SETTING GOALS RIGHT

"After your appointment, you had meetings in various sports federations, watched the training sessions of judokas and wrestlers, met with members of the Vugar Hashimov Chess Club and so on. How do find the situation with sports in Azerbaijan?"

"Key thing for the development of sports is infrastructure. Thanks to support from our state and President Ilham Aliyev, wonderful sports facilities have been built in the country, such as the Water Sports Palace and the Baku Olympic Stadium, which hosts international football matches. I would like to note the high level of logistical base of the trap-shooting complex, which foreign athletes repeatedly visit for training. I can also mention the National Gymnastics Arena, which is fully functional, ergonomic, and aesthetically appealing. Athletes from different continents visit Baku to train in this arena, since all conditions meet the highest world standards here.

“There are also certain objective and subjective difficulties. We have limited time left until the next Olympic games. That’s why we need to set our goals right. I hope we can handle it. Currently, we are identifying problems and difficulties to make effective decisions.”

"President Ilham Aliyev defined the problems in sports at the meeting with you. Can you share your views on the results of the Tokyo Olympics, where Azerbaijani athletes won seven medals, but not a single gold one?..."

"That's right, Mr. President said that it were mostly the experienced athletes who won the medals at the Tokyo Olympics. We have already started to implement the instructions of the president and are taking increasing care of children's sports. I have to admit that little attention has been paid to this field. Federations mainly work with national teams, but the selection of athletes from children's schools and clubs should become a systemic, transparent, objective, and regular process. Children sports is very important in any kind of competition."

"Less than three years are left before the Summer Olympics in Paris. Will you be able to prepare an even stronger Olympic team?"

"We first need to determine in which sports we have chances to get medals. Then comes the development of program for the next Olympic Games. The main battle for licenses begins in 2022. We will try to form the best and most effective team possible. In some sports, a new generation of athletes is emerging. It is very important that young athletes gain experience in a short time. As Mr. President noted, there was a gap between generations, there is not enough young people among experienced athletes. We study why the youth team performs poor at competitions. They should not repeat the same mistakes at the next Olympic Games."

"Most types of sports have their own training facilities. What’s the main problem then?"

"In Azerbaijan, it was the state which took care of providing training facilities to athletes. We have many facilities left from the First European Games (FEG) held in Baku, including stadiums, arenas, and other facilities that meet the highest standards. By the way, the emergence of new kinds of sports in Azerbaijan is associated with FEG. But it is almost impossible to develop new sports in 2-3 years. Athletes performing on international arenas represent the types of sports that they have been developing for decades, but which are new to us. That’s why we cannot expect results in the coming years. For now, our mission is to work on specialists."

"But we also have training facilities for volleyball. Yet we do not hold national championship. Situation in basketball and handball cannot be called satisfactory either. Maybe we need to attract new sponsors?"

"Out approach to existing problems must be systematic and professional to identify the reasons through listening to experts. We had a meeting at the Azerbaijan Volleyball Federation to discuss the problems. Key members of the national team play in foreign clubs. In addition, the existing number of clubs in the country is clearly not enough, hence there is no good competitive environment. Young athletes will have an opportunity to gain experience if their number increases.

“Currently we study and analyse the situation in all sports. Our decisions should not be spontaneous; we should not rely on emotions. I believe that our decisions will make significant changes in sports.”

"There has been a lot of talk about legionnaires these days. What is your position on legionnaires in our national teams?"

"Legionnaire athletes play not only in Azerbaijan; they also play in neighbouring countries, as well as in the national teams of many countries. Some sports develop thanks to the introduction of legionnaires. They are role models for young athletes. But some federations abuse this policy. For example, some athletes say that they could be part of the national team, but they were not given such an opportunity. A wholistic approach should be used to study all these issues - personnel training, serious motivational work, system of performance in the national team, conditions for a healthy competitive environment, selection criteria for the national team or national club, effective use of training facilities, etc. We will study these issues."

"Let’s talk some football. We can often see you at the games of national teams, during the matches of European cups. What do you think about the progress in football?"

"When I was appointed to my current post, most of the questions addressed to me related to football. I like football very much. If I can spare some time, my children and I support the national team, as well as our clubs playing at European championships. The current state of football in our country cannot be considered good, as there are no satisfactory results. We would like to see our team compete in European and world championships.

“But in recent years, our clubs make us happy. At different times, Neftchi and Gabala played in the UEFA Europa League. Over the past eight years, Garabagh has consistently played in the group stage. They also could take part in the Champions League. We want our national team to make it to the final stages of international tournaments. Again, our priority today is to study the existing problems. I think that the main problem is the small number of teams in the Premier League. So, their number should increase. I had my first meeting as a minister with the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA). One of the problems we discussed was the lack of enough teams. Increasing the number of clubs will play a positive role in the development of football. But it is also necessary to discuss and make necessary decisions on the improvement of the system itself. The ministry is ready to help AFFA in this issue.”

"The next presidential elections to the International Gymnastics Federation are slated for November. Your are among the nominees too. How is your election campaign going?"

"As you know, I was elected President of the European Gymnastics (EG) in 2017. This year, the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation nominated for the head of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), which has 152 member states. Due to the pandemic, it is impossible to hold all meetings. But we held meetings with gymnastics federations of other countries as much as possible. Elections will take place on November 6 in Antalya. I am happy with the progress of our election campaign. As you probably know, president of EG and FIG, as well as the members of the Executive Committee work on voluntary principles and their activities should not depend on positions they hold. At the same time, our principal activity enriches the understanding of the issues, making it possible to employ national experience in international activities and introduce successful innovations in our work."