Some questions about Azeri League

    Hi, I am going to write article about phenomenon of Azerbaijan women league, inspired by bunch (or better: avalanche! :)) of news about well-known players coming to Azeri Superleague in previous and current season. Above all else, I would ask volley fans from Azerbaijan, as the best source of informations, but if any of you, non-Azer people, have something interesting to write/say in this topic - I will not object :)


    1) Could you shortly describe history of Azeri (women and men) professional league of volleyball to today's years of successes? And what is more, could you define, what was the ground-breaking moment in history of that league, after which Azeri league momentally raised up its level by buying famous stars of volleyball (at least in feminine league) and now it can be proud of its teams in european cups?


    2) Is it true, that leading volleyball teams in Baku play their matches on... only one sport hall in capital city of Azerbaijan? I heard that some time ago as a small oddity and I am interested to confront this fact with you :) And (if they are some) what are the specific features and rules of feminine league? Is anything different in system of playing matches, what is not known in Europe?


    3) What leads these young, beatiful, talented volleybal players to move to Azerbaijan and play for the Rabita, Lokomotiv, Azzerail etc? Is it only the question of money and luxurious contracts or Azeri league really offers another, better standards of playing volleyball?


    4) There are for sure hell big amounts of money spent for importing many European/Asian/American players to Superleague in Azerbaijan, but I would like to know if the same attitude associates with improving of game/League conditions: quality of sport hall(s), facilities for volley fans, promotion in media, healthcare in clubs etc.


    I'll come up with other questions in near future, thanks in advance for all answers and expected discussion :)

    I think Ilqar (IlgarAzero) is the best person who can answer these questions comprehensively ^^

    Hello and thanks for this interest to Azerbaijani Volleyball!
    I will start this post by giving a link about Azerbaijani Volleyball past that was written by me too.


    http://azerivolley.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=53 - According to this link you can understand how old the history of Azerbaijani Volleyball and the love of our folk to this sports.


    After Azerrail (then BMKZ) winning the last USSR Cup that was as strong as nowadays prestigious European Cups (Soviet Union was demolished in that year as I said it was the last Cup) our teams had some problems not only in volleyball but also in other sports branches. As the politics very badly affected on all the Azerbaijani Society. Firts years we could manage to keep our Women National team that played 1994 FIVB World Champs in Brazil and finished 9th there. But after this all very strong players of our NT like Victoria Ravva, Arifova, etc left the country forever like Nisa Kuliyeva, Melis and the players like SHabovta, Hasanova, Teterina etc went to play out to the countries like Turkey, Russia until 2000 year when the President of Azerbaijani Olympic Commitee and now Azerbaijani State President Ilham Aliyev invited Faig Garayev from Turkey to Azerbaijan to raise our volleyball again.
    Firstly Azerbaijan played World Qualification in Holland in 2001 in the same group with Turkey, Holland and Ukraine. Defeating Turkey and Ukraine our team lost to Hollan (they say not without help of referees) 3-2 and lost the chance to qualify to the finals in Germany. But Azerrail as a club won top Teams Cup in 2002 and then new page was opened in the history of Azeri Volleyball.
    Volleyball was, is and I think will always be the NUMBER FIRST Sports in Azerbaijan and that`s why people again started to come to all matches of our players even there were full halls at friendly matches.
    Azerbaijan started to participate in Yeltsin Cup that was much more prestigious then with very strong teams and two times won bronze once losing to Russia in semi-final 3-2 and second time to China.
    In 2004 our team played at World Olympic Qualification in Baku that was debut for young and 19 years old Natalya Mammadova. The team started very well against Russia. 1-1 in sets and our team was leading 7 points until the end of the third set. Then losing concentration the team lost the match to Russia and then to Germany and won its last match against Poland in three sets.
    But the team was showing better and better game and could defeat any storng team. For example three times in two years defeated Italy 3-0, Russia 3-0, 3-1 etc
    In 2005 Azerbaijani National team Won European Grand Prix Qual in Guba defeating Germany two times 3-1 in Pool and 3-0 in Semis and Russia 3-2 in Final. The same year our National team played European Champs and played Semi-final but finished 4th.
    After this one of the Best players of Azeri volley history Alla Hasanova finished her career both in NT and Azerrail. Yelena Shabota also had problems with injury and these two players were the best receivers of each tournaments they played and real leaders. We can say Osmokrovic and Sokolova of Azeri Volleyball.
    In 2006 Yelena Shabovta joined NT for Grand Prix right 25 days after Meniscus operation and our NT played 9 matches and lost 7 of the in FIVE SETS and won also one match in FIVE SETS against the teams like Cuba, Russia, Italy,China, Poland. Also the same year we played World Champs in Japan and finished 13th defeating teams like USA.
    After this came very bad moments of Azeri Volleyball for two three years and our team started losing their authority as for example Azerrail which played Final Four and defeated such great teams like Perugia, Modena, Eczacibashi (6 times in three years) etc started to lose to very weak opponents.
    In 2009 after Rabita BAKU`s two years lead in Azeri Superleague the intriga was fired again in local Arena and new teams started to build very strong squads and transferred every year stronger players to our league. After this you know the success of our clubs but I will answer to your questions about hall, money etc.
    Azerbaijan is VERY rich country and gets billions money more and more every year, it allows to buy any player our clubs want. But you understand that it is not enough for example to bring such players like Osmokrovic, Zhukova, Metcalf, Sano etc to one country just because of money. Baku as a city, Azeris as people and all the conditions attracted the players to our league as there was never problems with payment, with accomodation and etc and as they say themselves everything is on highest level. You can understand this from Anzanello, Calloni, Osmokrovic and etc players` interviews.
    That`s why most of the players wanted to come to play here also because all the matches are played in Baku and in the same gym on the same day and all of them are broadcasted by TV.
    But it doesnt mean there is only one gym. Every city of Azerbaijan has at least 1 very nice Olympic Centre and in Baku they are very many!!!


    Sarhadchi - 3000 seats
    Baku Sports Palace - 3000 seats
    H. A Centre - 8000
    Baku Crystal Hall - 25000 (that is SPorts Complex was built not just for Eurovision )
    BAKI Volley BASE - 4000 (new)
    Azerrail Volley Base - 3000 (new)
    BAKU VOLLEY HOME - 18 000 for olympics (under Construction)
    Baku Olympic Centre - 1000 and 1500( 2 halls)
    BGC - 6500 (new - under construction)
    ABU Arena - 1000
    Lokomotiv Volley Base - 800
    Igtisadchi Base - 400
    And many many other for other Sports and new ones for volleyball.
    You can ask players why they choose and stay here for so many years like:


    Starovic: 5 years
    Golubovic - 4 years
    Zhukova- 3 years,
    Tamas - 4 years,
    Sano- 3 years and many many other players


    Not only because of money - they can choose for money also Russia like Flier said but all these conditions are very important and no limit for foreigners. Of course everyone wants to have more local players but the reality is this - we dont have such tall girls thats why we choose other way to develop volley and not let it die. Because we love it so much!
    Anyway we have new young players like Aliyeva 21, Rahimova 21, Gurbanova 23, Aghayeva 25 those are quite important players and many many younger girls. In time everything will get better and better we do believe! Now we dont pressure on ourselves and enjoy these stars and all this success seeing our beautiful three cloloured Azerbaijani Flag raising and listening to our amazing National Anthem. And with hope that we will have such great National team like we had in Past.
    All the best
    Ilgar Azero

    Thank you for comprehensive reply! You're the best! :D Although, after reading of Your post, I have some other questions:


    - You wrote a lot about Azeri national team and its history throughout the years and decades. It is a great basis for understanding Azeri's love for volleyball, but I would like know something more about history of women Superleague. For example: how did it develop after 1991, when Azerbaijan gained independence? Was it always quite good and wealthy league? And of course what about European cups - did clubs from Azerbaijan have some tradition of succeses in them or is it just question of recent years?


    - Do you have some regret that women Superleague in your country isn't popular in Europe as it deserves and sometimes it's still treated as (don't get me wrong, I just quote some heard opinions) some "worse" and "exotic" contest?


    - Could you point out some main sponsors/companys/persons of Azeri volleyball, that make clubs able to sign up very good players and maintain good conditions of league?


    - Can you say that in Azeri league one can observe "gap" between better clubs, which participate in Champions League or Cev Cup and those who are a bit worse than the best clubs in country?


    If any of forum members have some other questions or just want to talk about this - go ahead :)