Daily Mirror’s reporters twice name Baku as the worst place

The Daily Mirror’s reporters, John Cross and Oliver Holt, said in their review the worst place they’d watched football was Baku, capital of Azerbaijan.

John Cross, Daily Mirror, about the game in Azerbaijan in October 2004: “The conditions were so bad that FIFA made an inspection as they feared for player and crowd safety. It wasn't so much a gale, but a twister coupled with torrential rain. We were sat in what resembled a hut in the stands. Awful.”

Oliver Holt, Daily Mirror Chief Sports Writer: “It was freezing, it was raining, there was no roof on the stand where we were sitting. I froze, my computer froze, I had to dictate my report as I walked around the stadium a couple of hours after the game trying to find a taxi in the darkness as the wind whipped in off the Black Sea. Not good.”

Watching football can provide perfect working conditions for football-reporters when a stadium is atmospheric, nice, equipped, and so on. At other times it can make reporters’ work unbearable. All the more these reviews are surprising as Azerbaijan declares itself as an economically developed state.