Marked for Iskandar Soliyev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market30 Apr 2029
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Obod, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Apr 2029
4 matches without a win for Obod
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Obod are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Words exchanged at Obod
Shaxzod Shaymanov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match28 Apr 2029
Akmal Komilov scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Neftchi, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
The manager makes an example of Farhod Ismailov
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Odil Ganiev after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Obod
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ulugbek Masharipov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Looking ahead30 Apr 2029
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bunyodkor in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces16 Apr 2029
Anger at Obod spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market16 Apr 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Apr 2029
A bad afternoon for Obod against Nasaf
0‑1 to Nasaf, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Abrorjon Aliyev, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Obod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdulla Mirzaev 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.
Player ratings16 Apr 2029
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
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 0‑1 Odil Ganiev left the room before anybody could ask which.
Market16 Apr 2029
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market29 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market29 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bekzod Sulaymonov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Obod the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets29 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Pakhtakor, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
This is not rotation. Mirzo Urunov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
Squad29 Jan 2029
Words at Obod training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akmal Hasanov 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.
Squad29 Jan 2029
A falling-out at Obod
Iskandar Soliyev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout29 Jan 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mirzo Shomurodov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market29 Jan 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rustam Ismailov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Market29 Jan 2029
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Abdulla Ismailov may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Dec 2028
16 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Obod lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad11 Dec 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rustam Zhankhaev commits to Obod for another 3 years.
Squad11 Dec 2028
A row about effort at Obod
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samukelo Ngodela was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Obod
Iskandar Soliyev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
“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 dugout11 Dec 2028
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 Asilbek Tojiddinov is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces27 Nov 2028
Supporters organise against the Obod board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad27 Nov 2028
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Obod lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market27 Nov 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Obod can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Shaxzod Shaymanov has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Obod is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Nov 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Obod this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Iskandar Soliyev has just signed for Obod, and for once the answer mattered.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Eldor Abdullaev, and the manager let it.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Abdulla Mirzaev 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.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Abdulla Mirzaev asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.