Marked for Abbos Ergashboyev
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Shortan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abrorbek Toshqo'ziev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Shortan
Abbos Ergashboyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 158% of everything Shortan earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abbos Ergashboyev, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nuriddin Xasanov is on it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Roman Vegerya has written the date down.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match23 Nov 2026
Shortan sink to position 14
1 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market23 Nov 2026
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shortan they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad23 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shortan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
Bekjon Rahmatov damages knee ligaments — 55 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 55 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Adhamjon Musulmonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shortan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Roman Vegerya commits to Shortan for another 3 years.
Squad12 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shortan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Nodir Shomurodov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market12 Oct 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Otabek Suyunov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bekjon Rahmatov
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shortan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shortan can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Shohruh Eshbo'tayev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Abrorbek Toshqo'ziev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 230% of everything Shortan earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad5 Oct 2026
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Bekjon Rahmatov
84 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shortan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match12 Sep 2026
8 matches without a win for Shortan
The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Shortan are no longer polite ones.
Match12 Sep 2026
Shortan leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Market14 Sep 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shortan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Shortan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abrorbek Toshqo'ziev is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Bobur Shomurodov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market14 Sep 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Jasur Masharipov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Roman Vegerya, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Aug 2026
Bekjon Rahmatov damages knee ligaments — 105 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 105 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 34. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shortan can pretend not to have heard.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Shortan's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shortan has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
A row about effort at Shortan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abrorbek Toshqo'ziev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match22 Aug 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Odil Ismailov left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bobur Hasanov and Shortan agree another 3 years.