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The Decline of Azerbaijani Football

September 24, 2024
Investigation Piece

Azerbaijani football is going downhill. Why? Azerbaijan’s men’s national team have failed to reach any international finals since 1992. Azerbaijan Premier League is no better shape. Aside from the oasis of the success of the women’s international; the men’s game is not exactly in a healthy condition.

 

The decline has been attributed to a numerous of factors: lack of investment in sporting infrastructure, poor administration by the governing body, nepotism, falling participation in sports and, of course, corruption.

 

 

Today, though, we don’t see football (or many sports) played in the streets in the same way we did then. Too much competition, not just from other sports, but Netflix, video games, social media and so on. What was supposed to be the conveyor belt of football has long disappeared.

 

This is a nadir for Azerbaijani football. The average league attendance is down even in Azerbaijani regions, which always boasted better figures than Baku. Even the traditional powers of Azerbaijani football are struggling. Neftchi’s woes continue on the field despite financial stability. The huge gulf between Qarabağ and the rest of the league means the league is incredibly uncompetitive.

 

While Azerbaijan’s current demise is not new – it’s been going down for years – you wonder whether the ‘Soviet rule left Azerbaijani thinking and hoping it could always capture someone from the broader Azerbaijani diaspora, rather than finding local talent. Instead, the Milli stuck with unknown footballers that have no connection to Azerbaijan.

 

 

Azerbaijani football needs radical action. And radical action is what we have rarely, if ever, done. The game is run by the mediocre, uninspiring, old-fashioned, self-selecting closed shop that is the AFFA. There has never been a golden era or age of enlightenment in governance or results in relation to the AFFA.

 

Azerbaijan’s Football Association (AFFA) have fed off the long-term importance and place of the game in society, while getting away with presiding over systematic disasters and embarrassments.

 

AFFA culture to this day is a world of mediocrity covered in managerialist self-protection. There is a whole industry dedicated to keeping the AFFA show on the road – of certificates, compliance and bureaucracy that would please Azerbaijani caricature writers. We have it seems certificates in next to everything which nearly amount to its own caste system.

 

 

But while the Milli’s football managers come and go many of the people presiding over this state of affairs stay in post for years with no punishment for repeated failure. Yet, AFFA’s officials are always prepared to pay them bulging salaries they couldn’t achieve elsewhere. 

 

Azerbaijani football also needs cultural change, with the voice of fans being given status in the football authorities and senior teams. We also need accountability, change such as strict liability of clubs so they are held responsible for wider professionalism, for instance, in refereeing and officialdom.

 

A final observation is that football is meant to above all be a sport and something which brings enjoyment and pleasure to people who play and watch it. We need fundamental change to our game: structurally, culturally, and of course, in how we play, train and resource players and particularly, young boys and girls.

 

 

We cannot continue to allow the farce of the main league to continue as some dysfunctional lobby of cronyism. But maybe we have to question why this game matters so much: a game we have contributed so much to historically but which we now struggle to compete at with others.

 

Perhaps in an age of the £80 million pound player (Khvicha Kvaratskhelia) we could chart a different path: Like the one in neighbouring Georgia. But that only comes with leadership, ambition and accountability running through the game from top to bottom, and in that we are sadly lacking while those at the top get away with presiding over this sad state of affairs.

 

We should at least try not to quietly go along with things as they currently are, for all they promise are more embarrassments, more fiascos and further decline. Do we really want to just accept that?  

 

 

A place where such football men like Anatoliy Banishevskiy and Gurban Gurbanov call home has undoubted football heritage. But in a country which spend millions in the promotion of Formula 1 and other sports, football is fast becoming the punch line.

 

By: Fuad Alakbarov / @DrAlakbarov

Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Lynne Cameron – PA Images

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