Ilham Aliyev attended the grand opening ceremony of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Azerbaijan-2012

The grand opening ceremony of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Azerbaijan-2012 was held at the Republican stadium named after Tofig Bahramov in Baku.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, his wife Mehriban Aliyeva and President of FIFA Joseph Blatter attended the ceremony as the honourable guests.

First President Ilham Aliyev, his wife Mehriban Aliyeva and family members met with President of FIFA Joseph Blatter who arrived to Baku to participate at the opening ceremony of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup.

At the ceremony the world-famous “Cirque du Soleil” performed their show specially prepared for the World Cup.

Acrobats, dancers and local volunteers taking part in the show performed athletic, football and cultural components that were correlating with ancient Azerbaijani traditions. The composition was accompanied with the music specially composed for the show including elements of Azerbaijani national musical traditions and typical for the “Cirque du Soleil” shows.

The following magnificent performance of world-famous singer Jennifer Lopez warmed up the festive mood of the football fans.

Then national Azerbaijani and Columbian teams of female players aged under 17 came to the football pitch.

President Ilham Aliyev and President of FIFA Joseph Blatter congratulated and wished success to the players of the teams and referees.

Shortly after the anthems of Azerbaijan and Columbia were played out, the game started.

Thereby Azerbaijan is hosting another world-class sport competition. FIFA U-17 Women's World

Championship for the first time is being held in our country that has a big experience in organization of international competitions. This is the third world cup of this type. Azerbaijan hosts it according to the decision of FIFA Executive Committee dated 19 March 2010. It is the first FIFA event in Azerbaijan and U-17 Women's World Cup in Eurasia. During the championship the national teams of Japan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, China, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, New Zealand, France, Germany and the host of the championship Azerbaijan will be competing for their place in the final. Azerbaijan joins FIFA U-17 Women's World Championship for the first time this year. Our national team will face the teams of Colombia, Canada and Nigeria in “A” group.

The games of the championship will be held in Baku and Lankaran. Six stadiums were allocated for the championship. Five of them are based in Baku, another one is located in Lankaran.

The first FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was held in New Zealand in 2008. The national team of Democratic People's Republic of Korea was the winner of the championship. The second time the championship was held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010; the football players of the Republic of Korea won the competition.