku increased this week when Arsenal’s Armenian midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan decided not to play in the final amid “concerns for his safety”.

The UEFA president said that the decision was Mkhitaryan’s to make, and drew a parallel with the decision to host Euro 2016 in France.

“We managed to organize a safe European Championships in France when the country was a target of terrorist attacks,” Ceferin said.