"Sports money is often corrupt"

Question: The President says that there is a need for revision of the activities of sports and Olympic complexes. What can you say about the activities of these Olympic sports complexes?

Answer: Frankly speaking, there is a lack of clarity regarding the ownership, disposal and management of sports and Olympic complexes. According to official figures, there are 47 sports and Olympic complexes in the country. According to data from open sources, 16 of them were built by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, 2 - by the State Committee for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. In addition, 12 sports and Olympic complexes were built by the private sector. We are talking about facilities built by ZQAN Holding, Nurgun Motors, companies owned by the former head of the International Bank and AzPetrol. The fate of these complexes is unclear. It is not known if they are controlled by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Are they on the balance sheet of the ministry? If not, how can the ministry control sports and Olympic facilities that are privately owned or owned by another government agency? There is confusion and uncertainty on this issue. Thus, in this way, as in other areas, and in this area, the consequences of ineffective management of the activities of sports and Olympic complexes have manifested themselves.

Question: The President also raised a number of issues in his speech. For example, he asked: “Among the athletes who won medals there are not representatives of the young generation. How could such a generation gap have formed, as if some kind of distance had arisen? "Or" What is the level of the training process in the Olympic sports complexes, do children and adolescents come to sports complexes or not, what are the conditions for doing sports?" Do you think the President of the National Olympic Committee Ilham Aliyev does not know the answers to all these questions?

Answer: In fact, children's sports schools in the country have serious problems. The coaches working there have very low salaries. The material and technical base of these schools is extremely weak. For many years, sports have been dominated by an approach designed to achieve victories at major sporting events. Those. to achieve a result by attracting legionnaires and nationalizing foreign citizens. This process began when Ilham Aliyev was president of the National Olympic Committee. I don’t think the president is not aware of these issues. Ultimately, this led to the fact that the creation of a healthy nation, the organization of leisure for children and the cultivation of physically strong, healthy youth were relegated to the background. This led to a further deterioration in the situation of children's sports schools, problems in the training of young athletes, a generation gap. Athletes who were nationalized many years ago, as well as athletes who were recently nationalized, have come to dominate, which is a serious problem.

Question: The President says that on the eve of the Olympic Games, the work in some federations was unsatisfactory, and the situation in all federations requires a serious analysis. What do you think will be the result of the analysis? What is the situation in the federations?

Answer: One of the most serious problems of Azerbaijani sports is that the national sports federations. State officials are in charge. The fact that ministers and committee chairmen lead sports federations forces them to unofficially spend money on these federations. And this is not a secret for anyone.

That is why they are appointed heads of sports federations so that they spend money on sports. The source of this money is unknown. Unfortunately, this is often corruption money. And the activities of these federations largely depend on the activity of officials. That is, from the funds spent by the leaders of the federations. Recently, the problem of federations is that they are headed by officials who fell into disgrace, who were fired, and arrested. This problem still exists today. Having lost their position, officials do not spend money on sports and federation. Because the money they spend on federations, as I said, is part of the money they get from their chair. And if the leadership of the federations is carried out in the old-fashioned way, it is unlikely that this will lead to serious changes. In international practice, federation leaders are often the owners of private companies or wealthy people. This is a question of advertising, image. They spend their money on sports for advertising and image. But in Azerbaijan this is also a problem. Because the economy in Azerbaijan does not correspond to the model of a market economy. Our advertising is not powerful, the advertising market is very weak. In a market where monopoly and bureaucratic business flourish, the role of advertising has always been negligible. And here, in the future, an important role will be played by who will lead the federations and how they will be organized.

Question: What needs to be done to develop sports in Azerbaijan? What do you suggest?

Answer: There are many problems in Azerbaijani sports - from management to finance. As I said, one of the biggest problems of Azerbaijani sports is the important role of corruption money. I have repeatedly said in my articles and public speeches that if corruption money is completely withdrawn from sport in Azerbaijan, it will collapse. Take, for example, the world's most popular sport, soccer. The vast majority of football clubs participating in the Azerbaijan Football Championship are directly or indirectly related to Rovnag Abdullayev, SOCAR or AFFA. Rovnag Abdullayev is the president of the Football Federation and SOCAR. He is a direct sponsor of the Neftchi team, and AFFA is a payer of other football teams. Rovnag Abdullayev is also the AFFA President. In fact, they play with their teams against each other. The only Karabakh team in Azerbaijan is sponsored by Azersun. And this is the private sector. Azersun built a normal school and achieved results. The Gabala club "Gabala" also has a sponsor. The bureaucratic business also played a role here. The club was close to the Minister of Emergency Situations Kamaladdin Heydarov and his family. The money spent on this club was also illegally earned. In a word, financial resources and management system - these two problems are the main problems of Azerbaijani sports. If these problems - the problems of financial resources and management - are resolved, the creation and development of children's sports schools will come to the fore. There is no other way. For example, one of the interesting countries is Belgium. In the 2000s, Belgian football clubs had very poor results. Then it was decided to give preference to children's football, and not to buy legionnaires and nationalize them. As a result, 15-20 years later, Belgium has the strongest football clubs in the world, one of the best national teams in the world. Moreover, it has been the first in the ratings for a long time. The approach should be the same. More attention should be paid to children's sports. As a result of this, after a while, there will be good sports results.

Kamran Mahmudov