In December 2025, the Association of Football Federations of Azerbaijan (AFFA) introduced an important amendment to its regulations: boys’ teams in the 8–11 age category were allowed to include one female player in their squad as an exception.
This decision came amid widespread media attention surrounding the story of talented 9-year-old footballer Nuray Imanzade, who had asked AFFA for permission to compete in matches against boys. The reason is that FC "Sumgayit", whose academy Imanzade trains with, is not represented in the U12 girls’ league due to a lack of female players in the club. This was previously explained to İdman.Biz by Honored Coach and coordinator of the younger age groups at the "Sumgayit" academy, Agamusa Bagirov.
İdman.Biz spoke with Nuray’s father, Jabir Imanov, about how AFFA’s decision has affected his daughter. According to him, both he and Nuray were very happy when they learned about the changes to the regulations:
"Recently, Nuray played her first official match as part of the boys’ team 'Shimal'. Although they lost to 'Khakari' 3:5, my daughter scored two of the three goals."
He added that Nuray finds it easy to be part of a team where she is the only girl:
"On the contrary, she really enjoys playing with boys. There have been more girls in football for a long time now, but Nuray stands out. She plays on equal terms even with older players and is in no way inferior to 13-year-old boys."
Jabir Imanov noted that AFFA’s decision has given his daughter even more motivation and expressed hope that such changes would have a positive impact on the development of women’s football overall:
"It is impossible to 'tear' Nuray away from the ball. There is currently a month-long break at the academy, but she still continues to train with boys elsewhere. After the break ends, she will train both there and there."
