ATLETICO STARS COMING TO BAKU

The headline of this article is no joke. The Europa League winners Atletico Madrid will be coming to Baku. According to a contract of cooperation signed between FC Baku and Atletico, the title-winning Spanish club will arrive in Baku on 29 April for a friendly match. According to the Baku club's executive director Yasar Saidov, the visitors' squad will include all its star names, including such fans' favourites as Arda Turan and Falcao.

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish players Atletico's director of marking Emilio Gutierrez and his assistant Maria Guiz have already been here in Baku. The representatives of the Spanish club visited the hotel where the team will be staying and then the stadium where the match will take place. At the end of their two-day visit a programme for Atletico's visit to Baku was approved.

"Cooperation with Atletico will not only be an exchange of experience but also help to develop football in Azerbaijan. The match, which has been fixed for 30 April, will lead to the further popularization of the game in our country and an increase in young people's interest in football. The chance to see Arda Turan and Falcao in the flesh will be a real treat for the fans. The Atletico representatives were happy with the conditions provided in Baku," Saidov said.

The president of FC Baku, Hafiz Mammadov, has arrived for Atletico's visit. At a meeting with the directors of the Spanish club he brought clarity to all matters regarding the visit of the star players to Baku. According to the contract between Atletico and FC Baku, in all Spanish championship and cup matches the players of the Madrid club will wear shirts with the legend "Land of Fire Azerbaijan". The agreement is valid until May 2014. If Atletico make it to the Champions League then the players will wear shirts with this legend. Bearing in mind the significance of this major club competition, which is followed all over the world, it becomes clear how important this agreement is for the popularization of Azerbaijan.

The friendly match between FC Baku and Atletico Madrid at the Tofiq Baxramov Stadium has been provisionally fixed for 30 April. But the match could take place a couple of days later because on 28 April Atletico face a tough game with Real Madrid in the Spanish championship.

After this friendly match FC Baku will take on a team of star veteran players from all over the world. Talks are already being held with a number of star players about taking part in a friendly match in Baku to mark the 90th anniversary of the birth of Azerbaijan's national leader Heydar Aliyev.

According to the chairman of the Football Veterans Union (FVU), Oqtay Abdullayev, veterans have been invited from Germany, Holland, Turkey and the former Soviet republics. Among those invited are Ronald de Boer (Holland), Bulent Korkmaz and Hakan Sukur (Turkey), Rinat Dasayev and Vagiz Khidiyatullin (Russia), Ihor Belanov and Leonid Buryak and Vitaliy Shevchenko (Ukraine). Veterans working in our country will also take part in the friendly match. The chief coaches of "Xazar-Lankaran", John Toshack, and "Inter", Kakhaber Chkhadadze, will be defending the colours of the foreign team.

Playing against the world team will be such renowned veterans of Azerbaijani soccer as Iskandar Cavadov, Masallah Ahmadov, Igor Ponomarev, Qurban Qurbanov, Ramiz Mammadov, Sahin Diniyev, Asker Abdullayev, Nazim Suleymanov, Musa Qurbanov, Nazim Aliyev, Samir Aliyev, Samir Alakbarov, Vidadi Rzayev, and so on. The world team's chief coach will be Berti Voegts. The match between the Azerbaijani and world football veterans will be held in early May. The Azerbaijani veterans will then leave for Tashkent in Uzbekistan where they will play a team of Uzbek veterans in a match organized by the Azerbaijani embassy to mark the 90th anniversary of Heydar Aliyev's birth.