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President of Georgian Football Federation: â€œThere are two countries in the Caucasus: Azerbaijan and Georgiaâ€

01 June 2012 15:35 (UTC +04:00)

Apasport.az correspondent reports from Georgia that AFFA President Rovnag Abdullayev and his Georgian counterpart Zviad Sichinava discussed the issue on joint bid to host European Football Championship 2020.

AFFA Secretary General Elkhan Mammadov also participated in the meeting. Azerbaijan and Georgia signed memorandum expressing the intention of both countries to host jointly the important tournament.

At the press conference that followed the meeting, GFF President said that they attached special importance to cooperation with Azerbaijan: â€œI am very glad that this meeting has taken place. We rely on success on Euro-2020. The organizing group will be created in the next 10 days. One more meeting will be held in Baku and we will announce the cities where we want to hold the championship. Thereby we show that there are two countries in the Caucasus: Azerbaijan and Georgia. Our chances are real after the withdrawal of Germany and the Netherlands. We havenâ€™t discussed the venues of opening and final matches. The Working Group will include the professional specialists and attention will be paid to everything hereâ€.

Rovnag Abdullayev also highly appreciated the meeting: â€œWe had very efficient meeting and discussed the issue of Euro-2020. This is very serious project and we believe in our success. We rely on the support of the state leadership. Azerbaijan and Georgia have high level relations. Relying on it, we decided to shoulder a heavy duty. The Baku-host Eurovision song contest benefited tourism. We believe that this will benefit us too. FIFA vested great confidence to us. We must assure FIFA and UEFA that small countries also can host such grandiose tournamentsâ€.

The Secretary General will be engaged in determining the Working Groupâ€™s members. They will determine the next meeting of the presidents.

Then Abdullayev said that FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup will be held in Azerbaijan at a high level: â€œMay be our chances will increase after it. When we host this tournament at a high level, FIFA and UEFA will understand that we are able to host European Championship too.â€