Borussia Dortmund have sparked attention with an ironic social media post about the name of Baku Olympic Stadium ahead of their UEFA Champions League encounter against Sabah.
As reported by İdman.Biz, the German club shared a video on their official Instagram account featuring footage from a training session at the stadium.
The video included a sarcastic message: "We just call this place an Olympic Stadium, even though the Olympic Games have never been held here. They won't notice anything."
The caption accompanying the post continued the joke: "Looks like there are some smart people here."
However, the creators of the video appear to have overlooked an important detail about the stadium's history.
According to UEFA's official website, Baku Olympic Stadium was built for the inaugural European Games, held in Azerbaijan's capital in 2015. Therefore, suggesting that the stadium's name has no connection to Olympic sporting events is misleading.
The venue hosted both the opening and closing ceremonies of Baku 2015, which took place on June 12 and 28, respectively. Organized under the auspices of the European Olympic Committees, the Games brought together athletes from 50 countries.
Of course, the European Games and the Olympic Games are separate competitions, and Dortmund's observation that Baku has never hosted the Olympics is technically correct.
Nevertheless, the German club's joke misses an important point: Baku Olympic Stadium was specifically constructed for the first European Games, one of the largest international events in the European Olympic movement.
The stadium has since become one of Azerbaijan's most prominent sporting venues, hosting major international football matches, including the 2019 UEFA Europa League final and four matches during UEFA Euro 2020.
