Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 25 / Trend E. Huseynli /
The Azerbaijani Football Federation Association claimed that the commitments of developing football in the country in 2010 had been successfully implementated.
"We appreciate 2010 in terms of football development. This year, we have achieved holding World Cup finals between teams of girls under 17 in Azerbaijan in 2012," AFFA Secretary General Elkhan Mammadov said in an interview with Trend.
AFFA Secretary General termed Azerbaijani youth football teams' high positions in the rating as successful, saying that "two years ago our two football teams ranked 142, but now they rank 101. The national football team ranks 90 for the first time in the history of the Azerbaijani football. Now, we rank 98 among 208 countries. It is a positive factor."
He said that all the planned projects had been successfully implemented.
"AFFA president Rovnag Abdullayev has set the priorities in three areas: education, infrastructure and mass scale of football. We are making every effort to organize the work on a professional level. Two years ago, AFFA registered 1,500 people, constantly playing football, now it (has) registered more than 14,000 players, playing in various tournaments and leagues every week under the AFFA banner. This is the development of not only football. It promotes a healthy lifestyle of the Azerbaijani people," Mammadov said.
He also noted certain activities related to the training of football players.
"As it is known we began to conduct courses for coaches in the UEFA categories A and B in 2008. UEFA gave us official permission to conduct these courses. More than 250 coaches participated in the workshops of various categories in Azerbaijan over the last three years," he said.
He said that AFFA commissioned 58 sites from 2008 to the present day, adding that "this was done not only in Baku but also in different regions. Moreover, the stadiums were repaired and restored."
A stadium comprising 12,000 seats is also being built and will be commissioned before 2012, right "before the World Cup (girls under 17)," Mammadov said