BAKU – The Sport Capital of Europe

 

İlhamAliyev, The President of The Azerbaijan National Olympic Committee, and also The President of Azerbaijan, has adopted the permanent development of sport and physical education.

 

Recently, tens of sport facilities and institutions, which meet the universal sport criteria, have been built in Azerbaijan and the capital city, Baku, and wrestling, football, hockey, cycling, tennis, etc. are among the Olympic sports. All of them had contributed to held First European Games in Baku. The counselor of European Games Organization Committee was Mehriban Aliyeva, who is the wife of The President of Azerbaijan, and the President of Haydar Aliyev Foundation. The first decision in terms of the organization of the European Games was held on the date of 8th December 2012 by the European Olympic Committee during the 41st General Assembly held in Rome. After conducting secret ballot process, 38 out of 48 countries cast an affirmative vote to Azerbaijan. The First European Games had been held in 12-28 July 2015 in Baku. Azerbaijan had placed its “17 summer days” onto the Old World sport movement. Azerbaijan has just started a new and regional sport organization, and Azerbaijan had shown everyone that, it could hold such organization better than anyone else. 

 

Baku Olympic Stadium

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For chess competitive standings, Azerbaijan has kept its top position for a long time, and chess is a national sport of Azerbaijan. The headquarters of Azerbaijan Chess Federation is located in Baku. Besides this, there are lots of chess clubs on every corner of the city and chess trainings are given by the schools. The 2007 World Chess Federation Grand Prix was held in Baku. Teymur Recebov, Şehriyar Memmedyarov, and Vügar Heşimov are among the most renowned chess player in the world. They are also among the top-20 chess player list. In 2007, The Azerbaijan Chess Team received bronze medal during the European Championship held in Crete, Greece. In 2015, two Azerbaijan chess team, named as Karabağ and Kabala, had eliminated their rivals at UEFA Europe League Play-Offs, and qualified to the group phase. Therefore, Azerbaijan achieved a phenomenal victory. 

 

 

The Şefa Stadium

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Plenty of investments have been made for football and football stadiums and all other sports activities and facilities. Upon the Azerbaijan’s independence and The UEFA registered Azerbaijan into its own quota, the attention for football has been increased gradually. There are seven football clubs in Baku, and five of them play their games in premier league, and the two remaining clubs play their games in secondary league. In addition to the foregoing, the temporary center of the Karabağ FK, the football team from the Ağdam city where is under the occupation of Armenia now, and the temporary centers of the football clubs originating from other occupied cities are located in Baku.

 

In particular, significant developments have been achieved in terms of football clubs number and their facilities during the last five (5) years. There are lots of sport complex suitable for different kind of sports such as boxing, judo, ice-skate, basketball, volleyball, handball, tennis courts.