How Much Money Spent on European Youth Olympic Festival?

Baku / 07/18/19 / Turan: Information on the costs of holding the XV European Summer Youth Olympic Festival in Baku on July 21-27 is not disclosed by the relevant government agencies.

According to economist Natig Jafarli, in the state budget of 2019, the Ministry of Youth and Sports was allocated 325 million manat for sports events.

However, it does not specify how much money was provided for the organization of the European Youth Olympic Festival. But taking into account the fact that this is a rather large event, quite a big sum has been spent on its conduct.

At the same time, as Jafarli noted, there is very little information about the festival in foreign and local media, and in general it is not a popular competition. Consequently, it would be inappropriate to speak and attract foreign tourists and generate income through this.

"The government has repeatedly stated that they provide support to sports for the development of tourism, but this is not so. There is no direct connection between the number of tourists arriving in the country and sporting events. Georgia, without any competition, has increased the number of tourists by 20%," said Jafarli.

According to him, in Azerbaijan there is no tradition to receive income from sporting events, and the European Youth Festival also proves this.

The costs of about 3,000 athletes, coaches and support staff will be borne by Azerbaijan.

At the same time, in Azerbaijan, incomparably more funds are allocated to sports competitions than in other countries. This includes the cost of stay, meals, etc. The expert believes the high costs are associated with the problems of governance and corruption in Azerbaijan.

"In Azerbaijan, corruption and budget embezzlement are at a fantastically high level. Due to the lack of control mechanisms it is difficult to say where the money is spent. Most of the finance allocated for sports events, or repair and construction works is assigned through corruption schemes," said the expert.

In turn, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Samaya, on Turan"s question about the amount of funds allocated for the organization of the European festival, said she had no authority to answer questions related to the budget.

It was not possible to get through to the press service of the Ministry of Finance.

The European Youth Summer Olympic Festival will be held in Baku on July 21-27. About 3,000 athletes aged 14-18 from 50 countries of the world will take part in the competitions that will be held in 10 sports.

European festivals have been held since 1991 once every two years. -21B--