Azerbaijan hosting European Games has its pros and cons

Paris

IT has long seemed a curiosity that Europe, the continent where the Olympics were created and revived, did not have its own multi-sport extravaganza. Other continental blocs have had such events for decades: the Pan-American Games, the Asian Games, the All-Africa Games, even the Pacific Games.

Last week, Europe finally joined the club with the first European Games. The upside as well as the downside is that they are being staged in Baku, Azerbaijan. The upside is that Azerbaijan and, above all, its sports-minded president, Ilham Aliyev, had the means and the nation-promoting zeal to fully fund this expensive project in its startup phase.

"Up until now, no one had the political will or the financial resources to grasp the nettle and stand up to the plate and say, 'I'll give it a go'," said Simon Clegg, …