Uzbeks in the finals

On 25 January semi-finals of the Commonwealth Champions Cup of the CIS and the Baltic States took place. Uzbek football team Pakhtakor won Lithuanian Kaunas - 3:1 and thus Uzbeks, current holders of the cup, qualified for the final. Pakhtakor's final game will be against young Azerbaijani football team Khazar-Lankoran. The match will be held on 27 January at 2 p.m. at Peterburgski SKK stadium.

The Commonwealth Cup has been originally established in 1993 to keep close relations among the football federations of the former Soviet Union. Today it has become a sort of a "fair of the talents". There are many examples of football players changing their clubs after the tournament. One has to point out though, that not every club sends its best players, and rather prefer to try out their reserve players. 15 federations usually gather in one place, a reason why the FIFA and the UEFA presidents are permanent guests at the tournament. The cup itself is conducted under the patronage of the FIFA.

The tournament has strong political underpinning too.
-Former Soviet republics of the Baltic region are the members of the European Union now. Some of the Russian parliamentarians have made a number of contradictory statements about the sovereignty of the Baltic states.
-Because there are 15 countries playing, there is usually one team invited to make the numbers even. The team remains out of the competition though. Starting from the 2007 such team is invited from abroad - now it is a Serbian football club, OFK of the Belgrade. Russia supports Serbia in Kosovo issue contradictory to the US and EU positions, and plans 15 bln investment in energy sector of Serbia.
-In 2006 Punic of Erevan, Armenia refused to play against Neftchi of Baku, Azerbaijan, and left Moscow, despite strong assurances of the organizers to provide security and safety for the Armenian team. Neighboring countries Armenia and Azerbaijan have a history of an armed conflict and relations remain tense between the countries forcing both to invest heavily in the military.
-In 1999 Uzbekistan officially refused to attend the tournament due to the new rules introduced. Some say though it were rather a reaction of the worsening Russo-Uzbek, or in particular Elzin-Karimov relations at the time. That year Uzbekistan indeed quited the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
-The tournament now takes place in Sankt-Petersburg, not Moscow as it was before.

Some like to call the tournament a sort of a "synchronizing of the watches" or a cup of the political correctness.

Anyway, I would like to wish a good luck to Pakhtakor in the final. Winning the cup in two consequent years would not be bad for their world ranking, I guess.

You may go here to see the photos from the Kaunas-Pakhtakor match.