Head of AFFA Licensing and Registration Department, Seymur Salimli, answered questions from AFFA's press service. In his interview, he provided information about the latest developments regarding the club licensing process.
- What is the latest situation of the club licensing process?
- The official start of the club licensing process is carried out with an opening meeting. The meeting took place on October 16 last year. By the end of October, the clubs submitted their relevant applications to the Licensing Department according to the type of license they applied for. At the same time, the Club Licensing Rules were prepared by us and submitted to the clubs.
- Have any innovations been introduced in the 2026/2027 licensing season?
- This can be considered an innovation in a certain sense. Since the club licensing process is one of the main mechanisms serving to increase the professionalism of clubs, the scope of this process has been expanded. According to the decision of the AFFA Executive Committee dated October 25, 2025, starting from the current football year, all clubs of League II, as well as teams that applied for League II license type from the Regional League and advanced to the 1/4 final stage of the Regional League, will be involved in the licensing process. This means that clubs wishing to participate in League II in the season 2026/2027 must obtain the appropriate license in the current season.
- What specific stage is the licensing process currently at?
- During the opening meeting, the clubs were introduced to the new licensing rules. In addition, training sessions and workshops on the rules were organized. These training sessions were held both at AFFA and at the clubs' offices - in Baku and the regions, according to the clubs' choice. All training sessions were completed on December 25. Some experienced clubs have already joined the process and submitted their documents to the Club Licensing Platform during their participation in the training sessions. Other clubs have moved to this stage after the training sessions. Currently, the process is at the stage of mandatory submission of documents by the clubs.
- What can you say about the monitoring stage of compliance with the requirements in the licensing process?
- The compliance of license applicants with the requirements is regularly checked on the basis of the submitted documents and close cooperation is established with the clubs within this process. AFFA has launched the “Analysis of Needs and Support Process for the Development of Academies within the Club Licensing”. At the initial stage, online meetings were held with the clubs from Premier League and League I, and the development needs of the academies, increasing compliance with the requirements and methodological support mechanisms were discussed at these meetings.
In the next stage, on-site visits to the clubs' academies were carried out by the coach-coordinator of the Licensing and Registration Department, Sarkhan Huseynov. During the visits, the current situation was assessed, the coaching staff, medical personnel, infrastructure, training processes for all age groups, as well as the activities of the SMM and legal teams were analyzed, and relevant recommendations were provided to the clubs. These measures are important steps aimed at further improving AFFA continuous support for the development of academies and the licensing process.
- How would you assess these measures in terms of quality and quantity in general?
- While the number of license applicants in the club licensing process last season was 41, the number of clubs applying for the season 2026/27 has reached approximately 54. This is a significant increase in terms of quantity. It can be noted that the clubs participating in the process are becoming more experienced year after year and better understand the seriousness of the requirements. Analysis and monitoring make it inevitable that this quantitative increase will gradually turn into quality.
