Sport Ministry official: "Yelena Zhemayeva won a lot of medals for Azerbaijan"

"I met with Yashar Mammadov today. He said he is not aware of what is published by the press. He also said that he wants to hold a press conference to clarify the situation," Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport Ismayil Ismayilov told the APA. He said the information about fencing federation financial problems is false.

"Over US$ 30,000 have been granted to Fencing Federation. We have sent fencers to all competitions. But let's have a look at their results," he said.

The deputy minister also commented on Yelena Zhemayeva's leaving the team. "Yelena Zhemayeva has brought a lot of medals from prominent competitions. I do not know whether the information about her leaving Azerbaijan is true or not. The federation will decide whether or not she will give results for Azerbaijan," he said.

Ismayilov said foreign sportsmen will be involved in Azerbaijan sport. "We are interested in involving foreign professional sportsmen in our sport. Every country do this for gaining good results. But we want our country to have professional fencers like Olympic champion Ilgar Mammadov. Azerbaijan lacks specialists not footballers. If we have them we can train good sportsmen," he said.