A NEW CYCLE WITH AN OLD COACH

The Executive Committee of the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) has retained the German Berti Vogts as the chief coach of the Azerbaijani national soccer team for the next two years.

The AFFA Executive Committee has also confirmed Vogts' two assistants - former members of the national side Mahmud Qurbanov and Aslan Karimov. This will be Qurbanov's first experience as a coach to the national side, whereas Karimov has had the job of assistant in the past.

The AFFA has also supplied Vogts with a number of conditions - he must spend at least 21 days a month in Azerbaijan, work together with club coaches and attend league matches. As well as Azerbaijani Premier League matches Vogts must also attend matches in the First Division.

According to AFFA President Rovnaq Abdullayev, Vogts must in the next two years raise the standard of the national team and aim high in the qualifying rounds of the Euro-2016 Championship. "Vogts himself was not satisfied with the results of the last qualifying tournament (for the 2014 World Cup) and said that 9 points was not enough, and we must do better than that," Abdullayev said.

He said that the AFFA is striving to host the final stage of the 2020 European Championship in Baku. "We would very much hope that Azerbaijan will have matches at the games. After all, according to UEFA rules, countries hosting matches in Euro-2020 and taking part in the final stages will play their first matches at home," the head of the federation said.

"We have also decided to increase the number of Vogts' assistants. He will be helped by Mahmud Qurbanov and Aslan Karimov. We want to see the team fighting for top places in the group. It's hard to talk about specific objectives, but the main job is to get to Euro-2020," Abdullayev noted.

Basically, the signing of a new contract with Vogts came as no surprise. Although the AFFA did discuss other candidates, the final choice in favour of the German coach was not a casual one. After the qualifying stage most local coaches expressed their support for Vogts. On the other hand, Azerbaijani experts do not want to take a risk with the national side.

R+ has heard that a list of candidates for the post of chief coach to the national side, including more than 10 foreigners, was prepared two months ago.  At the same time, only Qurban Qurbanov among local coaches was included in the list. However, the top foreign coaches were asking for a very high figure, so the federation had to turn them down. For Qurban Qurbanov moving to the national side involved a great risk. And although he has taken his Qarabaq side to the European cup play-off stages on three occasions, we still don't know how he would work with the national side.

The members of the AFFA executive committee supported Vogts for several reasons. First, he has led the national team in three preliminary tournaments in succession and knows his players very well. A new coach would need time to get used to the playing style of the new boss and this would not bode well for a team striving to make it through to the final stage of the 2016 European Championship. Whoever led the national team, a local man or a foreigner, he would want to juggle and experiment with the side in trying to select his best eleven. In that case the side would have had to sacrifice two qualifying rounds.

Up to now not a single coach has mentioned the possibility of reaching the final stage of the European Championship or the World Cup. But Vogts, even during the qualifying rounds, said that he could get Azerbaijan through to the final stage of Euro-2016. And to back up these ambitions Vogts had to be allowed to work with the national team and that was by extending his contract.

Under Vogts the national team has improved on its record for points won in qualifying rounds. First, in the qualifying tournament for the 2010 World Cup, Azerbaijan got five points, repeating their previous record. But in the next two cycles Vogts' team got 7 and 9 points respectively. These results increased the number of supporters of the German coach.

That said, in the three cycles that Vogts has been coach Azerbaijan has not once dropped to last place in its qualifying group, whereas before in only one qualifying cycle was it able to finish the tournament one off the bottom. Under Vogts the team finished fifth (one from bottom) in the group in the qualifying tournaments for the 2010 World Cup and Euro-2012, and in the last cycle lifted themselves to fourth place.

The national team under Vogts has achieved two victories in the qualifying tournament and lost only three matches. And under Vogts they have scored more goals and conceded fewer in one cycle compared with other coaches. Also, under other coaches, the team failed to gain any points in four matches in a row, but they were more successful under Vogts.

Vogts' team is more disciplined and this is down to the coach. According to the rules of the national team, if a player commits a disciplinary offence he is fined and misses the next game. 

And finally, the players in the senior side were against replacing the chief coach. That being the case, sacking him would have been a controversial move. Having said all that, the choice in favour of the German coach seems logical.

As we can see, all these factors make replacing Berti Vogts unadvisable. If they had selected a local coach AFFA would, of course, have saved money, but another foreign coach would have meant more expense. That said, whatever we may think of Vogts, a new coach would have demanded time to achieve results.

The German has ideal conditions to carry out his promise to take Azerbaijan to the final stage of Euro-2016. The time has passed when we were pleased with a single victory in the qualifying tournament or won points. Now is the time for real results. Bearing in mind that there will be 24 teams in Euro-2016 (before that 16 teams took part in the final stage of the continental championship, which means that qualifying will be easier), Vogts has the chance to fulfil his promise.