Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

A draw for AZFAR Business League - ABL Cup 2017/18 play-off stage has been held in Baku.

The event took place in Pullman Hotell, which is a partner of the championship, on November 14, Trend Life reported.

The mini-football championship Azfar Business League of such format and scale is held for the first time in Azerbaijan and takes place on the professional pitches of the AZFAR company.

ASEP company, organizer of the championship, prepared an interesting entertaining program for the guests.

Addressing the event, the host of the evening Syanan Shafizadeh noted that the championship aroused great interest, becoming a significant event in county's sport life.

The football tournament was followed by a very tight fight.

There were yellow and even red cards. The organizers also counted some defeat teams for violating the rules of the championship. It should be noted that many companies that could not participate in this season intend to join the championship next time.

The project manager Tarlan Mammadov spoke about the rules of the draw and the conditions for holding the play-off stage.

Recall that during the "blind" draw, participating in the tournament 32 teams were divided into 8 groups. In the group stage, each team played 3 matches.

As a result of group matches, the teams that took the first two places will compete for places from 1 to 16.

The teams that took the third and fourth places in the groups will continue to struggle in their grid, to determine the places from 17 to 32.

At the same time the games will be played on the Olympic system, and the losing teams will continue the fight in the championship . Each team will play 4 matches to determine their personal ranking, which will be taken into account next season.

At this stage, no more complaints will be received from the teams about the composition of rivals, as well as changes in the composition of their own teams.

The project's author Anar Rzazade held a draw. According to the rules, the winners of the groups will play in the 1/8 finals against those who will take the second place from the other group, while the winners of the third place will compete against the fourth place winner, respectively.

Games for places from 1 to 16 will be held on Sundays, and for 17-32 places on Saturdays.

The first games of the play-off stage will be held on November 25-26.

A detailed report on each match is posted on the website: www.abl.az

Here you can get acquainted with the participants of the championship, groups and time of the games, get a lot of useful information.

Richard Almeida, a football midfielder currently playing for Azerbaijan’s FC Qarabag became the face of ABL Cup.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ablcup/

Media partners of the event are Trend.az, Day.az, Milli.az, Azernews.az, Dsport.az, ATV

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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