Olympics in Baku is unreal – Azerbaijani sports official

Read it in Russian

It is unreal that the 2016 Olympic Games can be held in Baku and the Azerbaijani capital will lose its bid to other cities, a competent source at the Azerbaijani Ministry for Youth and Sports told a REGNUM correspondent.

The source stressed that although it could have brought many dividends to the country, he does not recall any cases when a bid of a city for such large-scale games won from the first attempt. Besides, according the source, the International Olympic Committee is aware that South Caucasus today is a region with three frozen conflicts and that practically has no sports facilities meeting global standards. The IOC also knows that the tourist sector is underdeveloped in the country.

Answering a question whether experts of the ministry examine experience of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the source noted that he had no such information. He concluded that Olympics are possible to be held in Baku as early as in 2020 or in 2024. By that time, Azerbaijan will have more serious arguments to win the right to host Olympic Games, it will have several sports complexes meeting global standards, tourism will be developed and, “hopefully, all political complications will become the past.”