Hafiz Mammadov ( az, Hafiz Məmmədov, script=Latn, italic=no; born 2 December 1964 in Nakhchivan, in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

) is an Azerbaijani businessman who founded and owns the Baghlan Group. He used to own football clubs

FC Baku FC Baku ( az, "Bakı" Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club based in Baku that has been an amateur club since 2016. Prior to that, Baku played 18 seasons in the Azerbaijan Premier League, winning the championship twice and earning the Na ...

and

RC Lens Racing Club de Lens (, commonly referred to as RC Lens or simply Lens) is a French professional football club based in the northern city of Lens in the Pas-de-Calais department. Its nickname, ''les sang et or'' (''the blood and gold''), co ...

Biography

Hafiz Mammadov founded the Baghlan Group in 1998 in

. The Baghlan Group is a company that specialises in oil, gas, construction and transportation, mainly in

. Though not related, Hafiz's very strong links to the family of the controversial former transport minister, Ziya Mammadov, has been cited as one of Baghlan's major commercial advantages allowing the group to grow enormously and for Hafiz Mammadov to become a multi-millionaire.

Football

Mammadov used his millions to invest in his passion for football. In 2004, he became owner of local football club

, a team in the Azerbaijan Premier League. In 2013, he expanded bought

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...

. Wearing the Land of Fire logo, Lens gained promotion that season under Mammadov's ownership from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1. Hafiz also owned shares in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

club Atlético Madrid and during the 2012–13 and 2013-14 the club enjoyed very successful seasons wearing the same Land of Fire logo. On 10 June 2014, Mammadov agreed to take ownership of another European football club - this time it was the English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

side

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

. Mammadov looked to take over from the current Chairman

Milan Mandarić Milan Mandarić ( sr-Cyrl, Милан Мандарић; born 5 September 1938) is a Serbian-American businessman who has owned a string of businesses and association football clubs, including Portsmouth, Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday. ...

. The bid for SWFC was rumoured to have been around €50 million however, at the beginning of September, due to Mammadov's failure to meet financial obligations and complete the takeover, Milan Mandarić called the deal off. According to former President of

François Hollande he directly intervened in favor of the Football Club of Lens. This was due to financial difficulties in Azerbaijan which forced a number of players and personnel from Baku FC to seek new clubs, leaving the club's future uncertain. Later that year, Mammadov's failure to provide promised investment of around £4 million to fund transfers for Lens resulted in Lens fans calling for a boycott of the club's main shirt sponsor and saw the club threatened with relegation to League 2, but while some press reports suggested Mammadov was in serious trouble, others suggested a complex web of oligarch connections might allow the situation to be salvaged.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mammadov, Hafiz People from the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Azerbaijani businesspeople Azerbaijani billionaires 1964 births Living people Azerbaijani investors RC Lens non-playing staff