Recent strides bode well for Azerbaijan

Football in Azerbaijan can be traced back to 1911, having been introduced by British workers during the industrial boom of the late 19th century. The game caught on in the capital Baku and the provincial cities of Tovuz and Shamkir, inspiring such passions that neutral referees were drafted in from neighbouring Georgia to supervise big matches.

By the 1920s there was a regional championship in Baku, before the 1930s saw Azerbaijani clubs represent the country in the Soviet leagues. A breakthrough came after World War Two when Neftçi PFK, Soviet Cup debutants in 1944, competed in the Soviet Top League. Neftçi finished third in the top flight in 1966, and a player from the Baku club, Anatoliy Banishevskiy, starred for the USSR at the FIFA World Cup in England.

The collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s sparked a sporting decline. However, the republic's independence, completed in October 1991, prompted the formation of a national football association and, from there, a redevelopment of the game. The Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (Azärbaycan Futbol Federasiyalari Assosiasiyasi or AFFA) was founded in 1992, and joined UEFA two years later. UEFA membership had a beneficial effect. UEFA's desire to help new associations emerging from the break-up of the USSR led to the creation of the East European Assistance Bureau (EEAB), which gave significant support.

Thanks to this financial, technical and logistical aid, Azerbaijan has been integrated into the football family. Baku's Shafa stadium (now the Inter Arena) was built in 2001 at the vanguard of concerted efforts to vastly improve the infrastructure. Bakı FK and Olimpik-Şüvälan PFK are two clubs with new grounds; top-class stadiums and sports complexes have been built in cities such as Lankaran, Imishli, Evlakh and Zagatala. UEFA has also funded the artificial turf pitches installed by the AFFA for grassroots purposes.

The culmination of these activities came in October 2007 when AFFA's new House of Football headquarters was inaugurated in Baku. UEFA and FIFA's assistance programmes had made possible the building of a five-storey HQ. The association has since opened the AFFA Footballing Academy, as well as a new national-team training base in Mardakan.

Complementing this commitment to establishing a sounder infrastructure is the AFFA's dedication to educating young players, which was enshrined in an official programme covering the years 2005 to 2015. There are national Under-19, U17, U15, U13 and U11 leagues involving clubs from the top flight – the Premier League – and lower down. Other grassroots initiatives are football/futsal for the disabled and street football.

Specialist education is available for referees and coaches in line with UEFA's strict criteria, and Azerbaijani match officials have received international assignments. Futsal is an area of excellence for the AFFA. Azerbaijan, and Baku in particular, was considered a heartland of the smaller-sized game from the 1960s, and Araz Naxçivan uphold that tradition by competing among Europe's elite in the UEFA Futsal Cup. Azerbaijan's national futsal team played in the UEFA Futsal EURO group stages every two years from 2010 to 2018, and reached the last eight in the FIFA Futsal World Cup in 2016.

Azerbaijan's national football team have also established themselves over successive UEFA European Championship and FIFA World Cup qualifying campaigns, starting with EURO 96. Since kicking off with a 3-0 defeat in Romania in September 1994, the team have improved sufficiently to record several notable results. Victories over Switzerland (1998 World Cup), Slovakia (2002 World Cup), Serbia and Montenegro (UEFA EURO 2004) and Finland (UEFA EURO 2008) preceded creditable 1-1 draws with Russia (2010 and 2014 World Cup qualifying) and Belgium (UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying), as well as a famous 1-0 win at home to Turkey on the road to UEFA EURO 2012, obtained under the stewardship of Berti Vogts, the celebrated former Germany defender and head coach.

Azerbaijan successfully hosted the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2012, while two years later Baku was selected as one of the UEFA EURO 2020 host cities. In 2016, Baku also successfully hosted the European Under-17 Championship final round. In 2017, Qarabaǧ became the first team from Azerbaijan to play in the UEFA Champions League group stage, drawing two of their six matches.