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Copenhagen - Danish club FC Copenhagen have asked European football's governing body UEFA to move a Champions League qualifier in Ukraine to another venue.
The Danish club are citing safety and insurance concerns as the reason behind the request to UEFA, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The Danish side had been drawn against FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, with the first leg set to take place in Dnipropetrovsk on July 29, but have demanded the game be moved after the downing of a Malaysian airliner in the rebel-held region of eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian city is located around 300 kilometres (186 miles) from the site in the rebellion-wracked region of Donetsk where the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down, leaving 298 people dead.
"We hope to hear from UEFA at the end of the day but we don't know what they are going to say," FC Copenhagen spokesman Christian Wolny said.
"We have no problem with Dnipropetrovsk as a city or Dnipro as a club, but nobody can guarantee that the situation will be stable," he added.
In addition to security concerns, it was difficult to find an airline carrier that could fly the team there, and the club's insurance company wouldn't cover a journey to the region, he said.
The Danish Football Association (DBU) have backed the club's request for a new venue.
"The DBU is very concerned that UEFA will send a Danish team to a country and an area that very few airlines will even fly to," the organisation said in a statement.
