Football helps to tackle Dubai delegation’s trade talks in Baku

The top-level delegation that departed Dubai last Wednesday for Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, was a fair cross-section of the crème de la crème of Arabian Gulf business – a telecoms magnate, a top property trader and a financial services supremo.

These captains of industry were accompanied by a chief executive in the healthcare industry, a leader in the luxury fragrances market, and the managing director of a global strategic consultancy.

None can be named, because that was the hard condition on which I, as the sole representative of the press, was allowed to joint the party.

I was there, embedded you might say, on a strict “need to know” basis.

That is, I needed to know what was going on behind the scenes at this power gathering.

A testimony to the growing trade links between the UAE and Azerbaijan, the Azal flight was packed on departure.

I had heard that many of the illustrious visitors from the UAE who have recently made the two-and-a-half hour flight to the “Dubai of the Caspian” had reserved seats for the falcons which accompanied them.

Azeri friends tell me that one reason the numbers of Emirati visitors to Azerbaijan have taken off recently – the consulate in Dubai reported a surge over the summer – was that conditions for falconry are often better there.

There is more prey, and the temperatures are more comfortable for this ultimate outdoor sport.

But there was no sign of birds on display in the cabin that day.

On arrival at the glittering new terminal at Heydar Aliyev airport, the party was whisked off to a luxury hotel on the shores of the Caspian, in the heart of Baku’s downtown district.

I was the only one who had been to the city before, and it was interesting to get their first impressions.

“Blimey, I was expecting some east European squalor, but this is fantastic. You could almost be in Paris,” was typical as their gleaming limo sped them through the designer-infested streets.

That evening there was a dinner with our Azeri hosts, followed by a series of one-to-one meetings from which I was excluded.

But the real business of the trip took place the following day.

There was a tour around the splendid old city, the Icheri Sheher, in which the palace of the medieval Islamic rulers, the Shirvanshahs, is located, and then a rather more formal dinner at a typical Azeri restaurant with the region’s traditional music, mugham, tinkling in the background.

Then the party made its way to the Towfiq Bakhramov football stadium, where – to the visitors’ great delight – the Azeris had laid on a feast of football.

The local team, Qarabag FK, were entertaining Tottenham Hotspur from London in a Europa League match, and a big event it was too.

The local fans obviously take their football culture from their Turkish cousins, for the stadium had all the atmosphere and colour of a game in the boiling cauldron of an Islanbul stadium.

Some fans from Arsenal, Tottenham’s London rivals, joined the home fans too – to a rousing welcome.

The only downside for the Azeris was that Tottenham won the game 1-0 thanks to a goal from a player called Harry Kane. Maybe a relation?

The game was followed by further private meetings to which, once more, I was denied access, and the visit ended the following morning with departure from the hotel to board the early flight back to Dubai.

It had been a fascinating insight into how business is conducted at the highest level. Full disclosure, however, will have to await my memoirs.

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