The final press conference of the 4th Azerbaijan Islamic Solidarity Games Operations Committee (AISGOC) was held in Baku today. The Secretary General of the Islamic Solidarity Games Faisal Abdulaziz Al Nassar, the Minister of Youth and Sport of Azerbaijan Azad Rahimov, the Vice-President of the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan Chingiz Huseynzade, the AISGOC Sports Director Mark Honeybunn and the representative of the Operations Committee Konul Nurullaeva.
Azad Rahimov, opening the press conference, stressed that Baku is completely ready for holding the Islamic Solidarity Games, the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza reports. "The games will be broadcast in more than 30 countries with a total audience of 1.3 billion viewers. More than 50 countries will compete for medals in these games. Unfortunately, Sudan, Libya and Kuwait refused to participate at the last moment, so representatives of only 54 member states of the Organization of Islamic Solidarity will arrive in Baku," he said.
Faisal Abdulaziz Al-Nassar, in turn, expressed confidence that 14 days of the Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku will become an unusual sporting event for more than 3 thousand sportsmen. "Azerbaijan has done everything possible to organize the tournament at the highest level. The republic has made its significant contribution to the solidarity of all Islamic countries. I express my gratitude to the head of the Games Organizing Committee, First Vice President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva for the highest organization and also I want to thank President Ilham Aliyev - Baku will be the best platform in the history of Islamic Games," the secretary general of the Sports Federation of Islamic Solidarity said.
He also explained why Kuwait and Libya did not attend the games. "Kuwait had problems with the International Olympic Committee, and Libya refused to participate for internal reasons," Faisal Abdulaziz Al-Nassar said.
"For the first time Azerbaijan will perform with such a large delegation: the national team includes about 500 people. We believe that the Games will be held at a high level and that our performance will be successful," Chingiz Huseynzadeh said.
Azad Rahimov added that 90% of sports facilities on which the Islamic Solidarity Games will take place have already been used at the First European Games of 2015.
Konul Nurullayeva said that the national teams of 46 countries have already settled in the Athletes Village. "Today we expect the settling of the remaining eight teams," she said.
