...

Former President of Azerbaijan's Association of Football Federations: combined teams should not have foreign players

Society Materials 13 January 2009 15:27 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 13/ Trend , R. Ergun/

Former Azerbaijan Association of Football Federations (AFFA) President Fuad Musayev says the association's current management is not doing anything.

"Attracting foreign players was a bad move," Musayev told Trend on Jan. 13. "The AFFA is not doing anything. When I was president, we only had a $500,000 budget. Today it has far more resources. But nothing has changed."

Musayev headed the AFFA for over 10 years. He was replaced by Ramiz Mirzayev.

Rovnaq Abdullayev is the association's current president.

"They say that children's football is also developing," Musayev said. "Then why do they invite Russian and Ukrainian players to play in our junior football teams let alone our national squad?"

Russians, Ukrainians, Brazilians and Serbians play for Azerbaijani football squads in different age groups.

Musayev said Abdullayev does not have time to manage the AFFA as he is too busy heading Socar.

He added that he does not agree with the policies of the Inter club - champion of last year's Azerbaijani Premier League.

Musayev said Inter's president is Bulgarian, the chief coach is Ukrainian and most of the players are foreigners. The same goes for Khazar-Lankaran, he added.

AFFA Public Relations Department head Mikayil Narimanoglu said Musayev's accusations are unreasonable.

"AFFA's activities are obvious," he said. "Teams with foreigners and locals played 8 trial matches in 2008. International relations have increased as a result. A football academy is being constructed. And we have several other large projects underway."

Have any feedback? Contact our journalist at: [email protected]

Latest

Latest