Maybe Adams is on some sort of covert James Bond operation over there. Far more likely though, is the possibility that Adams was tempted east by oil money. From the BBC:
In a country criticised by the West for high-level corruption, financial details are often kept behind tightly-sealed doors.
Adams' salary has not been disclosed (though we are told it is around the level of a "normal premiership manager"), and the club is owned by a large holding company called Gilan, about which few details are known.The club president is Tale Heydarov, the son of the influential emergencies minister, Kamaladdin Heydarov.
The family is rumoured to have close ties to the Azeri President, Ilham Aliyev.
And it has been claimed that Gilan is owned by Mr Heydarov senior - though this is denied by those close to him.
It is unclear how much Tale Heydarov has personally invested in the club. At the last minute, he declines to give an interview.
Clearly the Heydarov's have grand designs on the club being the Arsenal of Azerbaijan. Check out this virutal reality tour of their new stadium:
[youtube]
]In other Central Asian football news, El Pais has done some pretty fascinating reporting on the links between the FC Barcelona's Joan Laporta and the Uzbek dictatorship. Hopefully Unicef will man up and end their partnership with Barcelona. There's nothing worse than self-righteous sports fan and hopefull this will shut the Barcelona people up for a long time.
