Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree May 22 on measures aimed at nominating the Azerbaijani capital Baku to host the European Football Championship in 2020.

According to the decree, the Bid Book is to be prepared by the Azerbaijan Association of Football Federations (AFFA) for its submission to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), in accordance with the procedure of bidder nomination for hosting the European championship.

The presidential decree emphasized that various international sports competitions, including European and world championships, are held in the country every year due to Azerbaijan's growing international authority and the attention paid to sports.

Soccer holds a special place among these competitions. A striking example of this is FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, which was held in Azerbaijan in September and October 2012.

Baku's bid was put forward for holding the 2020 European championship to promote and develop soccer in the country.

Holding such a grand sporting event in Baku will facilitate further development of football in Azerbaijan and the growth of the country's authority in sports, the decree said.

"Hosting the European Football Championship in 2020 in Baku is a great opportunity to represent our country," Youth and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov said on May 23.

Rahimov stressed that Azerbaijan faces no pre-condition on building new stadiums, as was the case with Ukraine and Poland; this requires hefty investments.

The minister said that if a decision is made to hold the European championship in several countries, the Olympic stadium for 68,000 spectators under construction in Baku and the overhauled stadium named after Tofig Bahramov will be capable of hosting the tournament.

The groundbreaking of the Olympic stadiums in 2011 was attended by President Ilham Aliyev, FIFA President Joseph Blatter and UEFA President Michel Platini. The construction work is due to be completed by 2015, in time for the inaugural European Olympic Games, which will take place in Azerbaijan.

In December, the UEFA Executive Committee made a decision at its meeting in Lausanne to hold the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament in a number of major cities throughout Europe.

The decision to stage a "Euro for Europe", rather than a tournament in one or two host countries, follows an initial idea revealed by the UEFA President in June.

European Football Championship, held every four years since 1960, was co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine in 2012, while France will host the next competition in 2016. Thus, Euro 2020 will be the first major football tournament to span more than two countries.

The decision to conduct the championship across Europe was made as higher-than-expected costs and construction delays caused problems for Euro 2012, while hosting Euro across the continent will be easier from a financial perspective for all the countries, given that each country will need to build no more than one stadium.

In December 2012, AFFA jointly with the Georgian Football Federation expressed its interest in hosting the European soccer championship in 2020 and stated its readiness to enter the bidding.

Turkey, Wales, Scotland and Ireland have also expressed their interest to UEFA about hosting the matches.

The Azerbaijani capital has transformed into a modern city prepared for hosting major international events over the last few years. The European song contest Eurovision and FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup are the biggest events, held in Azerbaijan in 2012. Proper road infrastructure with new and broad highways, affordable public transport and one of the best architecturally shaped subway system are available for visitors, along with restaurants and cafes and a number of five-star luxury hotels such as Hilton Baku, Four Seasons Hotel, JW Marriott Hotel Absheron Baku, and Jumeirah Bilgah Beach Hotel.

The Heydar Aliyev International Airport of Baku has recently been renovated and the construction of a new airport building began.