12th
December is the day of commemoration of the national leader Heydar Aliyev.Back in the Soviet times when national leader Heydar Aliyev was leading
Azerbaijan USSR (1969-1982) a great importance was given to the development of
social-economic sphere and as a result of efforts this goal was achieved. Over
the period of both these years and when he was working as The First Deputy
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Heydar Aliyev did great jobs
in respect of development of sports in Azerbaijan at all times and he worked
resolutely in this direction.During those times, Heydar Aliyev demonstrated great care and attention
to sportsmen of “Neftchi” sports club. He gave support to our sportsmen to
participate in different competitions in USSR, as well as, helped better
trained athletes to take part in European, World and Olympic Championships.In Independence period after being elected president of Azerbaijan again
Aliyev took more significant steps in development of sports then. Thus,
construction of new sports complexes took wide scope in Baku and other regions
of Azerbaijan. On the eve of Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000) Olympic Games
president met sportsmen participating in these prestigious competitions
personally and he conveyed high spirit of victory to them. As a result, our
athletes made great success and returned to the motherland with medals.In 1996, on the occasion of 60thanniversary of “Neftchi”
Sports Club the national leader attended Olympic Training-Sports Complex in the
name of Tofig Ismailov located in the settlement of Surakhani and met with
athletes, coaches of the club and took any kind of care of them. He always drew
attention with his close and native attitude towards sports and sportsmen and
earned great respect in sports society.