Baku, Azerbaijan, June 23
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
Azerbaijan has promising future in beach soccer, Jose Miguel Mateus, head coach of the Azerbaijan beach soccer team said at the press conference in Baku on June 23.
He said that there are excellent conditions for that - and this is not only about facilities, in particular stadium, but also about athletes of this sport.
"The European Games can make young people, in particular in Azerbaijan, feel fascinated about beach soccer. And with our games and our performances we will try to get more and more people interested in it," Mateus said.
"We have responsibility of representing the country," he said adding that the team will try its best to show good results.
Emin Kurdov, Azerbaijan national team's goalkeeper said that there is an excellent atmosphere in the team.
"We will try to be among top five teams," he said.
"Football in Azerbaijan is developing, and with beach soccer competitions we will try to prove it," Kurdov added.
Taken from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, Beach Soccer is one of five non-Olympic sports featuring on the European Games programme. The first professional beach soccer game was organised in 1993 in Miami, USA, and two years later the sport returned to Rio for the inaugural Beach Soccer World Championship. With a shot on a goal approximately every 30 seconds, an average of 9-11 goals are scored in total per game.
At the European Games in Baku Eight men's teams, comprising of 96 athletes in total, will go head-to-head over the five days of the competition beginning on 24 June 2015.
The European Games that kicked off June 12, will last till June 28. There is a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports.
More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe came to Baku to represent their nations over 17 days of competition. Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.