AFFA General Secretary Jahangir Farajullayev held a briefing for Azerbaijani journalists in Riga, the capital of Latvia, today.
An employee of the Offsideplus.az website, who was seconded to Riga, also attended this briefing
– Our national team will hold a friendly match with Latvia tomorrow. What can you say about this match?
– First of all, we expect an interesting, meaningful game from the team. We want our team to win. We believe that our players will show good results.
– What do you think will be the benefit of this training camp for the World Cup qualifying matches that will begin in September?
– Tomorrow’s match is important. The test matches against Latvia and Hungary will create a basis for us to prepare well for the matches against Iceland and Ukraine, which we will face in the first two rounds of the qualifying round. I think that this training camp is of great importance. The training processes are taking place in a good mood. We hope that the results will be satisfactory.
– Mr. Jahangir, have you personally discussed the game against Latvia with the head coach of the national team, Fernando Santos? What are his expectations from tomorrow’s match?
– Of course, we have talked about it. He expects a good game from the kids. There will be new moves in terms of both player selection and tactics. The head coach and we trust the team.
– It seems like there has been silence in the last month regarding the development strategy of our football. However, during your speech at the last AFFA Report Conference held in April, you said that reforms will begin tomorrow. Where is the current status of the work related to the strategy?
– That’s a good question. It’s not silence. Work is underway internally. As I said at the conference, work starts with personnel and technical issues. For example, a Working Group has been established regarding the strategy. Two people work in this group. Our employee on digital issues in accordance with the new strategy has started working. There has been a revival in many issues. Discussions are underway regarding infrastructure and children’s football. That is, it seems that there is calm from the outside, but serious work is being done within the federation. And probably, in the near future we will all see the results of this openly.
– At the last meeting of the Executive Committee, Tahir Suleymanov’s proposal was discussed and the implementation of this issue was assigned to the secretariat. As far as we know, Tahir Suleymanov met with you. What was the proposal and what was the result of the meeting?
– We met with teacher Tahir and he stated in which direction he wants to work. We will have another meeting. At that meeting, he should present his proposal in concrete detail.
– One of the current issues is related to the stadium. In which stadium will “Imishli” and “Karvan” receive their rivals in the Premier League?
– This was actually an expected problem due to the increase in the number of participants in the championship from 10 to 12. When the Executive Committee made this decision, we expected that there would be a stadium problem. Negotiations are underway with the management of both “Imishli” and “Karvan”. AFFA is trying with all its might to provide assistance to these clubs. We will see progress in resolving this issue in the coming days.
– There are speculations about the cancellation of the Substitutes League. Have there been any discussions about this?
– We are constantly discussing such issues. There are no concrete decisions at the moment.
– You stated that work is being done on children’s football and strategy. Can you please provide some more detailed information about this?
– We need to determine in which direction we should take the first steps regarding infrastructure. We are talking about fields and new stadiums for children’s football. You know that there are no necessary conditions in Baku and the regions to hold league competitions. We must choose priority directions taking into account the budget. In this sense, proper planning is very important. This is not a one-time project, but a project that will last at least 4 years. It is impossible to develop children’s football without infrastructure. But one of the serious issues in this area is related to leagues. We are working on a new format. At the same time, it is planned to involve regional teams more seriously in this work.
– Will there be a meeting of the Executive Committee in the near future?
– If you’ve noticed, the Executive Committee meeting is no longer just a discussion-decision format, but a business-procedure format. The next meeting is scheduled for late June or early July.
