MAY 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Armenia’s top football player, scored the final goal in Manchester United’s 2-0 victory over Dutch club Ajax in the Europa League final. Mkhitaryan is a hero in Armenia and is considered one of the best players, if not the best, that the country has ever produced.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree which should change the way that sport in the country is financed, skewing funding towards high-profile sports such as football, tennis and cycling . Kazakhstan has been using sport as a way of bolstering its brand across the world.
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(News report from Issue No. 328, published on May 12 2017)
APRIL 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, the eldest daughter of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and tipped by some analysts as his successor, has proposed boosting state investment into sport by 30%, media reported. Ms Nazarbayeva is now a senator. She had previously been a deputy PM.
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(News report from Issue No. 327, published on May 5 2017)
APRIL 19 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s domestic football is often plagued by illegal betting, media reported quoting European gambling watchdog officials. The oocrp.org website, a part-US funded anti-corruption website, quoted the head of FederBet, Francesko Baranca, as saying Georgia’s second division matches were often targeted for illegal bets.
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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)
APRIL 9 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — US golf legend Jack Nicklaus flew to Ashgabat to meet with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov to update him on progress to the golf course that his company Nicklaus Design is building outside Ashgabat. At the meeting, official media said that the two men exchanged views on the state of golf around the world. In an interview with the AP news agency last year, Mr Nicklaus said that he had signed up to build two golf courses in Turkmenistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
MARCH 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov apparently ordered a redesign of the official mascot of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, a shepherd’s dog named Wepaly, that Ashgabat is hosting in September after deciding that it gave out the wrong image.
Only two weeks after his official introduction as the mascot of the Games, the green dog with the face tattoo and the slightly confused, baffled look has been replaced by a white eager-looking dog wearing a traditional sheepskin hat.
In a long explanation of the new Wepaly’s attributes released on a state-run website, an official wrote that the alabai dog had been chosen as the Games’ mascot because it had always been man’s best friend, standing guard over flocks of sheep and homes.
“Wepaly is sincere, fair, acts decisively and always overcomes the enemy. He is a brave, strong-willed, fearless character and will be an inspiring example for the triumphs of Turkmen athletes,” the state-run news agency wrote. Wepaly means true in Turkmen. Wepaly is then shown playing a series of sports from chess to Thai boxing to football.
The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games is the opportunity that President Berdymukhamedov has been looking for to showcase Turkmenistan. Sports events are increasingly used by leaders in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan has hosted the inaugural European Games, will stage its second F1 Grand Prix later this year and has been chosen to hold matches for the 2020 European football championships.
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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)
MARCH 15 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The promoter of Baku’s Formula One Grand Prix, Arif Rahimov, called criticism of the race by Formula One’s new owners as “ignorant”. The week before Greg Maffefi, CEO of Liberty, Formula One’s owners, said that the Baku GP did nothing to improve and build the health of the brand and the business. Mr Rahimov said: “Mr Maffei has been involved in F1 for less than half a year. We’ve been working on this project for three years now so we have more experience with F1 than them. I think saying something like this is ignorant.” Baku hosts its GP, its second, on June 25.
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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
MARCH 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> So, what is this story about Georgia being decent at rugby and potentially playing in the Six Nations against England, Ireland, France, Scotland and Wales?
>> Pressure has been building on the Six Nations for some time to introduce a playoff system at the end of each season between the bottom placed team in the tournament and the top placed team in the Rugby Europe Championships, essentially the second tier rugby division. Basically, Italy have been so poor in the last couple of Six Nations, they have lost their last 12 matches, that many people think its now time to give
>> And Georgia is the next best team?
>>Actually, in terms of the World Rankings, Georgia is comfortably above Italy. It is in 12th position, behind Japan but ahead of Tonga. Italy lie in 15th position just above Romania. And it is Georgia, not Italy, that is pulling in the big crowds. Nearly 55,000 people filled Tbilisi’s Dinamo Stadium to watch Georgia beat Russia 28 – 14 in the Rugby Europe Championship on March 12. When Italy played Wales in Rome, 41,000 people watched, with TV shots showing plenty of empty seats.
>> Is Georgia the only option to replace Italy?
>> Actually, Romania, a country with a decent, if patchy, rugby pedigree won the Rugby Europe Championships this year, beating Georgia in Bucharest 8-7. If a playoff system was introduced it would be Romania and not Georgia who would compete in it. But it’s Georgia that has shown the most consistency over the past few years and Georgia who would potentially be the most able to replace Italy.
>> No. It has played in every Rugby World Cup since 2003 but has yet to beat a big team. It has pushed some big names hard though. Ireland beat Georgia in 2007 14 – 10 and Scotland scrapped home 15 – 6 in 2011.
>> Where does Georgia get its rugby heritage from?
>> In World Cup terms, Georgia is very much a new boy. Its rugby roots have really been developed since the 1991 break up of the Soviet Union. Rugby was played under the Soviet Union and links with French clubs were developed but it has only been adopted as a national sport since independence.
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(News report from Issue No. 321, published on March 20 2017)
FEB. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s culture and sports minister, Arystanbek Mukhamediuly, said that the biathlon team had been cleared of taking any performance enhancing drugs ahead of the World Championships in Austria. Austrian police raided the team’s hotel last week on the eve of the competition after, media reported, finding an empty box with discarded medical equipment.
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(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)
FEB. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Baku has applied to host the 2019 UEFA Champions League final, one of the world’s most-watched sporting events, at its Olympic Stadium. Baku’s Olympic Stadium is already one of the designated hosts for the 2020 European Football Championship. If Baku did win the right to host the 2019 UEFA Champions League final, Azerbaijan would be the first country to host it without ever having had a team compete in it.
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(News report from Issue No. 316, published on Feb. 10 2017)