Azerbaijan, Baku, May 2 / Trend, M. Aliyev /
A mini-football tournament of the International Youth Cup named after Heydar Aliyev is underway in Prague, Czech Republic, the Azerbaijani youth organization in the Czech Republic said.
The participating teams represent youth from 12 countries: the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Honduras, Palestine, Nigeria, Sudan, Botswana, Kuwait and Ghana.
"We have already held football matches between foreign youth teams in the Czech Republic, but these matches have received the Cup status only this year," organizer of the tournament, chairman of the Azerbaijani youth organization in the Czech Republic Bulu Iraddim said. "Naming the cup in honor of former Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, we first joined the initiative of the Odlar Yurdu holding similar events in England since 2008, and also wanted to stress Heydar Aliyev's great contribution to the development of sports in Azerbaijan," he added.
"Three years ago, on May 10, Azerbaijani students in England organized a tournament in honor of the late President Heydar Aliyev. I can say that so far this tournament has a significant weight among young foreign people in England, so we decided that it is due time to make its Pan-European," said Ilham Nagiyev Chairman of the tournament's sponsoring organization "Odlar Yurdu".
The first tournament matches were led by Group A teams: Azerbaijan vs. the Czech Republic, Russia vs. Saudi Arabia, and Palestine vs. Jordan.
A persistent struggle ensued between the Azerbaijani and the Czech Republic teams, which ended with the score 5:3 in favor of Azerbaijan.
Saudi Arabia lost to Russia with a score of 18:2, while Jordan beat Palestine with 6:2.
A final match and award ceremony for the tournament winners will be held on May 7.
