By Azerbaijan.US Editorial Board
When MP Aqil Abbas mocked our footballers for failing to survive abroad without bozbash, he wasn’t only being funny. He exposed the rotten truth of Azerbaijani football: our players cling to comfort, our clubs settle for mediocrity, and our federation hides behind excuses.
Bozbash – the traditional Azerbaijani meat stew – has become the perfect metaphor for a national sport that refuses to modernize. Instead of building disciplined, ambitious athletes capable of playing in Europe’s toughest leagues, we produce homesick professionals who flee back to Baku at the first taste of unfamiliar food. Instead of demanding accountability from the federation, we import “foreign stars” who are closer to washed-up café regulars than to Pele.
Look at the numbers: apart from Qarabağ, Neftchi, and maybe Sabah, most clubs waste millions on failed transfers.
The result is a domestic league bloated with foreign names but starved of talent, a national team that loses more often than it learns, and fans who increasingly whisper that perhaps the national squad should be scrapped altogether.
Abbas is right to dismiss that idea – we cannot abolish a flag and an anthem on the field. But he is also right to point out that nothing will change until mentality changes.
Mentality, however, does not shift on its own. It requires leadership. And here lies the real problem: the Azerbaijan Football Federation (AFFA) has turned into a factory of excuses.
Year after year, officials talk of “development programs,” while grassroots football collapses, stadiums stay half-empty, and children with real potential slip away into other professions. There is no clear strategy, no long-term plan, and no courage to face hard truths.
The federation hides behind easy symbols of national pride – the anthem before matches, the tricolor in the stands – but refuses to do the hard work of reform. That is not patriotism. That is laziness disguised as nationalism. Real patriotism means creating conditions for Azerbaijani players to succeed not only in Sumgayit or Baku but in Istanbul, Milan, or London.
Azerbaijan has the money. We have the passion. What we lack is vision. Until AFFA stops feeding us empty promises and starts building a professional system – academies, scouting networks, nutrition and fitness programs, coaching education – Azerbaijani football will remain stuck in the pot, boiling but never served on the world stage.
Bozbash is delicious. But it is not a game plan. And as long as our football runs on stew instead of strategy, we will keep losing — abroad and at home.
This editorial represents the views of the Azerbaijan.US Editorial Board.
