MAY 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Baku will host a Formula One race next year, AP quoted a spokeswoman at the Azerbaijani ministry of sport as saying. Speculation has built this year that Azerbaijan would host a leg of one of the most-watched and glamorous global sporting events.
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(News report from Issue No. 183, published on May 7 2014)
APRIL 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) fined Azerbaijan $500,000 after nine of its athletes tested positive for doping last year. The fines will embarrass Azerbaijan which hosts the first European Games next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 179, published on April 9 2014)
MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A car bomb in Tokmok, northern Kyrgyzstan, killed champion Kyrgyz kick-boxer Ruslan Abasov and injured his wife and child. Media reported that police are investigating links to organised crime gangs. Abasov has won the Eurasian and European kick-boxing championships.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sepp Blatter has spent much of his career as FIFA president fending off allegations of institutional corruption. Even so, Tajikistan must have come as a shock.
Mr Blatter visited Tajikistan as part of a tour of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan which culminated in a meeting of UEFA, Europe’s governing football body, in Astana (March 25-28).
He was greeted off the plane at Dushanbe airport by Rustam Emomali, son of President Emomai Rakhmon and head of the Tajik Football Federation. Mr Emomalii also owns and occasionally plays for FC Istiqlol, who thrashed FC Ravshan 5-0 in the Tajik Super Cup final with Blatter in attendance.
Not everyone is happy with FC Istiqlol’s dominance, though. In 2011 a match between the same two sides triggered a riot when FC Ravshan’s supporters concluded that FC Istiqlol had bought the referee.
Police arrested 20 people and at least 10 people were hospitalised during fighting between the Ravshan Ultras and the security forces.
Memories of a five year civil war (1992-97) limit opposition towards Mr Rakhmon’s presidency, although anger with the president does appear to be growing. One irk is that he directs much foreign investment towards his hometown of Danghara while other parts of the country struggle for electricity.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Prince Harry, third in line to the English throne, spent a long weekend in mid-March skiing at the Kazakh ski resort of Shymbulak, the Sun newspaper reported.
Grainy photos later appeared of Prince Harry posing for photos at the bottom of the slope. He apparently flew to the top of the piste in a hired helicopter.
By design or by accident, Prince Harry’s trip to Shymbulak is the best PR that the resort could have hoped for. Only last month, Kazakhstan unveiled its bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2022. Shymbulak was the centrepiece of this bid.
Shymbulak is still a curious choice for Prince Harry and his girlfriend Cressida Bonas to choose for a weekend break. It’s a long way from Europe, the jet-leg is heavy and, despite Kazakh PR proclaiming the opposite, the runs are limited compared to the Alps.
Even Kazakhstan’s wealthy prefer skiing in St Moritz and Chamonix.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — If it materialises, it would be quite a publicity coup for Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Bernie Ecclestone, the unofficial ringmaster of Formula One, told British newspapers that plans were crystallising to hold a race in Baku in 2015 or 2016.
“We’re going to Azerbaijan,” Mr Ecclestone told British newspapers.
“The people out there [in Azerbaijan] are talking about holding a race in 2015. That may be a bit soon, unless it’s at the end of the season, that’s a possibility. But 2016 is more likely.”
This must be music to Mr Aliyev’s ears. As Azerbaijan has grown increasingly rich on energy wealth, Mr Aliyev has used various sports events and competitions to promote the country.
Next year, Azerbaijan hosts the inaugural European Games, it has placed a bid to hold the summer Olympics and also to stage the European Champions League final.
The glamour of Formula One, though, is unrivalled and Mr Aliyev would no doubt welcome it to Baku. Formula One is also one of the most watched TV sports around the World.
Mr Ecclestone has been trying to broaden the venues of Formula One races over the past few years. India and Malaysia now host their own race and Russia will host a Formula One race this year in Sochi.
If Azerbaijan does host a race in 2016, though, it will become the country with the smallest economy to host a Grand Prix.
Still, this does also come with pitfalls.
Human rights demonstrators in Bahrain targeted their demonstrations around the Formula One race in 2011. They may also take their opportunity in Baku too.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s an unusual but, apparently, mutually beneficial deal. For the second year, Azerbaijan has agreed to sponsor the shirts of Spanish football team Atletico Madrid.
The new deal, for an unspecified amount, will mean that Atletico Madrid’s shirts carry the slogan “Azerbaijan: Land of Fire” until June 2015.
“In just one year, we have been able to project the image of Azerbaijan for the world and promote bilateral relations between our countries,” said Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo at a press conference.
It’s a relatively unusual approach for a sovereign state to sponsor a football team but Azerbaijan seems happy with the deal. The Qatar Foundation, run by the wife of Qatar’s ruler, sponsors Barcelona.
But, as is often the case with Azerbaijan, its sponsorship of Atletico Madrid has been mired by recent controversy.
Some Atletico Madrid players were encouraged to make youtube clips commemorating an alleged massacre by Armenian forces in 1992. A plan was also reportedly hatched by Azerbaijani officials for Atletico Madrid players to wear black armbands too. This was later scrapped.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan is not known as a global football powerhouse but Sepp Blatter, the president of the game’s global governing body FIFA, is due to visit for two days on March 24/25, media reported. During his visit, Mr Blatter will watch a local football match.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rather unexpectedly, Turkmenistan has been chosen to host a stage of the world windsurfing cup at a resort on the Caspian Sea coast later this year, media reported. The greats of the windsurfing world will gather at the resort of Avaza on July 1-6 for the competition.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s delegation at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in Russia took the chance to plug Almaty for the 2022 event. The Kazakh delegation pledged that they would not spend hugely on new facilities as Sochi had. Almaty is competing against Lviv in Ukraine, Oslo, Beijing and Krakow in Poland.
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(News report from Issue No. 173, published on Feb. 26 2014)