Reuters highlights a preparation process of Azerbaijan for Baku 2015 European Games

8 Noyabr 2014 13:41 (UTC+04:00)

The Reuters has published an article about a preparation process of Azerbaijan for Baku 2015 European Games. It has been highlighted a number of new buildings and construction processes in the article, SIA reports.

Baku is facing a race against time to be ready to host next year's inaugural European Games with thousands of construction workers scrambling around the clock to get all the facilities finished.

Just a quarter of the 16 venues have been completed but organisers are confident everything will be ready before the opening ceremony on June 12, 2015.

Given less than three years to prepare for the Games after the European Olympic Committee awarded the rights to Baku in December 2012, the Azerbaijan capital was always facing a Herculean task.

But with 4,000 people currently working 24 hours a day just on the 68,000-seater new national stadium, organisers say they have no doubts Baku will meet the deadline.

"I'm incredibly confident," Baku 2015 Chief Operating Officer Simon Clegg said before a presentation on the city's progress to the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) on Saturday.

"This is not an issue, I have no concerns at all. Let's just say they lay concrete very quickly in Azerbaijan."

Clegg, formerly the British Olympic Association's first chief executive, said the former Soviet republic was one of the few countries that had the money and the will to organise a major multi-sports event at short notice but future hosts would be given more time.

Although he would not say which cities had indicated they wanted to stage the 2019 edition, he said the host city would be announced early next year and would not have to spend as much as oil and gas-producing Azerbaijan has.