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No where near Sochi other than region wise.

Sochi had a clear concept, of an Olympic Park hosting all ice venues and snow venues at the nearby slopes.

A Baku bid (as it was for 2016), will be based on various clusters throughout the city, a mostly compact plan.

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No where near Sochi other than region wise.

Yes, exactly, culturally and geographically Baku and Sochi are close. (As the crow flies, about 500-600 miles/900km.) I think with so many cultures and regions to explore, they are just too similar.

And from Wikipedia: Following their ambiguous geographic location, the Azerbaijani culture has developed under influence under both Islamic and European cultures, including its Persian, Caucasus and Turkic heritage as well as Russian influences due to its former status as a Soviet republic. Some differences, of course, but sounds a lot like Sochi.

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there were talks this week about the Eurovision Song Contest next year in Baku - an arena will be built for appr. 5,3 Million Euros for the event - the construction works have already started - I am sure that this arena (capacity 23,000) will be part of the bid...

Could this be the first bid where Eurovision has an impact on whether they make it further or not?

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Could this be the first bid where Eurovision has an impact on whether they make it further or not?

I really wonder how they are able to host an Eurovision Song Contest in a new arena - it will be built by a German construction company - a Hamburg architect constructed the venue...

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Baku Names Chair of the 2020 Summer Olympic Bid

TAMPA: Yagub Eyubov, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan, has been named the Chair of the 2020 Baku Summer Olympic Bid Committee.

Azerbaijiani president and head of the NOC, Ilham Aliyev, gave the presidential order for the bid.

Eyyubov is back after chairing the 2016 Baku bid which was not shortlisted by the IOC but was considered a valuable learning experience by the committee.

Many politicians and business people are in the composition of the bid committee. The politicians on the committee include both people from sport and from national politics.

...

http://www.sportsfeatures.com/olympicsnews/story/49084/baku-names-chair-of-the-2020-summer-olympic-bid

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Azerbaijan intends to hold Islamic Solidarity Games

Baku's candidacy was put forward to host the Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017, Azerbaijani official Chingiz Huseynzade told Trend.

"The Islamic Solidarity Games will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2013," he said. "We will try the next Games to be held in Baku."

The Islamic Solidarity Games are held every four years. They took place in Saudi Arabia on April 9-19, 2005 for the first time.

"A meeting of the International Olympic Committee is under preparation," Huseynzade said.

In early September 2011 the International Olympic Committee approved Baku's candidacy as a possible venue for the Summer Olympic Games in 2020. Besides Baku, Madrid, Rome, Tokyo, Istanbul and the capital of Qatar - Doha put forward their candidates for the Olympic Games-2020. The candidate cities will be presented in February 2012.

http://en.trend.az/news/society/1934657.html

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/\ Gotosy, your post yesterday on Baku's other bid/hosting plans spurred me to do more research on the subject and expand further the section on the Pan Arab Games/islamic Solidarity Games in my book. This is what I found. So I would like to share the fruits of my reearch in my own words already...and which will go into the Other Games chapter of the book. It will, or maybe it won't, blow your mind on the fractious mindset of the Arabs and muslims, but what I found was quite incredible.

© Myles A. Garcia, 2011:

In reply, Israel’s hostile arch-foes, the Arabs, countered with their own Pan Arab Games (PAG) in 1953 which in turn begat the Islamic Solidarity Games (ISG) in 2005. In only the way a Middle Eastern mind functions, so it would also seem the Byzantine evolution of the multi-sports events created along the strictures or politics of most stringent ‘faith’ or a cult.

So the so-called Arab League oversaw the early years of the Pan Arab Games until 1976 when UANOC, the Union of Arab National Olympic Committees, was formally created to oversee the PAGs. At this time however, it was like the time of the ancient Greek games all over again. Women were not allowed to participate in this new subset of games. So the IOC provisionally granted UANOC recognition on the condition that they allow full participation of women at the earliest opportunity. This happened at the 1985 PAGs in Rabat, Morocco. (But note: 3 major islamic countries (Indonesia, Iran and Turkey) are not members of UANOC since they are not classified as ‘Arab.’ )

In the meantime, two other events which would impact the formation of yet another set of “Arab/Islamic” games were happening. On the bigger Asian scene, in 1981, the Arab members were able to force a reorganization of the Asian Athletic Federation into the Olympic Council of Asia which squeezed Israel out of its original membership (page__). Then in 1993, just one year after Barcelona, an organization called the Islamic Federation of Women’s Sports (IFWS) emerged in, of all places, Iran--the one country whose national team only five years earlier, pulled the spoiled-brat stunt of refusing to march behind a female placard-bearer at the Seoul 1988 opening) and, inexplicably, somehow managed to stage the first Women’s Islamic Games. And the Koreans, just to attain the highest number of marching nations in an Olympic opening, shamefully gave in to this abominable piece of blackmail.

The formation of an islamic women’s sports tournament was the last straw, to use an apropos pun, ‘to break the camel’s back’ for the more conservative and misogynistic sectors of islam, the Sunni and Wahabbi sects. After stewing about it and foaming at the mouth for nearly a decade, they got the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)—something like a more militantly islamic version of the European Union-NATO, to sponsor something called its own (males-only) Islamic Solidarity Games (ISG). Unlike the PAGs which were limited to nations of the semitic, Arab peoples, the first ISG staged in (where else?) Saudi Arabia, and open to the 57 member nations of the OSC. Of course, there were appropriate breaks 5x a day for everyone, spectators, officials and athletes alike, to stop and pray in the direction of Mecca.

However no sooner had the 2nd ISG edition been awarded to Iran(!) for 2009-10 than another fractious, almost tribe-like row over symbolism of the Games erupted and jettisoned the 2010 Games. In its logo and literature promoting the Games, the Iranians used the wording “Persian Gulf.” The Arabs immediately took offense because in their mind, it is known as the Arab Gulf. Of course, both sides were intractable, no compromise was reached, and the 2010 Games were utlimately cancelled.

And therein lies one of the biggest paradoxes in modern sports administration: the PAGs comply with the gender-equality tenet of the IOC but its oversight federation (UANOC) only recognizes “Arab’ countries. However, the rival ISG are run by the OIC, an unabashedly misogynistic organization, which has permanent observer status in the United Nations, yet denies participation of women but allows non-Muslims from the accredited nations to participate? Huh? Where is the logic in all that? Because the ISGs are highly discriminatory games, I have not recognized its numbers as legitimate enough to merit consideration for the Top 20 Table at the start of this chapter.

Despite the ongoing conundrum of seemingly rival objectives, these ‘Arab/islamic’ games soldier on: the next few PAGs are Doha 2011, Amman 2013, and Baghdad 2019. The 2013 ISGs are set for Jakarta, Indonesia while Baku, Azerbaijan is shooting for the 2017 ISGs. It is not known if the Women’s Games will continue beyond 2010.

Of course, it will still undergo some editing before going into print.

BTW, where did Luigi Vercotta go to?

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Right, not on my mobile anymore, can write a proper post...

This won't help the underdog's chances and if proven true - especially if ministerial involvement is proven - will kill them off completely:

BBC Newsnight has uncovered evidence of secret payments of millions of dollars from Azerbaijan to international boxing organisation World Series Boxing (WSB).

Whistleblowers say that WSB's chief claimed the money was in return for a guarantee that Azerbaijani fighters would win two boxing gold medals at the London 2012 Olympics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15020658

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The Baku 2020 bid for the Olympic and Paralympic Games has suffered an early setback after a series of technical problems delayed the start of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) 2011 World Boxing Championships here, drawing huge criticism from officials at the world governing body for boxing.

Baku is hoping that staging a successful 2011 World Championships will show the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the Azerbaijani capital is capable of hosting world-class sporting competition that would act as a solid platform for their 2020 bid announced last month.

However, the first day of competition at the Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex got off to the worst possible start as a string of problems involving the technical equipment and the logistics caused the opening bouts to be delayed by nearly an hour, infuriating the boxers who did not know whether to compete their warm-up or not.

"We are so angry with the Local Organising Committee," a senior AIBA official told insidethegames.

"In terms of organisation, this is one of the worst AIBA events in history and we are having to manage everything on our own because of their incompetence.

"The technical problems are one thing but we were also told that there was no ambulance in place and we said that if there is no ambulance, the competition will not go ahead.

"It is embarrassing for them, especially considering that they have just put forward a bid for the Olympics."

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