Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 22 / Trend M.Aliyev /
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his spouse, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva participated in the grand opening ceremony of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.
President Aliyev and FIFA's president Joseph Blatter welcomed the players of Azerbaijani and Columbia teams, and wished them success.
After the opening ceremony, the anthems of Azerbaijan and Columbia were played out. Shortly after, the Azerbaijan-Columbia game kicked off.
The world-famous singer, actress Jennifer Lopez performed at the opening ceremony.
FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, which comes as the third, involves female soccer players aged under 17 from 16 countries.
According to the FIFA Executive Committee's decision dated March 19, 2010, Azerbaijan was set to host the third championship, which will wrap up on October 13.
The first championship was held in New Zealand from October 28 to November 16, 2008, while the second FIFA U-17 was held in Trinidad and Tobago.
This is Azerbaijan's first FIFA event, and the first FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in Eurasia. Azerbaijan, with its national U-17 team, is participating in the championship for the first time.
Teams from Japan, North Korea, China, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, New Zealand, France, and Germany have arrived in Azerbaijan to participate in the championship.
Hosting grounds for the championship games are five stadiums -Tofig Bahramov Republican stadium, Shafa stadium, Dalga Arena in Mardakan, 8th km stadium, Bail stadium and Lankaran central stadium.
