OREANDA-NEWS. June 17, 2011. AccessBank provided support to the Azerbaijan Federation of Football Associations (AFFA) for the organization of the first international Caspian Cup football tournament, held from June 11-16, for boys under 17.

The national teams of eight countries participated in the competition, including Azerbaijan, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in the “A” group while Spain, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan competed in the “B” group. The matches were held in two stadiums, the Shaghan as well as the newly-opened Dalgha. 

On the last day of the tournament the national teams of Azerbaijan and Georgia competed for the 3rd place. The allotted game-time ended with a score of 1-1 and the winner was determined in a penalty shoot-out. After Azerbaijan’s strikers put three consecutive shots in the net, while Georgia failed to get a single ball across the goal-line Azerbaijan won with score of 4-1.

The final match, between the national teams of Turkey and Spain also went to a penalty shoot-out, after a score of 0-0 in regular time. The Turkish goal-keeper who deservedly went on to win the cup for best goal-keeper of the tournament, managed a brilliant save to give Turkey the game with a score of 4-3.

AccessBank supported the tournament as part of its joint work with AFFA for the development of football and sports participation in Azerbaijan.  At the end of the tournament AccessBank presented the awards for the best players of the tournament: Best Goalkeeper -  Okan Kochuk (Turkey), Best Goal Scorer – Abbat Aimbetov with 6 goals (Kazakhstan), Most Valuable Player – Samuel Castillejo (Spain) and Fair Play to Kazakhstan National Team.

The General Manager of AccessBank, Dr. Andrew Pospielovsky, commenting the results of the tournament said “I was impressed by the quality and excitement of play. I congratulate Turkey on their victory and Azerbaijan on securing third place, but I am sure we will be seeing much more of many of these talented players in the future.”

Since April 2010 AccessBank has been a general sponsor of AFFA and Azerbaijan’s national men’s and women’s football teams including the national indoor, youth and beach football teams. The Bank supports the activity of AFFA directed to help in the development of Azerbaijani football and to make a general contribution to the development of sports participation.

The mission of AccessBank is to provide access to financial services for Azerbaijan’s micro and small businesses and low- and middle-income households.  AccessBank has been recognized by the International Fitch Rating Agency as the most reliable bank in Azerbaijan among private banks (BB+), and AccessBank was named “Best Bank in Azerbaijan” by both Global Finance (2011) and Euromoney (2010) magazines in their annual awards. AccessBank is 100% foreign owned by six shareholders, consisting of: the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, KfW Development Bank – the Development Bank of the German Government (20% each), Access Microfinance Holding (16.5%), and LFS Financial Systems GmbH – a German consulting company (3.5%).