100 days before the opening of the first European Games in Baku (12-28 June), organizers are confident that everything will be ready in time thanks to the enormous resources that Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea, is putting into it.
"The City of Winds," as Baku is called in Azerbaijan, was chosen as the venue for the first European Games in December 2012. According to Simon Clegg, Director General of the Organizing Committee of the Games, the preparation time was very limited.
The main stadium has been built to seat 66 thousand people, like the "Allianz Arena" in Munich. Work on its facade is almost completed, and a whole army of workers is trying to finish the landscaping around the stadium and the new bus station.
The stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, as well as athletics.
Six thousand athletes will take part in the competition in 20 sports, 4 of them non-Olympic, which will be held at 18 sports venues, 5 of which have been specially built for the Games, including the central stadium and aquatic center.
Simon Clegg said that the Games will cost 975 million euros, but he does not comment on the cost of the construction projects.
"Many of the newly constructed facilities were already planned, as well as the new airport terminal," said Clegg, a veteran of big-time sports, a former president of the Olympic Committee of Great Britain, one of the organizers of the London Olympics in 2012.
The budget of the Games is heavily dependent on oil exports in the country. Azerbaijan has experienced a drop in oil prices and was forced to devalue its currency, the manat, by 34% against the dollar.
"As a result, we have revised our costs from a rational point of view, but the budget has not been reduced significantly," Simon Kerr claimed.
Meanwhile, the head of the Division of Communication of the European Games, William Louis-Marie, said that Baku "is going to meet the deadline, and everything will be ready for the opening on June 12th."
Sport as a political tool
Azerbaijan, the economy of which is based on large reserves of oil and gas, gained independence in 1991, and is now in the safe hands of 53-year-old President Ilham Aliyev, who took office after the death of his father. Azerbaijan uses sport (as well as Qatar) to promote the country in the international arena and is trying to diversify its economy through tourism development.
After the European Games, Baku will host the Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2016, and three matches of the European Football Championship in 2020, including the quarter-finals.
However, the final goal of Azerbaijan is holding the Olympic Games. Baku has applied to host the Olympic Games twice – in 2016 and 2020, but unsuccessfully. The next attempt is the Olympic Games 2024.
"The president of Azerbaijan loves and understands sport. He understands how sport can be used to achieve political objectives," Simon Clegg said.
Even if a small Caucasian republic (9 million people, 3 million live in Baku) is able to beat its opponent-candidates to host the 2024 Olympics - Paris and Boston- after the European Games Azerbaijan will have to solve a number of pressing issues, including the conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
