Azeri Minister of Sports, Azad Rahimov, announced the sport will be part of Baku 2015, to happen between 12th and 28th June
Beach Soccer has made an enormous jump forward. A really significant one, indeed, as the sport has been included in the programme for the inaugural European Olympic Games, to be held in Baku (Azerbaijan) between 12th and28th of June, 2015.
After the meeting of the The European Olympic Committees (EOC) held last April 30th, the Azeri Youth & Sports Minister Azad Rahimov restated that Beach Soccer will be one of the sports included in these European Olympic Games.
19 sports were revealed for this maiden edition of the competition, taking off in Baku next 2015, and happening every four years thereafter. Together with Beach Soccer, the other competitions will be archery, swimming, water polo, diving, athletics, badminton, ?three-on-three? basketball, boxing, canoeing, cycling, beach volleyball, gymnastics, judo, karate, shooting, table tennis , taekwondo, triathlon, wrestling and fencing. 7000 athletes will take part in the games.
“We have been overwhelmed with the demand for places by European Federations for the European Games in 2015,” said Patrick Hickey, President of the EOC.
“However, we have a clear long-term strategic vision for the European Games in terms of size and affordability and we have been very careful about the sports we have chosen.This has resulted in a very attractive sports programme for 2015″, he added.